Twelve mountain guides, currently resting at 8,300m, lead the huge Chinese team currently on Everest. Yesterday, they cleared up the route from ABC to a high camp at 8,028m. According to official Chinese news, they continued fixing to 8,300m today, also carrying supplies and cylinders of O2.
While confusion remains about certain details of this modestly reported expedition, Mingma G has confirmed the basic facts. He quotes local expedition outfitter Yarla Shampo, who says that the first team may reach the summit tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the large team of surveyors in charge of re-measuring Everest waits in ABC, ready to proceed once the trail to the top is open. Mingma also mentioned a third group of Chinese clients, currently in the high camp of neighboring Lakpa Ri (7,045m) and planning to summit that peak tomorrow. One outfitter calls Lakpa Ri “the easiest 7,000m peak in the world”. It is not yet known whether these clients might then go for Everest.
Should they succeed, theirs would be the only Everest summits so far this year, after three teams failed to top-out in winter, and Nepal closed the south side of the mountain because of COVID-19. China banned all foreign expeditions as well, but arranged a large local team to climb and measure the mountain from its Tibet side, in time to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first Chinese ascent of the north side.
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