Earlier today, Jost Kobusch left the Khumbu Valley for his Camp 1 on the ramps leading to the West Ridge of Everest. The question is, what for?
The 32-year-old German is engaged on a long-term project to solo the West Ridge of Everest in winter. He learns a bit more every year, and this is his third year at it. His goal this winter was not to summit but to reach 7,500m. At that, he already succeeded on his first foray up the mountain some days ago.
Kobusch’s location at Advanced Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier at noon today. Later, his position moved up to Camp 1. Graph by InfinityMaps
Keeping suspense
After that first successful outing, Kobusch remained in Lobuche over the holidays and posted details about the climb and his gear on social media. However, he has kept silent about his upcoming plans. He didn’t reply to ExplorersWeb’s questions on the matter.
But before setting off on this latest venture earlier today, Kobusch himself admitted, “I am not so sure myself where this journey will go.”
For now, however, he says his destination is Camp 1 at 5,700m, on the face leading to the Lho La. That is the col that marks the beginning of the West Ridge.
His tracker indicates that he stopped for a while at Advanced Base Camp (5,500m) and then continued up to Camp 1 as promised.
On his earlier pre-Christmas foray up Everest, Kobusch reached a rocky section at the end of the long, snowy part of the ridge past the West Shoulder. He said that the sections ahead were too difficult to tackle without better acclimatization.
He may be trying to do that now. However, if he wants to go further, whether this year or in the future, Kobusch will either have to deal with the difficult, technical terrain on the final third of the ridge or traverse onto the North Side of the mountain into Tibetan territory toward the Hornbein Couloir.
Hurricane-force winds
Kobusch is aware that current weather forecasts predict extremely high winds on all of Nepal’s higher peaks for the next several days. The winds might decrease slightly for the next two days but then should rise to gale force, with over 100kph expected at the summit and 60kph at 7,000m. (Check the chart below.)
Forecast for the next few days on Everest at 7,000m, by Mountain Forecast
Manaslu and Annapurna
None of the teams with plans to climb 8,000m peaks this winter are high on their targeted mountains.
Simone Moro and Oswald Pereira are sorting out their climbing gear in Kathmandu after their work on Ama Dablam. Once conditions are right, they’ll head for Manaslu. They plan to team up with Nima Rinji Sherpa, although he recently had to abort his summit push on Ama Dablam due to muscle cramps in his arms and hands.
Last year, at 18, Nima Rinji became the youngest person to summit all 14 8,000m peaks. Now he hopes to raise the level of difficulty on his expeditions by doing Manaslu in winter, alpine style, with Moro and Pereira.
Although we have no official confirmation yet, it seems that climbing Annapurna this winter will not be an option for Alex Txikon. The Basque climber underwent emergency appendix surgery last week.
Another member might also drop out: Waldemar Kowalewski of Poland, now in Pokhara, told ExplorersWeb he is now facing some financial issues that might prevent him from participating.
The expedition, outfitted by Seven Summit Treks, will continue once the weather improves. Kowalewski noted that the weather should improve beginning on January 11. So far, the Sherpa team has prepared the route up to Camp 4, so once conditions are right, everything will be ready for a summit attempt.
For the time being, part of the team has flown back to town. Others, like Sajid Sadpara, relax in Base Camp, enjoying the sunshine and watching the high winds peel huge plumes of snow from the upper part of Annapurna.
