A Good Start to a Busy Week

There were at least 40 summits on Monday morning, May 16th from the south side. It is still not clear if there were any from the north. The winds did pick up late Monday bringing a stop to this brief window. There were no reports of serious problems with any of the climbers at this time.

After a false start on Saturday night when the winds did not cooperate, teams huddled at the South Col, some spending an extra night which is usually avoided. But Sunday night, the winds still between 40 and 50 mph at the Col, let up enough and they were off. Multiple reports came in of crowds and slow progress especially above the Balcony but no mention of high winds. However, they did comment on extreme cold this year.

Most teams are reporting their climbers down to at least the South Col. With the next window estimated to start soon, teams are already leaving base camps on both sides to be in position for summits on May 22nd through the  24th.

Being in Base Camp is quite exciting during a summit night and morning. Many of the Sherpas and climbers monitor radios of the other teams. Then you hear one word over the crackling radio, usually from a Sherpa, who draws out the word for at least 10 seconds “Summittttttt!”

The kitchen staff begins banging pots together and word spreads throughout the 1,000 person community and ends a while later with smiles, hugs, handshakes and back slaps. Everyone is happy regardless of who made the summit.

I have updated the location chart based on the available information so please click on the team to see who they listed as summiting. Of note on climbers many people were following, these summited: Carina Räihä, Kenton Cool and Bonita Norris plus Jamie Clark.

Again congratulation to all of them and to the Sherpas who made it all possible.

Once again, Patrick Hollingworth, brings us in with his audio quite a long time. I appreciate Patrick’s effort to share all this with us. Listening to his excitement gave me goose bumps. Well done Patrick!

On the north, in case you missed it, the Chinese/Tibetans have fixed the route to the summit. Also, Jordan Romero is at ABC and looking  at a summit bid this weekend as well.

Looking into this week, some teams are climbing to camp 2 today where they will spend a few nights before moving to C3 for a night, then the South Col and their summit bid. However, as well know, predicting the weather is difficult at and Jamie McGuinness put it well:

Anyway, after coffee our first job is checking all the weather sites and making an analysis of when might there be a summit window. We know with high certainty when it will be very windy and so have planned an attempt after that as it is far more comfortable to climb above North Col in low winds. Note that it takes us around a week from leaving Base Camp to when we actually summit, and weather forecasts are perhaps 50% accurate five days out. So conditions/forecasts could – or will – change. This is really where my skills will be tested.

This past window, while narrow and a bit windy and cold, was solid and it was excellent so many people made it. This will help a bit with the crowding for the next wave.  Again congratulations to all the climbers, Sherpas and leaders who made the summit yesterday.

Climb On!

Alan