Today for the first time this season, dozens and dozens of the almost 500 clients (and about the same number of Sherpas) have summited Everest. All the big outfitters reported success: Furtenbach Adventures, EliteExped, 8K, Climbing the Seven Summits, Seven Summit Treks, Pioneer Adventure, and others.
It’s too many to keep a reliable count, but the number of summiters on Everest and Lhotse might be over 200 in total.
The reason for the crowds: Some teams that had planned to summit yesterday held off in Camp 4 for a day because of rising winds. Meanwhile, new groups are already on their way up from Camp 4.
Endure long queues or wait?
After the long spell of bad weather that tested everyone’s patience, summit fever has taken hold. Few are willing to bide their time in order to enjoy a quieter climb. Last night, photographer Sandro Gromen-Hayes filmed hundreds of climbers and Sherpas moving up the Lhotse Face by the light of their headlamps. The images suggest how things must have been today on the upper sections of the mountain:
Elia Sikaly commented today that at 6 am, Everest Base Camp looked like a “heli highway.”
Meanwhile, Stefi Troguet will have to shelve her Everest dreams, at least for a while. Today, she was finally airlifted to Kathmandu with symptoms of bronchitis.
“I refused to go down to Kathmandu between rotations, as the other team members did,” she told ExplorersWeb. “I wanted to remain on the mountain all the time, and finally I caught a virus that is making many people sick in Base Camp.”
Adventure Consultants’ team is still in Base Camp but ready to go to Camp 2. Madison Adventure will follow a similar schedule. The good news for them is that the weather is expected to remain good for several more days.
Adventure Consultants members train with their oxygen masks in Base Camp yesterday. Photo. Adventure Consultants/Facebook
Kangchenjunga
All climbers on their summit push are following the rope-fixing team and Kristin Harila’s lead group. Although the winds are currently quite high, everyone hopes to set off from Camp 4 today. Vadim Druelle (no-O2) has gone all the way up from Base Camp in one spurt. He hoped to join the summit group today at Camp 4. At last word, at 6 pm Nepal time, he was taking a break in Camp 3.
Gonzalo Fernandez and Domi Trastoy from Andorra are also with the group bound for the summit. They are climbing without supplementary oxygen or Sherpa support.
Kristin Harila’s track on Kangchenjunga in late evening.
