The first climbers received their Everest permits yesterday, and many more are being issued today to other peaks, mainly Ama Dablam and Annapurna.
The Himalayan Guides team was the first to receive its permits. Its clients hail from the U.S., Australia, Ireland, and the UK. Sirdar Ang Dorjee will try to bag his 23rd Everest summit. Many more Everest permits are coming later this week.
Everest
In Base Camp, the Icefall Doctors are halfway up the Khumbu Icefall and should reach Camp 1 next week. Check the video below of their puja ceremony in Base Camp, filmed by Lakpa Dendi.
Clients won’t arrive at Everest until the second half of April. Many are flying to Nepal this week but will start by acclimatizing on lesser peaks, such as Ama Dablam, Himlung (a new 7,000m favorite), and the ever-popular Island Peak (Imja Tse) and Lobuche East. Both lie on the way to Everest Base Camp and draw both climbers preparing for something higher and trekkers wishing to prove themselves above 6,000m.
Meanwhile, Everest Base Camp throngs with staff preparing the tents for guests and planning to pitch Camps 1 and 2 as soon as the Ice Doctors finish. Many trekkers are also taking their selfies at the new signboard at 5,364m, obscuring the boulder that served as EBC’s landmark for years.
Visitors include more and more families. Some bring their very young children along. An Indian couple showed up last week with their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Siddhi Mishra, as reported by The Himalayan Times.
“EBC is accessible to all,” said her father, Mahim Mishra.
Young Siddhi Mishra with her mom at Everest Base Camp last week. Photo: The Himalayan Times
Other small children have visited Everest Base Camp this season as well. However, the place should not be taken lightly, especially on short trips without much time to acclimatize. Acute Mountain Sickness is common at that altitude and can be serious if not treated quickly.
Annapurna
According to reports, the spring season has begun on Dhaulagiri and especially Annapurna. Nepal’s Department of Tourism has confirmed 26 permits for Annapurna so far, and that will surely not be the final number. Once considered the most dangerous of all the 8,000’ers because of avalanches, it drew teams that climbed as fast and light as possible, with no oxygen and few fixed ropes. It has since become a favorite for commercial teams at the beginning of the season, and many Annapurna clients later attempt a taller peak.
Alli Pepper, for example, plans to climb the 14×8,000’ers without oxygen in three years. She hopes to do Annapurna and move to the next one by mid-April(!) but has only just reached Base Camp with her climbing partner, Seven Summit Treks guide Mikel Sherpa.
The pair acclimatized a little en route by hiking up Sergo Ri (5,080m) in Langtang, but they’ll probably need more for their first 8,000m of the season.
Pepper’s schedule is hectic, as she explained on social media:
“[in 2024, I’ll climb] Annapurna-I, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga, followed by Nanga Parbat and K2 in Pakistan. Then, autumn will see Mikel, Nima, and I [attempting] Shishapangma and Cho Oyu. And the grand finale awaits in 2025, with Gasherbrum-II, Gasherbrum-I, Dhaulagiri, Lhotse, and Everest.”
She did Broad Peak and Manaslu without O2 last year.
Kangchenjunga
Lakpa Sherpa of 8K Expeditions told ExplorersWeb that they will be in charge of fixing the ropes up 8,586m Kangchenjunga. It seems that the world’s third-highest peak will be relatively quiet this spring.
“We have a team of eight clients, and overall, we expect some 30 foreign climbers on [Kangchenjunga] this season,” Lakpa told ExplorersWeb.
8K Expeditions is also fixing the ropes on Ama Dablam, which is becoming more popular as a spring climb. (Previously, almost everyone went there in the fall.) “We have 15 signed up so far,” said Lakpa Sherpa.
Makalu
The rope-fixing team is on the way to Makalu, led by another Lakpa Sherpa, nicknamed Makalu Lakpa. (This one works for Seven Summit Treks.) He intends to summit twice this season, thus bagging his 7th and 8th summits of the fifth-highest peak on Earth.
Stefi Troguet of Andorra says she will climb Makalu — presumably without O2, since that’s how she typically climbs — with the Elite Exped team. She summited K2 without oxygen in 2022 and attempted Everest last year.
