The weather has remained good for several days on Annapurna. A few teams followed the rope fixers at the beginning of the week, and many others followed them as the snow settled.
With the route open to 6,800m — almost Camp 4 — by dusk today, outfitters such as Seven Summit Treks and Pioneer Adventure point to this Saturday-Monday as summit time.
Imagine Nepal’s leader Mingma G flew to the mountain two days ago to lead his team. Hopefully, they will set up Camp 4 and fix the final couloir to the summit ridge tomorrow. That way, if the weather continues good, some climbers could follow the fixers to the summit on Saturday.
We will also keep watch on skier Bartek Ziemski, who aims to ski from the summit of Annapurna, filmed by Oswaldo Pereira.
Can you spot Bartek Ziemski (in red) on Annapurna? Photo: Oswald Rodrigo Pereira
A tough way ahead
Nepal’s Department of Tourism has issued 54 Annapurna permits to foreigners so far. Each of them climbs with at least one supporting Sherpa. This makes for a massive push. Hopefully, teams will distribute themselves well on the mountain to avoid crowding.
Note that one of the rope fixers is not a Sherpa but Pakistan’s Sajid Sadpara.
It’s been a challenging season on Annapurna. Excess of fresh snow and tough conditions at the serac-filled sections between Camp 2 and Camp 3 have prompted the teams to take extra risks. Twice in the last month, a summit push was announced and then delayed.
An avalanche swept a section of the route some weeks ago. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the route had to be refixed. Now, conditions seem finally to align with the climbers’ goals. Remains for them to cover the long, hard way to the top.
