Wave 4 Recap (updated)
On what could have been the final push for 2010, many climbers summited from the south including a record 12th summit for Dave Hahn who was guiding Leif Whittaker. The weather cooperated for the teams however it was extremely cold at 18 below zero F. Once on the summit, the winds started to pick up so climbers hustled down as quickly as possible. In addition to Hahn and Whittaker, mind climbing under the First Ascent/RMI banner, the rest of team made it to the top including Michael Brown topping out for his 5th time. They commented once back at Base Camp they thoroughly checked themselves for frostbite and thankfully found none. In a bit of drama, Robert Hill with No Guts Know Glory, named due to Robert’s Crohn’s Disease, stopped at the South Col after spending two days at the South Col waiting for improved weather. His site Manager did an excellent job of keeping everyone informed throughout the climb and posted this emotional statement from Robert at the South Summit: 8:45 AM Everest: Rob Hill has finished his Seven Summits dream! “I’ve gone as high as I ever will,” said a elated sounding Rob from the South Summit. “John and I have been sitting here for the past 30 minutes talking about all that we’ve done, all that IDEAS has managed to accomplish and all that this 7Summit campaign has done for people fighting inflammatory bowel diseases and living with an ostomy. Even though my Everest summit sits several hundred meters below the true summit, I can hold my head high with pride. I will come home safe to my family and loved ones. I don’t have the energy to continue. The hours I spent in the South Col drained me of everything, I’ve given it my all, my and I am happy to be here with my good friends and climbing partners. Darrell is within spitting distance of the summit now along with our three Sherpas. John and I will sit here and bask in his glory as he, too, finishes his 7Summits dream today. With Robert safe, his guide John Furneaux and climber Darrell Ainscough made a “quick” run from the South Summit to the true summit. There were other teams on the South including the young new married Colorado couple Brandon and Kristine Chalk. They stopped an attempt the previous night due to blizzard conditions, stay at the Col and summited last night. Congratulations to them on their perseverance. They were climbing under a Henry Todd permit. There was finally some information on the speed attempt by Chad Kellogg posted, not on their main site but as an answer on his sponsor’s Facebook page. It simply read: Here’s the update: Chad is back at basecamp after being on track for the speed ascent, climbing to his high point in ~12hrs. Just below the Balcony, 40+ mph winds and stormy conditions turned him around for a ~7hr descent back to basecamp. Chad is resting for a couple days before making a second summit bid, though this climb will not be intended for setting a speed record. We wish Chad a strong climb and a solid weather window! On the north side, Summit Club had 16 people attempting the summit but no word from them. Duncan Chessell and Jamie McGuiness were also on their summit bids but no word from them either. I will update this page once I receive any information. Finally, the First Ascent site posted a teaser saying that Melissa Arnot and Dave Morton assisted in a rescue in the Icefall. There was a report of a Sherpa who was hit by a falling serac and broke an arm or leg but he was evacuated to Base camp. I have heard of other rescues as well but thus far no details. To be clear, there has been one reported death, Sergei Duganov, on the south side this year, actually on Lhotse, another, Laszlo Varkonyi, on the north near the North Col and a third of a north climber, Tom Jørgensen, suffering from HACE who died a few days alter in a Tibetan village. It looks like the weather is slowly deteriorating however there may still be a few small teams to summit from both sides. Once the camps are clear on the South, the Icefall Doctors will remove the ladders thus ending the season; this usually happens no later than June 1st. There is no such restriction on the North and summits can go as long as the weather holds. update: Summit Climb reports 5 members and 4 Sherpas summited on the 25th in windy conditions. Duncan Chessell also reported summits of 8 climbers. he did not mention the Sherpas. They had already returned to the camp 3/2 levels. Congratulation to all these climbers. On a personal note: It’s been great covering another Everest season. Congratulations to all the climbers, regardless of their results. There are a few more updates and my annual summary later this week and then I am going to start some climbing of my own. Thanks for all the comments and emails throughout this Everest season. And thanks everyone for your support of my Alzheimer’s efforts and a special thanks to those who made previous donations to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and also during this season. You are making a difference (you can make a donation anytime). It goes 100% to research, none to me. Climb On! Alan
Summit Wave 4 (update 3)
update #3: South summits. First from RMI: Seth Waterfall is on the summit of Mount Everest. He has the summit all to himself. It is a bit chilly but he has plenty of oxygen and is feeling good! The rest of the team is at the Hilary step continuing up. Then Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker. Thus far another 12 summits. Their announcement: Dave, Leif, Seth, Casey, Michael, Scott, Tendi, Tshering Dorjee, Dawa Jamba, Da Gyldjen, Nima Tenji, Pasang Temba. On top of the world. All are doing well. Robert Hill and his team reached the South Summit and made this declaration: Rob Hill has finished his Seven Summits dream! “I’ve gone as high as I ever will,” said a elated sounding Rob from the South Summit. “John and I have been sitting here for the past 30 minutes talking about all that we’ve done, all that IDEAS has managed to accomplish and all that this 7Summit campaign has done for people fighting inflammatory bowel diseases and living with an ostomy. Even though my Everest summit sits several hundred meters below the true summit, I can hold my head high with pride. I will come home safe to my family and loved ones. I don’t have the energy to continue. The hours I spent in the South Col drained me of everything, I’ve given it my all, my and I am happy to be here with my good friends and climbing partners. Darrell is within spitting distance of the summit now along with our three Sherpas. John and I will sit here and bask in his glory as he, too, finishes his 7Summits dream today. No word on the north at this point. Summit Climb, Duncan Chessell and, I think, Jamie McGuinness’s teams are all enroute. Congratulations to all and a tip of the hat to Leif Whittaker. update #2: Summit Climb reported bids by 10 members with 6 Sherpas currently underway. RMI and Dave Hahn, Leif Whittaker are all together and above the Balcony. They report clear skies and calm winds. update #1: With fickle weather, teams debated if tonight was the night or not. But a few teams have left the South Col reporting acceptable winds. first out was Robert Hill’s group who left around 8 PM. A few hours later, the RMI team departed. I like Mark Tucker from RMI’s thoughts as they left the South Col: We have not been purposely holding out till the bitter end, I promise. You all deserve the final summit push. So lets bring it to you today and tonight. We sure hope that the old adage,” good things come to those who wait”, comes true. But Dave Hahn saw it differently: Hello, this is Dave and here we are at the South Col. The mountain showed this is not going to be easy for us. We were hoping we’d just waltz up in a perfectly forecasted weather window. Instead, the Himalaya showed a mind of its own. Sent a little unexpected snowstorm in on us. We’re sitting that out; it’s not the worst. Still, we certainly wanted better for our climb. Life’s not so bad for us here at the South Col, it’s just the tension of not knowing whether we’re gonna get to make good on our 2-month climb and ring the bell at the top. But if we get half a chance, we are gonna do that. So we’re keeping ourselves ready right now and keeping our spirits up. That’s the Everest game, that’s how we play it. But then they made their final call and they are off as well: Hi, it’s Michael Brown at the South Col of Mt. Everest. I’m here with First Ascent Guide Seth Waterfall. Next tent over has Leif Whittaker and Expedition Leader, Dave Hahn. And the next tent is guide Casey Grom and climber Scott Jones. It’s a little after 9:30, and about 11 o’clock we’re going to have our crampons on and we’re going to start walking uphill. We got a forecast yesterday that indicated there’d be a lot of wind; but, according to a forecast we’ve been trusting all along, the wind shouldn’t be too bad today. We’re going to go for it in about an hour and a half. We’ll try to stay in touch. Everybody here is pretty damn excited. So here we go. No word from the few north teams. Look for more updates as they get near the summit around dawn Nepal time. start of original post With hundreds of climbers summitting over the past few days, only a few teams are left on both sides of Everest. Sunday night was the most difficult of the season with high winds at times but steady snow through the night and day. Whiteout conditions were reported as well with a foot of new snow at the North Col. At the South Col, RMI, Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker and Robert Hill’s No Guts Know Glory teams lead by Canada West Mountain School’s John Furneaux are all looking to go up tonight. Robert Hil reported some theft of oxygen bottles at the South Col but was able to replace them from teams who had already summitted. This is certainly bad but an occasional occurrence and happens more on the north than the south. Robert said about tonight’s push: During the day, the weather has cleared up enough to make a summit attempt a realistic option. Winds at the South Col remain light and the snowfall has stopped accumulating on the ground. The team plans to leave C4 at around 7:30 PM Everest time. Two other well-established climbing expeditions will also leave the South Col at the same time. Rob, Darrell, John, Mingma, Dawa and Teng Dorje Sherpas will need all the help they can to compress the newly snowed trail. “It’s going to be hard climbing tonight,” said John Furneaux, who reached the summit of Everest in 2008. “With fresh snow on the ground and few climbers
Summit Wave 3 (update 6)
update 7: Summits!! With late news, as expected, discount there are more summits Monday morning on the north. Adventure Dynamics reports 6 members and 7 Sherpas on top. 7 Summits Club put their second team up with 6 members plus an undetermined number of Sherpas, they do not list their Sherpas unfortunately. A foot of new snow was noted at the North Col making conditions difficult. update 6: Summits!! I would estimate we had at least 50 summits tonight on both sides making season total approaching 400. Still more on the north and a few on the south for tomorrow, Monday night. Specifically Monday, May 24th on the south. AAI reports 9 members and 8 Sherpas summiting around 8:00AM Nepal time. This means it took 10 hours to reach the summit from the South Col. They note: … this has been a very challenging summit day. It has been snowing heavily between Base Camp and Camp 2 for most of the night, which has drastically interfered with radio communications. Up high the Ice Ninjas had less snow but more wind. But they persevered and pulled it off. We’re really, really proud of them. IMG reported 5 members and 4 Sherpas summited as well with this report on the conditions from Eric Simonson: The weather up high on Everest has been light winds with some clouds and a few flakes. Down lower there was more snowfall overnight, but the sun is now starting to burn through. We have a group of Sherpas on their way to the Col from C2 to start carrying down the empty oxygen bottles and equipment. We’ll keep you posted on the team’s progress. Gabriel Filipi reports his summit from the north side. PS: Je suis au sommet d’Everest! PS: I am on the summit of Everest! Also AC Sherpa summitted from the south at 9:00AM Nepal time. As always check the team’s website for details and all the names. Hearty congratulation to all the climbers, regardless of their result. update #5: AAI just noted they are at the South Summit! They are pushing hard and I would assume the IMG more senior team is right there. However, it appears the conditions are getting tougher on the south side. A couple climbing under a Henry Todd permit just reported: Brandon and Kristine started their summit climb early in the morning but had to return to Camp 4 three hours into the climb due to blizzard conditions (heavy wind and snow). They will try to summit again tomorrow. If there is heavy snow, it could interfere with sat phone connections so don’t worry if you are expecting one. update #4: In spite of tough conditions, AAI and others, I assume (dangerous) are making their way to the Top of the World! AAI names each team with a ‘cute’ name, thus the Ninjas. This from AAI: Our little Base Camp community has come together in a big way to track down the Ice Ninjas. The 4 or 5 inches of snow we received last night and the clouds up through the Ice Fall have made communications a bit of an interesting project, but we have managed to get direct word from the Ninjas! They are currently at the South Summit and steadily making their way to the top!! We have certainly been juggling radios around down here; calling to other expedition base camps, relaying messages through Ang Tshering at Camp 2, and running around camp with our antennas out to find the radio reception. Ellie has an 8 battery ?super? radio that, as it turns out, seems to get optimal reception from inside her tent. I brought her a giant thermos of Sherpa Tea and she is nestled comfortably into her sleeping bag, backing up my communications here at the Base Station here in the Comms tent. It?s not uncommon for her to receive a message that doesn?t make it through to the Base Station at which point she will radio the message to me across the snowy 60 feet that separate us 🙂 Up near the summit the climbers are, perhaps, not quite as comfortable as Ellie, but they are progressing well. The sky is still cloudy up there, but the snow has stopped and it is now daylight. There is a steady wind with some stronger gusts but nothing strong enough to phase the Ninjas. The South Summit is at 28,700 feet and it generally takes a few hours from there, traversing to the Hillary Step and then onto the summit! On another note, the Altitude Junkies home team reports all members are fine and an update on their site will happen soon. They are descending to camp 2. update #3: There is progress on the north via the 7 Summits Club: At 7 a.m. local time, the second group is in the “snowy triangle”, an hour from the summit. Snow is strong, there is no wind at all. It seems that this is the first day of the monsoon. Alex Abramov. Group members: Guide Sergey Larin, Ma?gorzata Pierz-Penkala, Daniel Mizera (mother and son from Poland), Lena Gorelik (Moscow), Zdravko Dejanovic (Macedonia). Summit Climb and Adventure Dynamics are also headed up on the north but no word from them. It appears the only major teams on the south are AAI and IMG, and they have not reported any problems. There are other team wanting to summit but they do not update websites so there is no way to track them. update #2.5: Teams continue to be mixed early Monday morning on Everest on the south side. RMI has postponed their summit bid for 24 hours similar to Robert Hill. Meanwhile AAI continues to climb led by Vern Tejas. IMG’s second team is at the Balcony saying the weather is good. Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker stated their intentions on their summit bid tonight. Hahn and Whttaker have now decided to wait 24 hours due to the snow and winds. On the north Gabriel Filipi just reported that
Everest 2010 Weekend Update May 9 (updated)
This was a busy week on Everest with the first summits for the 2010 season along with a risky gamble. And several accidents and, sadly, a reported death on nearby Lhotse. A team of nine Sherpas fixed the ropes to the summit on the south side. They included Sherpas from IMG, Alpine Ascents and Himex. One western guide who was doing route work high on the mountain also joined them to the summit. Over on the north, it is an entirely different story. According to teams, the ropes are currently fixed only to camp 3 or about 27,300′, far short of the summit and thus stopping most summit attempts. The weather has been difficult this year. As usual, the north receives more snow and wind than the south and increases the difficultly of climbing on that side. It appears no summits attempts until May 11th when the winds could begin to ease but more likely it will be a few days later than that.
Everest 2010 Weekend Update May 1 (updated)
There are good weeks and bad weeks on Everest, a bad week is when someone dies. On Monday, April 26, Hungarian climber Laszlo Varkonyi was swept into a crevasse by an avalanche on the North Col. A desperate search ensued, however, by Thursday, the search was called off. Teams on the south, while aware of the north side events, continued their acclimatization rotations with many climbers spending the uncomfortable night at camp 3. The weather continued to play nice and Sherpas took the fixed line all the way to the South Col on the south and to camp 3 on the north. They are now being supplied with oxygen bottles, stoves, fuel, tents and other suppliers needed to launch summit bids. Both camps are roughly at 8000m. As of today, the ropes are not fixed to the summit from either side.
Climbers Climbing plus Avalanche Update
News travels quickly on Everest. Teams on both sides are sadden by the avalanche incident and have a heightened awareness of the dangers of high-altitude mountaineering. However, they push on knowing that danger comes with the sport. For teams on the north is has been a difficult few days with the avalanche on the North Col. The missing climber is László Várkonyi is a well known Hungarian climber. I contacted Ang Tshering Sherpa who is the Founder and Chairman of Asian Trekking who provided them with logistical support. He sent me this immediate reply for which we deeply thank him:
Mental Toughness on Everest
Starting with the north today. Teams are now occupying Advanced Base Camp. They will use this as their launching point for acclimatization rotations to the North Col and most will eventually climb to camp 1 on the Northeast Ridge. As we know, the north can be much colder and windier than on the south. Multiple reports are coming in that Everest is quite dry this year. This can increase the difficulty for some people not used to climbing on rock with crampons.
Teams into the Western Cwm
Right on schedule this weekend, teams mad their way through the Icefall and into the Western Cwm for the first time. Some went all the way to camp 2, or sometimes referred to as ABC on the south side. But most were content to put in a sleep at camp 1 just above the top of the Icefall. Meanwhile over on the north, Bill Burke reports in from their ABC that it is snowy and teams have already made day hikes to the North Col.
Everest 2010 Weekend Update April 11
For the past 15 years, early April in the Khumbu welcomes the sound of footsteps, yak bells, hushed conversations and dreams seeping from aspiring climbers. This past week, the dirt trails were quite busy. Also, new resting place for Hillary’s ashes and making reservations on Everest.
Leif Whittaker: Following His Father’s Footsteps
Leif Whittaker is walking in large footsteps. You see, his father, Jim Whittaker, was the first American to summit Everest. He and the nephew of Tenzing Norgay, Sherpa Nawang Gombu, summited on May 1, 1963. They ran out of oxygen but managed to reach the summit. Now Leif is on his Everest climb with the RMI team lead by Dave Hahn. Also, teams are well into Tibet and the south route is all the way to Camp 1 in the Western Cwm.