A large group of foreign climbers will reach Advanced Base Camp (5,600m) at the foot of Shisha Pangma today. There have never been so many climbers attempting to finish the 14×8,000’ers on its summit, yet the feat has lost some of its lustre.
Ironically, the industrialization of the high-altitude climbing business and the subsequent increase in climbers (and summit ratios) has turned what was once an extraordinary achievement into something remarkable only at a personal level.
Aiming to finish the 14×8,000’ers
At least eight women are aiming to finish their 14×8,000’ers quest on the summit of Shisha Pangma: Naoko Watanabe of Japan, Grace Tseng of Taiwan, Dawa Yangzum Sherpa of Nepal, He Jing of China, Dorota Samocko of Poland, Adriana Brownlee of the UK, Alina Pekova or Russia, and Tracee Metcalfe of the U.S. (you can read our recent interview with Metcalfe here).
Among the men, record-seekers include Nima Rinji Sherpa of Nepal and Alasdair McKenzie of France (both are 18 and competing for the “youngest” record), Sherohze Kashif and Sirbaz Khan of Pakistan, Mingma G of Nepal, Mario Vielmo of Italy, Naoki Ishikawa of Japan, and Adrian Laza of Romania (who will need to summit Cho Oyu as well).
Some members of the sherpa teams may also be close to the record, but we do not currently have a list of the local teams.
Shisha Pangma from the Tibetan plains. Photo: Sasko Kedev
Nirmal Purja, who claimed he would climb without supplementary oxygen, crossed the border a few days ago. Officially, the China/Tibet Mountaineering Association requires climbers to use oxygen above 7,000m.
As well as Purja, some other climbers are “repeating” Shisha Pangma, such as Gelje Sherpa (who is climbing with Brownlee) and Kristin Harila of Norway.
Summits ASAP
Seven Summit Treks are outfitting the largest group on the mountain. They are not willing to waste a single day; the company announced that they intend to have climbed both Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu by the second or third week of October.
Recently, Seven Summit Treks quickly fixed the ropes on Manaslu, immediately taking all their double-header clients to the summit once the work was complete. Chhang Dawa Sherpa, the Seven Summit Treks CEO and expedition leader, led the summit team on Sept. 19, just hours after the rope-fixing team topped out.
Two female members of the Shisha Pangma expedition were there too. Hesamifard, who wanted to reach the main summit to clean up her summit record, and Watanabe, who became the woman with the most Manaslu summits (four).
Mingma G’s final 8,000’er
Seven Summit Treks will be sharing Base Camp with teams from Climbalaya and Imagine Nepal. Mingma G will lead the Imagine Nepal team on his last 8,000’er.
Mingma has guided on 8,000’ers for two decades but has never summited Shisha Pangma. Last year, he was on the mountain when two American women (from other teams) raced to become the first American woman to complete the 14×8,000’ers. Consecutive avalanches killed both women and their guiding sherpas.
Mingma G took a fall while helping with rescue work and broke his skull. He has recovered and is guiding again. He told ExplorersWeb that he stopped guiding clients one-on-one in 2017 and is slowly approaching the end of his career as an expedition leader.
“I might lead teams for two or three more years. But then I will do something else,” he said.
Good and bad news
Shisha Pangma offers a straightforward climb, but it’s a windy peak, and its upper slopes are prone to avalanches, as last year’s tragedy demonstrated. In addition, it has a tricky main summit. The highest point (8,027m) is in the middle of a sharp, snowy summit ridge. The safest route to avoid avalanches consists of gaining the edge of the ridge from the west and passing a secondary summit of 8,008m. Climbers must then walk the long, knife-edge ridge (which is a problem to fix, especially with climbers coming and going).
The solution in recent years has been to pick one of the variations that cross the peak’s upper snow ramps, trying to reach the ridge as close as possible to the highest point. Avalanche risk has to be carefully assessed. You can read a guide to Shisha Pangma’s normal route by Edurne Pasaban here.
Information from the mountain will likely be patchy. Teams will have no wifi, and expedition outfitters rarely share details on expedition progress except for summit lists and “world records,” which might be the least exciting details from any climb.
