Wave 1 Summit (update 4)

update #4: the next wave of summits are moving up in good weather. Best of luck to all these climbers. Saturday morning climbers are moving down the mountain on both sides. No problems reported as of now. The weather continues to be good.

update #3: Multiple south summits from Adventure Consultants and Eco Everest team in excellent conditions. Special congratulations Ang Dorge Sherpa with his 14th summit and Apa Sherpa with his 20th. Mandy Ramsden, sick 1st SA for 7 Summits and Arjun Vajpayee, discount youngest Indian to summit. Jordan Romero bags his summits as well at age 13. His SPOT map showed him at the summit but I wanted to wait for verbal confirmation via his website’s home team.

No word on the Himex team but we could have seen 100 summits from both sides tonight.  Congratulations  to all the climbers and climb safe back down. Hundreds more to make their own history tomorrow night as the rest of the teams are now moving to the high camps for their summit bids Saturday night, Nepal time.

update #2: Dawn in breaking on Everest. Adventure Consultants is at the South Summit so should summit in 2-3 hours max between 7-8 local time. Jordan Romero has cleared the 2nd Step. Should summit about the same time. Weather still is good. No reports of crowds.

update#1:Looks like a great night on Everest with teams on both sides moving steadily higher. Adventure Consultants is doing a great job of keeping everyone informed as is Apa Sherpa and the Eco Everest home team. Both are above the Balcony.

All eyes are on Jordan Romero’s SPOT map which shows them between the 1st and 2nd step. This will be the crux of their ascent; of course they need to descend as well. A strange comment was posted on their site that ” Update from the team:  Everything is going super well and they may attempt to summit today.” Not sure what that means. If you are to the 2nd Step and feeling well, most climbers will push on to the top.

Eric Simonson, IMG, posted this overview as seen directly from his team on the mountain:

Ang Jangbu reports that the winds started to die down this afternoon. AC, Himex and Asian Trek group continued and made it to the Col today, so they will be climbing for the summit tonight. Greg and Mike, with their respective IMG climbers up at Camp 3, decided it was better to wait and not get so trashed in the wind going to the Col, so they have spent the day hanging out and will aim for the South Col tomorrow morning.

Justin and the IMG climbers at C2 will go to C3 in the morning. That means for tomorrow night (the 22nd in the US and the 23rd in Nepal) it will probably be our first team, along with Willie Benegas’ team, and possibly Mountain Trip attempting the summit with our second IMG team the following night (the 24th in Nepal) along with RMI, AAI, and some of Henry Todd’s group.

We have the new weather forecast that shows the cyclone weakening and moving to the east over the next few days. We may still get hit by some of the moisture from this system, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed!

Good luck to all!

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Looks like there is serious movement on both sides of Everest. With the good news of the winds calming a bit per the forecast and Adventure Consultants reports seeing stars at the South Col; always a good sign!

Also it looks like the cyclone is sliding to the northeast and may not hit as hard as expected but some impact is still anticipated.

Some who pushed hard to reach their Advanced Base Camps have decided to take an extra day to rest up and also to stretch out the crowds. The South side feels a little less frenzied but there are reports of 100 climbers at the North Col.

Many teams are now at their high camps for the night looking at summit bids on Saturday night but a few have posted their current status of heading up tonight.

As of Friday night, May 21st at 11:00 PM Nepal time, this is the activity, certainly not all by any stretch:

• Apa Sherpa and Eco Everest team: left camp 4 (South Col)
• David Liano: left Camp 4 (South Col)
• Elia Saikaly: left camp 4 (South Col)
• Adventure Consultants are well on their way with 6 climbers, 2 leaders and 9 Sherpas split into two groups
• Jordan Romero: North; approaching 27,000. Still below the ridge proper. They just posted this update on their site:

The team just called from their iSatPhone.  They wanted to say hello to everyone and to give everyone an update.  Right now they have stopped for tea, but they said that everything is going well and that they are ahead of schedule.  They also mentioned that the clouds were clearing and they could see the ridgeline all the way up to the summit and it looked absolutely amazing.  The team is using oxygen for this part of the climb.  Everyone is strong; especially Jordan.

On a very sad note, a death has been reported on the north side by news agencies. This from ScandAsia.com:

Tom Jørgensen Tom, a 56 year-old Danish mountaineer, died on the way back to Zham Port in Tibet on May 19, said Zhang Minxing, Secretary-General of the CTMA. After found to suffer from serious high altitude sickness, Jorgensen was sent back to Zham Port from Mt. Everest, but died despite rescue efforts.

My sincere condolences to all his family, teammates and friends.

More updates throughout the day.

Climb On!

Alan

Personal Note: As regular followers on my site know, I do this for Alzheimer’s causes. Read my story here. I am excited to update everyone that am finalizing my 7 Summits quest to raise $1M for Alzheimer’s research, awareness and education and will start later this year. More details to follow. If you have signed up for email notifications you will be kept updated or visit the main site at www.alanarnette.com for updates. 100% of all donations go to Alzheimer’s, none to Alan or the climbs.