Saturday Summits on Four 8,000’ers

As the good Himalayan weather continues, dozens more climbers have summited Everest, Lhotse, Kangchenjunga, and Makalu today. Here’s the latest.

Everest

Lakpa Sherpa from 8K Expeditions confirms from Base Camp that this morning between 5 and 6 am, 20 people from his team reached the top of Everest. Among them are leader Yorick Vion and Kasturi Deepak Savekar, a young Indian girl, who also summited Annapurna earlier in the season.

Everest: more summits today. Photo: 8K Expeditions

 

International Mountain Guides also reports that seven of their climbers summited yesterday, including two clients (Kimberly Ann Silloway and George Voitech Pesek) and Sherpas Phunuru, Gyaljen Dorje, Fura Gyalzen, Jambale, and Chhiring Tendi.

Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks confirms that Nayla Nasir Albaloushi of the United Arab Emirates summited today at 8 am. She became the first UAE woman to reach the top of the world.

This morning, Uruguayan Vanessa Estol also became the first woman from her country to summit Everest.

Pasang Phurba Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks on top of a busy Everest. Photo: Seven Summit Treks

 

With her successful ascent, He Jing became the first Chinese woman to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen. Other Seven Summit Treks climbers also topped out, along with 13 Sherpas.

In slightly older news, Full Circle Everest, the all-Black expedition from the U.S., confirmed that eight of its members successfully summited earlier this week, along with at least eight Sherpas.

Some other groups, among them Kenton Cool and his client, are waiting near the South Col to begin their summit push. Abdul Joshi of Pakistan is currently at Camp 3.

Ultrarunner David Nosas on the summit of Lhotse this morning. Photo: David Nosas

 

Lhotse

Several teams also summited Lhotse this morning.

Voitech Pesek and Fura Gyalzen Sherpa of International Mountain Guides reached the top of Lhotse this morning at 7 am just one day after summiting Everest.

Three members of Peak Promotion also summited. Jitendra Gaware and mountain guide Skalzang Rigzin of India, who reportedly also summited Annapurna earlier this season without bottled oxygen, were accompanied by Ngima Dorchi Sherpa.

The Furtenbach Adventures team summited Lhotse this morning after 17 members had summited Everest yesterday. Sophie Lavaud of Switzerland and Dawa Sangay Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks summited as well.

Atop Everest. Photo: International Mountain Guides

 

Domi Trastoy of Andorra even managed to summit without supplementary oxygen. His partner, Catalan ultra trail runner David Nosas, had also intended to go without O2 but finally had to dip into the supplemental oxygen at 7,800m, when he began to have symptoms of cerebral edema. They summited after a very hard seven hours. Their descent was also difficult, according to Nosas, but they have now safely reached Base Camp.

At the moment, there is no news of Szilard Suhajda of Hungary, who is climbing without O2 or personal Sherpa support.

Kangchenjunga

Norwegian Kristin Harila, with 8K Expeditions, summited in Kangchenjunga at 5:30 am local time, together with Dawa Ongju Sherpa and Pasdawa Sherpa. Harila thus has her third 8,000’er within 17 days, after summiting Annapurna on April 28 and Dhaulagiri on May 8. She is trying to summit all 14 8,000’ers within the same year, à la Nirmal Purja.

Kristin Harila of Norway: three 8,000ers within 17 days. Photo:Kristin Harila

 

Jon Gupta says that on May 12 at 8 pm, his entire team of six clients and six Sherpas summited Kangchenjunga.

Hungarian Csaba Varga, without O2 and Sherpa support, turned around at 8,000m, his home team has reported.

Makalu

Topo Mena and his client have summited Makalu. Carla Perez, climbing without O2, turned around at 8,200m on her first summit attempt, at the French Couloir. She still has a nagging altitude cough and will wait until the next weather window to try again.

We reported yesterday on a Mexican couple’s accident. Today, Brazilian guide Carlos Santalena fell into a crevasse at 8,200m but managed to get out of it.

Climbers on Makalu. Photo: Carla Perez

Kris Annapurna

KrisAnnapurna is a writer with ExplorersWeb.

Kris has been writing about history and tales in alpinism, news, mountaineering, and news updates in the Himalaya, Karakoram, etc., for the past year with ExplorersWeb. Prior to that, Kris worked as a real estate agent, interpreter, and translator in criminal law. Now based in Madrid, Spain, she was born and raised in Hungary.