An endless flow of climbers joined the long line from Camp 4 to the summit last night. At least one man used no supplementary oxygen.
Sirbaz Khan of Pakistan climbed as he usually does: under the radar, collaborating with the Imagine Nepal sherpa team, and without bottled O2. The team included 14 international climbers, including Khan, 17 supporting sherpas, and two cameramen.
Everest marks Khan’s 11th no-O2 8,000’er, an unmatched score in Pakistan’s climbing history. Khan is also the second Pakistani to summit Everest without oxygen, after Sajid Sadpara last year.
Currently, the team is on its way back to Camp 4.
Record summit day?
Today could break a record for the most summits in 24 hours, considering the huge numbers between Camps 3 and 4 yesterday.
Moeses Fiamoncini of Brazil, who was at Camp 3 yesterday, reported a gigantic line of people with no gaps between climbers.
“I spoke to some climbers on their way back from the summit, and they said there were between 300 and 350 people in Camp 4,” he told Extremos.br. “They’ll probably try to reach the summit [today]!”
Today, many teams, including Climbing the Seven Summits, Summit Force, Seven Summit Treks, Asian Trekking, Arnold Coster, Furtenbach Adventures, Glacier Himalaya and Imagine Nepal, have announced successful summits.
Another no-O2 summit to celebrate, this time on Lhotse, is that of Eduard Kubatov of Kyrgyzstan. News is also expected from Piotr Krzyżowski of Poland, who set off for the summit early this morning.
Eduard Kubatov of Kyrgyzstan.
Ming Temba Sherpa has posted a video of a climber being rescued from Lhotse. Yesterday, Krzyzowski reported two rescues on the mountain: a Macedonian climber and a Ukrainian.
