Update 3
Mountain Trip just sent this note out:
We just received a call from the summit, we have 5 on top right now! 7.25am, Yahoo! Conditions sound perfect, very light winds, no crowds. Sounds like things started out very windy and have improved through the night. That’s super good news here. We have Manoj Vora, DaWang Chu Sherpa, Serki Sherpa, Gombu Sherpa and Norbu Sherpa enjoying the view. Manoj and all the sherpas sound good, no problems.
Carlos Pauner summited completing thus completing climbing all 14 8000m mountains without supplemental oxygen
Melissa Arnot and Tshering Sherpa summit from South. She builds her American women’s record now with 5 summits.
Summits on North Side with Adventure Peaks, more to come.
Update 2
35 climbers reported tonight on the South with final big push Wednesday night. Weather is slowly getting worse so tonight and Wednesday may be the last chance this season.
North climbers reported past 2nd Step. Melissa Arnot checked in at the South Summit.
81 year-old Nepali, Min Bahadur Sherchan, is still at EBC. 80 year-old Yuichiro Miura at South Col.
Update 1
Conditions are reported good tonight by AAI:
The forecast look good with winds in the 15 to 25 mile per hour range with possible higher gusts. There may be some cloud cover here at base camp, but it looks like our climbers will be well above it while they climb at over 8,000 meters. The temperature will be in the vicinity of -20 C or -4 F, balmy and warm for this altitude
Looks like Melissa Arnot is trying again tonight.
Two deaths just reported from Monday’s summit push:
- Sung Ho-Seo, 34, of South Korea was attempting the climb without supplementary oxygen and died on his way down the mountain.
- Mohammed Hossain, 35, from Bangladesh, died in his tent a few hours after successfully climbing the summit.
This makes 8 deaths for the 2013 Everest season with 4 of those being Sherpa.
Another big morning with climbers from many teams summiting. The good weather continues even though last night the winds were “brisk” at 20 mph.
Another wave tonight and tomorrow should wrap things up on the South with a couple of exceptions. On the North summits will continue for a few more days depending on the weather.
Wave 6 Recap
There were summits from IMG’s third team, aka Classic, with 10 summits this morning, 42 for the season, Asian Trekking had 14 and Adventure Consultants with 16 summiters, 100% success for them.
It has been a good season for commercial guides, Jagged Globe also had 100% with 24 summits.
The students from Sanawar India summited. They are 16-17 years-old: Guribadat Singh, Prithvi Singh Chahal, Ajay Sohal, Shubham Kaushik, Fateh Singh Brar and Raghav Jonneja.
Also from India to summit was Arunima Sinha with Nima Kancha Sherpa and Pemba Tshering with Asian Trekking. With this summit she became the first female amputee, with an artificial leg below her left knee.
As for the new descent route on the Hillary Step, IMG noted:
IMG guide Justin Merle reports that he rappelled down the
new descent route at the Hillary Step and says that it is a good option. All the IMG climbers are now below the South Summit heading down, so that is good news.
new descent route at the Hillary StepI am not sure how many members used the new descent. It will be interesting to debrief a few upon their return home.
On the North, Kari Kobler put 14 on top. They climbed from Camp 3 to the summit in 6:30 minutes. With the team was Silvio Mondinelli the famous Italian mountaineer making his third Everest summit. He was the 13th person to climb the 14 8000m mountains without supplementary oxygen. He was attempting a ‘speed’ climb with Ecuadorian Tima Patricio. No update on that effort as of this post.
Amical put members on the summit from the North. Austrian climber Rupert Hauer with Amical, had just summited Shishapangma and now was on Everest but aborted his summit push to give aid to another climber suffering vision problems. Very unselfish.
Wave 7
I can’t believe I even am counting to seven given last year we only had four summit pushes.
Several teams still remain on the South including Himex, RMI, Mountain Trip, Tim Mosedale and several independents.
Alpine Ascents has a team called Arabs with Altitude including: Mohammed Al Thani, Masoud Kalafchi,Raed Zidan and camerman Elia Saikaly. They are climbing now.
The Arabs With Altitude have been resting, hydrating, and rebuilding their strength today at the South Col in preparation for their summit push tonight. The weather report continues to look good for our climbers. The winds have picked up a little since yesterdays forecast, but they are still relatively low and manageable. There are only a few other teams planning to climb the mountain tonight. Everything is looks to be lining up for great summit conditions!
On the North, Altitude Junkies is at Camp 3 climbing to the summit tonight, Tuesday may 21st for a Wednesday, May 22nd summit.
Adventure Peaks reported attrition after a long, tough season on the North. This include Bob Kerr who developed vision problems and did an audio update safely back at the North Col. This from AP:
Greetings from Top Camp, 8250m. Unfortunately 2 of our team have had to return down from 7800m. Paul and Jenny made the difficult decision that she was not moving strongly enough, Bob was suffering with blurred vision in one eye. They are now returning down from the North Col and will soon be in Advanced Basecamp.
Nelson Dellis, Altitude Junkies, made this post from Camp 2 as they prepared to go on the summit bid:
Holy hell, what a rough day. We started our summit push yesterday as we left for the North Col. It felt easier this time, even though we were all dreading it. I guess Phil’s secret rotation from last time made a difference. Most of us rocketed up there in just over three hours. And I tented with Ole again, where we watched a movie on my iPhone. It was pretty relaxing for where we were!
This morning we left at around 8:00 a.m., with the goal being to get as high as we could without oxygen. Most of us were on it about an hour out of camp — good God, turning that stuff on makes a difference. Without it, taking any step was difficult, whereas afterwards it was just like walking up stairs non stop—for a while anyways. Once we got up to 7500m, every step was horrible. You would take five and then have to slouch onto your knee to find your breath. And the slope just went up and up. Finally, we reached the end of the north east ridge snow slope, and there was a steep rock scramble to get to our tents. It was so frustrating because the tents were RIGHT there, but I was so tired.
RMI, Himex looking to summit Wednesday morning
For those wanting a first hand report on the rime ice that hit climbers late last week, this is an excellent report from Mike Chambers.
Best of luck to all the teams tonight.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
29 thoughts on “Everest 2013: Summit Wave 6 Recap and Summit Wave 7 – Update 3”
Great achievement by dear Raghav Joneja. We wish him success in life and all that he aspires to do. God bless him. Salutations to his parents for encouraging and being the pillar of support to the youngest climber.
First Andorran on the top of the world! Domingo Trastoy!
I let you the blog (in catalan, but you can translate it using google translator): http://www.everestcreditand.com/andorra-al-cim-del-mon/
We are very happy and proud of him!
Hello !
Domi Trastoy Diaz has called me this morning at 8:45AM Nepal time after leaving the Camp 4 of Everest SE route for the summit bid at 8:00PM. : “We did it ! We summited at 5AM and I’m now at Camp 4. It has been tough and long but impressive. Really unbelievable. I have no words. Now I’m going to drink and to rest inside the tent.”
Domi has become the first Andorran climber to summit Everest. That’s his second try as in 2011 he had to turn back at 8.000m on the north face.
Thank you !
Ramon
i understand maria conceicao and satyabratadam (her guide from india ) summitted yesterday. maria;s first and 4th time for satya who is an ex naval officer from the indian navy.
Hi Alan. Thank you very much for your ever so prompt coverage of all teams to let their families and friends know how they are doing.
Any news from Tim Moosedale’ s team? Any updates will be much appreciated.
Best wishes
Melissa Arnot and Tshering Sherpa summit from South. She builds her American women’s record now with 5 summits.
I know Russell Brice has to be feeling the pressure after last year.
Alan, we just heard that Melissa Arnot has reached the South Summit.
Half way there… At 6:56 am Melissa reached the summit.
Altitude Junkie were at camp 3 today and likely doing their summit push right now! Edita Uksaite Nichols will be the first Lithuanian woman to make it up to the roof of the world and back down after doing other 8000ers. Her other 8000+ meter feats include pressing on after the tragedy on Manaslu last year. She choose to not take the south side, as it was too easy. She said “I want to try the north side, that is where it all started from..” This will be a great day for that country and their woman.
Rupert, has summited Maslow’s hierarchy of morality on the north side today. This is achieving a height which is much higher than any mountain! Congratulations Rupert!
Altitude Junkies dispatch one hour ago. “Everyone is safe and well. The team is in the process of descending to a lower elevation and once there, an update will be posted with much greater detail. We did have some team members summit and some team members turn around due to very cold conditions.”
Please Alan, Refer to the website of Rupert Haur, an Austrian Mountaineer climbing with Team Amical, who at 8700 meters on the North side chose to forgo his summit to assist Ruben and his Sherpa who had become incapacitated after their own summit. Rupert’s selfless action was a choice between a personal goal of the Everest summit and human beings in need of support. Rupert, without oxygen, assisted these two precious family members to a lower elevation, and for this we will forever feel a debt of gratitude. The responses to his latest blog posting of this event, challenges every human being to examine our need for community to live the best life by offering our own support to others, while finding ourselves humbled by our own needs.
Well said, absolutely right. Cheers Kate
thanks for sharing the great story, can you please link the web site of Rupert Haur?
Yes, as I said in this post, Rupret was very unselfish. Well done by him. His site is linked in the post but is http://ruperthauer.at/rettungsaktion-auf-8700m/
thanks!
Lhakpa Galu, is the name is the sherpa that saved Ruben’s life along with Rupert, It is a very unselfish choice, they are a blessing in my life, and for them I am eternally grateful. There are no words to describe the gratitude I have for the men who brought my partner to safety. Each time we send our loved ones out, help them pack their gear we know there is a chance that something could happen but we love them enough to support their dreams.
It is good to see that this kind of thing still happens! Thanks to both people.
Alan,
News for Melissa Arnot had been hard to come by… we are all anxious back home to hear any news of her summit attempt tonight. Would you please relay any information that you may receive.
Thank you!
Heather
What an exciting climax to Everest 2013 there are climbers everywhere! Thank you so much Alan for bringing this excitement to my very own armchair. I have had a wonderful time and will miss your reports so much. I understand how some climbers say they felt really depressed after all the excitement had finally died down. It must give you a great adrenaline rush when you achieve your dream and then a big low when it’s all over.Today Brian Blessed the actor headlined in The Daily Telegraph Newspaper with “Oxygen should be banned on Everest”.” The mountaineers are diminishing the adventure and achieving nothing”.He himself has tried to climb Everest three times, 1991,1993,and 1996 but failed. He is now 76 but intends to have another go next year.He says “with wonderful Sherpas carrying everything and lots of oxygen I don’t have a lot of respect for it, you’ve diminished the adventure”. “It’s all vanity”. I wondered if anyone had a comment on his statement. Cheers Kate
I find the argument pretty silly unless there’s some necessity that climbers must be dressed in original twead cloth and hob-nail boots. Otherwise you go with what’s available today (as Brian Blessed did then).
Like.
I find that whole argument nonsensical. Some people think it’s better to climb without fixed ropes and oxygen. Bully for them. But those are perfectly reasonable safety precautions. You don’t make fun of race car drivers for having seat belts and air bags. If people want the additional challenge, I applaud them but climbing Everest is still something not the many people have climbed or could climb for that matter.
And “adventure” has evolved. There was a time when going to Easter Island was an adventure. Now quite a few people have as there’s an airport. It hasn’t stopped being of interest to people and no one makes the argument that it’s morally superior to get there in a raft made from logs and vines.
If someone wants something new to explore I suggest they get on their scuba gear or find out when Virgin will be landing on the moon. Then we can have lunar climbing and we can hear people who haven’t done it complain they’re taking the adventure out of it by using oxygen.
I agree with you both entirely. The words might have made a little more sense if they had been uttered by a cocky young wizz kid who is able to run up and down the hill without oxygen but uttered by a chap who is depriving himself of a life long dream, it’s him that’s achieving nothing.Kate
Funny argument considering the first two to climb the mountain used oxygen to reach the top. I read the whole story a few days ago and think his points are ridiculous — maybe you should only be allowed to climb in shorts and a t-shirt or better yet, no clothes at all – after all, that’s the way God intended you to be right? 😉
that’s pretty high for a season, isn’t it? so unfortunate and sad.
Sadly, two more deaths reported from Monday’s push. Update through the link. 8 for the Everest season with 4 being Sherpa. 1 on Lhotse.
Hi Alan –
Great coverage this year as always. Have you heard anything about Dawes Eddy? He is climbing from the North with Asian Trekking, but there have been no updates on their blog for him since Friday.
Thanks for everything you do!
– Emily
Nothing yet Emily. He was last reported at the North Col on Saturday, May 18.
Thank you so much for your coverage Alan! I cannot wait to chat with Elia and see his footage — may he and their team summit safely!
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