Success on Everest and Makalu; One dead, two missing and one rescued from Everest Southside.
Several ‘No O2’ climbers launched summit push from C3 (at 8300m) on Everest, last night. Individuals climbing without bottled oxygen were particularly waiting for a less crowded mountain, as majority of commercial climbers completed their ascents after first summits on May 19th.
No O2 climbers including Thomas Lammle, Esteban Mena, Carla Perez, Jorge Antonio Salazar Gavia, Jorge Hermosillo and most likely Alexander Barber left C3 at night and aimed to reach the top today. Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards have just reached C3 (8300m) and will be going for summit tonight. Another No-O2 climber Mick Allen summited on May 21st. He, however, started using supplemental oxygen above 8400m after losing sensation of his toes.
As of now, following climbers who intended to climb without bottled oxygen have reached the summit. It’s not confirmed if they had to use bottled oxygen during the push. We will update the list as further details arrive.
1. Carla Perez (Ecuador, Summit without O2 Confirmed; She is reportedly 7th woman to summit Everest without bottled oxygen)
2. Thomas Lammle (Germany; Summit without O2; Used Oxygen while back in C3)
3. Melissa Arnot (USA; Summit without O2 Confirmed; 6th ascent of Everest)
4. David Roeske (USA, Summit without O2 Confirmed)
5. Cory Richards (USA, Summit without O2 Confirmed)
Edit: Esteban Mena (Ecuador) summited but used Oxygen on ascent.
There were around 10 climbers attempting Everest without bottled oxygen from Northside, this season. From South, only Azim Gheychisaz’s no O2 ascent is known to us. All other climbers switched to bottled oxygen at some point on summit push.
Update 01: Jorge Antonio Salazar Gavia and Jorge Hermosillo cancelled their summit push to help fellow climber Luis Álvarez and another mountaineer on descent. Luis summited with O2 but is suffering from visibility loss. Fingers crossed for safety of troubled climbers.
Tragedy on Southside: Death, Disappearances and Rescue
An Indian expedition run into trouble during the summit push from Southside on weekend. The team left for the summit on Friday night and by Saturday afternoon four members, Sunita Hazra, Subhas Paul, Paresh Chandra Nath and Goutam Ghosh were out of communication. Sunita Hazra and Subhas Paul were, however, found on Southeast Ridge above South Col that night. The two climbers were seriously injured and needed assistance on descent.
Sunita was successfully brought down to lower camps and eventually flown out to Lukla, today. She is currently in a hospital in Kathmandu and is reported to be “out of danger”. Subhas Paul, however, died while being rescued from C4 to C3.
Two climbers Paresh Chandra Nath and Goutam Ghosh are still unaccounted for.
Makalu Summits
Several climbers reached the summit of Makalu this morning (exact count not available, as teams continue descent to lower camps). The ascents follow a long wait in uncertain weather conditions, since first summits on the mountain on May 12th.
The summit push began on May 20th, when majority of climbers headed up from ABC (5700m) to C2 (6600m) in not-so-favorable conditions. Strong wind created doubts about the fate of summit attempt. Nonetheless, the conditions improved as climbers moved upwards. Few climbers started the ascent on May 21st.
After spending nights in C3 (7400m) and C4 (7800m), summit push was launched this morning. Good conditions and fair weather has been reported during final push.
Following is the list confirmed summits as of now (list will be updated as further details arrive). Austrian Martina Bauer apparently turned back few hundred meteres below the summit.
1. Ferran Latorre (Spain, 12th Eight-thousander without bottled Oxygen)
2. Arjun Vajpai (India)
3. One Sherpa with Arjun (Nepal)
4. Atanas Skatov (Bulgaria, summited Annapurna, Reached 7900m on Dhaulagiri earlier this season)
5. Boyan Petrov (Bulgaria, Climbed Annapurna on Apr 30th)
6. Marco Confortola (Italy, 9th Eight-thousander)
7. Marco Camandona (Italy, 7th Eight-thousander)
8. Sophie Lavaud (France, Kobler-Partner Team)
9. Lisa (Kobler-Partner Team)
10. Georg (Kobler-Partner Team)
11. Maksim (Kobler-Partner Team)
12. Andreas Neuschmid (Kobler-Partner Team)
13. Ernesto Felix (Amical Alpin)
14. Pema Sherpa (Nepal)
15. Karma Sherpa (Nepal)
16. Hans Wenzl (Austria)
Earlier, four climbers Parvaneh Kazemi, one Sherpa, Nives Meroi and Romano Benet summited Makalu on May 12th, A day earlier (May 11th) several climbers including Ali Sadpara and Boyan Petrov had to turn back 150m short of summit due to slow progress.
