Around three dozen climbers intend to reach the top over weekend.
Summit window has finally arrived for Annapurna climbers and teams are on the move. Around three dozen mountaineers are planning to reach the summit over the weekend. Rope-fixing Sherpa and a few climbers are going directly to C2 today, while others will stay in C1 tonight. The former climbers aim to reach the top on 15th. But April 16th will be the major summit day. A calmer period is predicted around April 15th – 17th, before heavy snow starts that evening. “The Sun is out on Annapurna. This can be a great day for Expedition BBVA,” wrote Carlos Soria’s team.
Rope Fixing and Summit Plans
A meeting was held at BC few days ago to discuss weather forecasts from different sources and coordinate the summit push. Sherpa have thus far fixed the route till around 6800m and have conducted reconnaissance of huge crevasse that blocks the passage. The crevasse was deemed climbable by the team. It has been agreed in meeting that Sherpa will fix the ropes through crevasse ahead of summit push group.
Bulgarian Boyan Petrov is going to C2, today (along with six Sherpa who will be performing the rope fixing task). He intends to reach C3 tomorrow, C4 on 14th and go for summit on 15th. Boyan says, he naturally climbs fast and doesn’t want to be part of big group which can be slower at times. “Everything will depend on the wind and how I feel in Camp 4,” the Bulgarian climber adds. Boyan Petrov is amongst those few climbers who climbed K2 and Broad Peak in a single season.
The main group plans to spend a night each in C1, C2, C3 and C4. If everything goes as per plan, they will be in final camp by April 15th and launch the summit push that evening. April 16th will be the summit day. However, they will spend an extra day in C2 if weather doesn’t improve as predicted. “Heavy snow is on some forecasts for later on 17th and 18th. So we will want to get down ASAP,” mentions Chris Burke.
C1
“Made it to C1 in 3 hours! Trying not to let it get to my head. All here, tents set up. Pondering C2 but still pretty windy down here.” Mat Du Puy messaged a while ago.
Early Departures
Apart from Alex Gavan, who cancelled his expedition due to personal reasons, a couple of other climbers have been evacuated from BC due to medical reasons. A Korean climber fell into a crevasse near C2 and strained his right leg. Italian Sebastiano Valentini suffered frostbite while spending a windy night in C3. The Korean was evacuated on April 8th, along with Alex. Sebastiano will be flown out, tomorrow.
