Csaba Varga and Laszlo Csomor of Hungary have checked in from Annapurna Base Camp. They turned around at Camp 3 because of an excess of snow on the route. According to them, other climbers pushing for the summit have also called off their attempts.
The Hungarians, who went without supplementary oxygen or personal Sherpa support, left Base Camp for Camp 2 on Wednesday. They then crossed the most dangerous section of the mountain and reached Camp 3 at 6,400m on the following day, struggling through loads of fresh snow.
There, they and other climbers assessed the conditions and decided to call off their attempt. They would have needed to break trail through waist-deep snow. Varga has posted (in Hungarian) a video of their attempted climb on Facebook.
The video posted on Facebook by Csaba Varga shows he was in a larger group of climbers heading to Camp 3 on Thursday. Supposedly, all have turned around.
Likely all over
We are waiting for news from other climbers and outfitter Seven Summit Treks to confirm that everyone is back in Base Camp or on their way down. With Sherpa staff required on other peaks and the ropes buried in fresh snow on the upper sections, further attempts on the mountain are unlikely this season.
An earlier summit push yielded some 30 successful summits, some retreats, six or seven helicopter airlifts, and two Sherpa climbers, Gnima Tashi and Rima Sherpa, who died in an avalanche between Camp 2 and Camp 3.
