The rope fixers have reached Everest’s Camp 4 and expect to summit tomorrow. A second group of four Sherpas — Dawa Tenjing Sherpa, Pasang Namgyal Sherpa, Tamting Sherpa, and Pemba Tamang — have left to set the route on Lhotse.
Some Everest leaders have revealed their summit strategies. Lukas Furtenbach is sending all his groups up to the summit. Garret Madison, who just arrived in Base Camp after summiting Nuptse earlier this week, prefers to take it slower.
“We are patiently waiting for the winds to drop, the rope fixing to be completed, and other more eager teams to climb during the first weather window before we make our summit push a little later,” he wrote today.
Also, heading up doesn’t always mean non-stop until the summit. Schuyler Evans of Climbing the Seven Summits left Base Camp yesterday but only plans to summit in six days. As we mentioned previously, the current weather window is expected to last at least five days. This lets teams coordinate their pushes somewhat to avoid traffic jams.
Makalu
On Makalu, climbers are ready but summits may take slightly longer. Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan, part of Russia’s Seven Summits Club team, is back from a couple of rest days in Deboche. He noted that Makalu’s Base Camp is too high (5,700m) and too windy to recover properly after rotations up the mountain. The team is now in Base Camp but not for long.
“By May 14 [Sunday], our group will move to Camp 2…We should reach the summit on May 17.”
Makalu Base Camp. Photo: Israfil Ashurli
Cho Oyu
On Cho Oyu, Viridiana Alvarez and her support team should reach Camp 2 today. They will rest there briefly, then set off toward the summit tonight. The wind has dropped, the weekend promises good weather, and they can afford some flexibility. If they don’t summit tomorrow, they can also try for Sunday.
Viridiana Alvarez some days ago at Cho Oyu’s Base camp. Photo: Viridiana Alvarez/Facebook
Dhaulagiri
Dhaulagiri climbers set off yesterday, but at least some of them might change their plans. Uta Ibrahini of Albania-Kosovo, a member of the Seven Summit Treks group, originally said that they planned to reach Camp 2 today, set Camp 3 tomorrow, and summit on Sunday. But then she suddenly wrote that she has decided to retreat from Camp 2 today.
“The weather is great…but something’s missing,” she said cryptically.
There’s no news yet from Polish climbers Oswald Pereira and Bartek Ziemski, who plans to climb and ski down the mountain, or from 84-year-old Carlos Soria.
The view from Camp 2 on Dhaulagiri. Photo: Uta Ibrahini/Facebook
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga climbers are also ready, but perhaps the mountain is not, at least according to Domi Trastoy’s latest post today. He wrote that everyone is acclimatized and ready but is still waiting for a weather window.
