The first summit push of the season on Kangchenjunga has failed, according to the climbers watching from Base Camp.
Romanian Horia Colibasanu reports that a Japanese climber watching the summit group through binoculars saw them set off from Camp 4. They gained some 400m, then turned back.
“It was probably due to bad weather,” Colibasanu guessed. He had returned from his final acclimatization trip to Camp 3 yesterday amid snow flurries.
Saad Munawar later confirmed that the weather had deteriorated through the evening. Imagine Nepal’s Sherpa team and a number of their clients were in Camp 4 and delayed their summit push by two hours. Finally, they left their tents toward the summit at 10 pm local time.
Munawar also confirmed that Sirbaz Khan, who is assisting the rope-fixing team, is not using supplementary O2.
Purnima Shrestha of Nepal, also in Base Camp, says it is snowing heavily.
Annapurna
The weather is not cooperating on Annapurna, either. Climbers are facing some snow flurries but are still hoping to summit tomorrow. The route has already been fixed to Camp 4, so further progress is expected today. Those who were in Camp 3 yesterday, including Moeses Fiamoncini of Brazil, Laura Mares of Romania, and Norwegian Kristine Harila, should be ready for a summit push.
