By Alan ArnetteClimbing News, Everest, Everest 2024 Coverage, Everest News, Weekend Update7 min read

Everest 2024: Weekend Update April 28: Teams Into the Western Cwm

Commercial teams have begun their acclimatization rotations with climbs to Camps 1 and 2 in the Western Cwm. The Icefall route is more complicated this spring, and some climbers take ten hours or more to reach the first Camp. The fixed ropes are now well up the Lhotse Face. As of this update, no Everest teams have entered Tibet.

Each weekend during the season, I’ll post a “Weekend Update” summarizing the main stories from the past week and what to expect next.

Big Picture

New Everest permits have slowed and will probably not set a record this spring. Nepal issued 38 new Everest permits this past week, bringing the total on Everest to 390. Some teams are slowing down their rotation plans, waiting for Camps 2 and 3 to be established. They were delayed when the Icefall Doctors took an extra ten days to establish a route through the Icefall. My Summit Coach clients tell me it is long, zig-zags a lot and feels dangerous with tall seracs hovering above the route in places. They will need to get through it as quickly as possible, but some reports take ten hours, almost twice as long as some last year.

The Nepal government approved a plan to use helicopters to fly more gear to Camp 2 to fix the route to the summit. This is not unprecedented. On April 23, 2016, summit rope fixing gear (rope, anchors, oxygen for the Sherpas above the South Col) was long-lined to Camp 1 by helicopters – all approved by the Government.  It took six trips by helicopter plus a spotter in a separate helicopter to deliver the gear. No climbers or Sherpas were transported. This saved 87 Sherpa loads and potentially lives if there were another serac release or other natural disaster in the Icefall.

China played more games, closing two of their 8000ers to any climbing. The Chinese government, citing a holiday from May 1st to the 5th, has delayed issuing climbing permits until May 7th at the earliest. Multiple teams planned on entering Tibet the last week of April but will absorb this delay. The good news is that instead of having teams leave the mountain at the end of May, the season will end on June 11th.

Given the delay, commercial teams from Arnold Coster, Adventure Peaks and Kobler & Partner have switched to climbing from Nepal. But Climbalaya, Furtenbach, and Alpengow are staying with their plans to climb from Tibet.

Last Week

Sherpas from Seven Summits Treks are steadily fixing the route up the Lhotse Face. IMG reports, “fixing teams reached the Yellow Band today, so they are making good progress on Lhotse Face.  Hopefully, they will reach the South Col in the next couple of days.” Some expect them to reach the summit in mid-May.

Kristen Harila wanted to search for Shishapangma for Tenjen (Lama) Sherpa and Gina Marie Rzucidlo, who died from an avalanche on Shishapangma last Autumn. However, she was dealt another blow when the Chinese refused to grant her an exception to conduct a search this Spring. She’s in Kathmandu trying to determine her next steps, if any.

Next Week

The weather has been dry and cold thus far, but this is about to change. High winds could hamper some progress on Everest. I suspect the rope fixers will pause around May 1 to let a disturbance calm before reaching the Soul Col.

The delay in getting the ropes through the Icefall hasn’t created significant issues for the commercial teams. Look for more rotations and more progress by the rope team. For reference, the latest the ropes reached the summit since 2010 was in 2012 when they made it on May 18th.

Other 800ers

This season of “Other 800ers” is a bit quiet this year. After much activity on Annapurna and Makalu, summits have stopped as teams shifted to other peaks. We may see the rope team top out on Dhaulagiri in the next couple of weeks, followed by member summits, but this is usually climbed in May.

Some people are not content to just “climb”; they need more of a challenge. Thus, Polish alpinists Bartek Ziemski and Oswald Rodrigo Pereira will ascend Makalu (8,485 m) and Kangchenjunga(8,586 m) without supplemental oxygen and ski down to base camp. This would be a first on Kang.

American Tyler Andrews has set a goal to break Anatoli Boukreev’s 1996 speed record of 21 hours and 16 minutes on Lhotse. He’ll adjust to the altitude on nearby Pumori and Lobuche. He claims speed climbs on Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Everest Base Camp, Mt. Fuji and the Inca Trail.

Brit Tim Howell aims to jump off the summit of Lhotse using a wingsuit and establish a record for the highest flight. The current record is held by Russian Valeri Rozov, who flew from 7,700 meters on Cho Oyu

Nepal Permit Update

New permit issuance slowed last week. As of April 24, 2024, Nepal has issued climbing permits to 95 teams for 27 peaks. This is the current 2024 tally for the 8000ers:

8000er Teams Male Clients Female Clients Total
Annapurna I 3 14 11 25
Cho Oyu 1 1 0 1
Dhaulagiri 2 20 8 28
Everest 37 320 70 390
Kanchenjunga 3 20 11 31
Lhotse 12 107 23 130
Makalu 4 40 17 57
Manaslu 1 2 0 2
TOTALS 62 522 140 662

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

 Everyday Everest

A new 16-part podcast series during the Everest 2024 climbing season.

Next Episode drops on May 30,2024

Based on my 2020 Virtual Everest series, I’ll have a twenty-minute updated episode of the story a few times a week for the next two months. Everyday Everest follows a fictional team of nine climbers and their personal Sherpas from leaving home, trekking to base camp, acclimatizing, and finally, on their summit push. The story’s protagonist, Harper, sets the tone for the story when she tells her husband, Marc, “Honey, I’m going to climb Everest.”

You can listen to Everyday Everest on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Breaker, YouTube, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Anchor, and more. Just search for “alan arnette” on your favorite podcast platform.

Previous Everyday Everest Episodes

Previous Everest 2024 Season Coverage Posts

Why this coverage?

I like to use these weekend updates to remind my readers that I’m just one guy who loves climbing. With 38 serious climbing expeditions, including four Everest trips under my belt and a summit in 2011, I use my site to share those experiences, demystify Everest each year and bring awareness to Alzheimer’s Disease. My mom, Ida Arnette, died from this disease in 2009, as have four of my aunts. It was a heartbreaking experience that I hope no other family will go through; thus, I asked for donations to non-profits, which 100% goes to them and nothing ever to me.
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Ida Arnette 1926-2009

Preparing for Everest is more than Training

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