The Sherpa team fixing the route to the summit of Everest from the Nepal side has reached Camp 4 at nearly 8,000m on the South Col. If all goes well, we should see the first summits of the season later this week.
“The plan is to reach the summit between May 8 and May 10,” Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions told ExplorersWeb.
Multimodel forecasts show partly cloudy weather on Everest with some light snow flurries and pretty low winds.
Forecasts for the summit of Everest over the next days by Meteoexploration.com
Teams moving up
This opens an interesting dilemma for expedition leaders about the best strategy. Many climbers are ready to go for the summit after acclimatizing with a couple of nights at Camp 2 and a day trip to Camp 3. Some of these teams are huge, like the Indian Army expedition led by Kami Rita Sherpa, on his way to summit Everest for a record 31 times.
Climbers with the huge Indian Army team march toward Camp 2. Photo: Kami Rita Sherpa
However, the outfitters still need to supply Camp 4. This involves a large number of Sherpas carrying tents, sleeping pads, fuel, and oxygen canisters up the Lhotse Face from 6,500m. After reaching Camp 3 at 7,000m, they traverse the Yellow Band and the Geneva Spur to Camp 4 (7,950m). If some clients hope to follow the rope fixers to the summit in the next three days, they will have to hurry up.
How staggered the summit pushes are will determine the size of the first summit wave and how crowded the route becomes.
