There were more summits on Makalu today, but their descent was agonizingly slow. Nine members of the Imagine Nepal team topped out early enough but only reached Camp 3 after dark because of poor conditions.
The climbers left Camp 3, which lies at 7,450m at the Makalu Col, yesterday before midnight. They summited at 9:10 am. Successful climbers included Sashko Kedev of Macedonia, supported by K2 winter summiter Kili Pemba Sherpa, and Naila Kiani of Pakistan, supported by Phur Galjen. Makalu was Kedev and Kiani’s 10th 8,000’er.
Also in the summit group was Wang Zhong of China, guided by Tamting Sherpa, and Hakon Asvang of Norway, with Sonam Tashi Sherpa. This entire group had originally hoped to climb Shisha Pangma, but when China decided not to open the mountain, they redirected their efforts to Makalu. (Kiani and Kedev had also tried for Shisha Pangma last fall when avalanches took the lives of four people and prompted an early closure.)
Naila Kiani. Photo: Instagram
No-O2 climbers
No-O2 climber Allie Pepper of Australia left Camp 3 today for the summit. Check her progress on her tracker here. Pepper was already acclimatized after climbing Annapurna earlier this spring. Mikel Sherpa is supporting her. There may be someone else on the team, but we are awaiting confirmation.
Stefi Troget of Andorra, on her first acclimatization round to Camp 3, returned to BC today.
Alli Pepper’s progress on Makalu on May 5, at 10 pm Nepal time. Her location was 7,600m, some 200 meters above Camp 3.
The video below shows a previous year’s arrival at the summit of Makalu, filmed by Jackson Groves.
