Upper slopes on Cho Oyu

The good news first: The finished spring season in the Himalayas has shown that coordinated rescue operations for climbers in serious trouble are also possible in Tibet. For example, the Chinese authorities even allowed the use of Nepalese rescue helicopters in the case of the Bulgarian Boyan Petrov, missing on the eight-thousander Shishapangma. At the same time, a team consisting of three Sherpas and three Chinese climbers, was searching for Boyan directly on the mountain’s slopes. Unfortunately in vain. But the cooperation between Nepalese and Tibetan rescuers could have set standards for the future. Also on the 8,188-meter high Cho Oyu, a three-person Chinese-Tibetan rescue team was deployed immediately after an emergency call. Now for the bad news: As with Petrov, there was no happy ending in this case too. And the world hasn’t heard about it either –till today.

“His body is still there”

Atanas Skatov on Cho Oyu

The Bulgarian climber Atanas Skatov informed me that a South Korean member of his team died in Camp 1 on 15 May. Skatov had climbed Cho Oyu on 13 May without bottled oxygen – for the 40-year-old it was his sixth of the 14 eight-thousanders. Like him, the young Korean was a member of the team of the Nepalese expedition operator “Satori”, wrote Atanas. “I was the last person to talk with him on 14 May at 1 pm in Camp 2 at 7,150 meters.” At that time, the Korean was in good shape and said that he wanted to follow Skatov to Camp 1 later. According to Atanas, however, he did not arrive there. The team’s expedition cook then alerted the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA). That same evening, three rescuers arrived and ascended to Camp 2 on 15 May. Skatov had already gone to the Tibetan city of Tingri at that time. “In the evening I was informed that the rescuers had found the Korean in Camp 2 and helped him to descend to Camp 1. That’s where he died. And his body is still there,” wrote Skatov.

Expedition operator confirms the reports

R.I.P.

A French climber largely confirmed this information to Billi Bierling from the chronicle “Himalayan Database”: the Korean had been “very unwell” and “apparently” had died in Camp 1 on 15 May. At that time, the German expedition leader Felix Berg of the operator “Summit Climb” was already on his return journey after his summit success (also without bottled oxygen). But his group had also met the Korean on the mountain. “When we came down from the summit, he turned around at about 7,850 meters,” Felix wrote to me. Later it was said that the Korean was still in Camp 2, two versions were circulating: He had run out of strength and had problems to descend. The other one, according to Felix, was: “He wants to make another summit attempt – without descent!” I have asked the expedition operator Satori several times for a comment and today finally got a reply: The 28-year-old Korean Park Shin-yong had passed away on Cho Oyu on 16 May, Rishi Bhandari, head of the company, wrote to me: “We are unable to save him because he was so weak and tired.”

North side of Mount Everest

Stricter waste rules apply immediately on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest. “With the number of climbers is increasing rapidly, more and more waste is produced by climbers in mountaineering activities,” says a statement from the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) to the expedition organizers I have received. “Protecting the ecological environment it’s our duty and obligation, also benefit our next generations.” In May 2017, workers and volunteers had collected on behalf of the Tibetan authorities four tons of garbage at altitudes between 5,200 and 6,500 meters on Everest.

Eight kilograms of garbage per climber

Garbage collection on the Everest south side

Starting from this year, each expedition group has to pay a garbage deposit fee of US $ 5,000. The expeditions are obliged to bring back eight kilograms of waste per climber from the high camps back to the base camp. For every kilo less $ 20 will be charged, for every kilo more ten dollars credited. At the end of the expedition, this will be offset against the previously deposited amount. From now on it is also only allowed to leave prayer flags on the summit when old flags of the same length are brought down. This should be supervised by the liaison officer in the base camp, it said.

Permits only to renowned operators?

The CTMA had announced to revise the mountaineering rules for expeditions. It was expected that also the rules for commercial operators in terms of safety and climbing style would be tightened. This reform is still pending, discussions within the CTMA are still ongoing. Well-informed sources say that the Tibetan-Chinese authorities are considering, among other things, reducing the number of expeditions in Tibet in the coming years and issuing permits only to experienced and renowned operators.

Janusz Adamski

This was not a good week for Janusz Adamski. First, the Nepalese government seized his passport and informed the Pole that he would be not allowed to enter Nepal for mountaineering in the next ten years. And now, the Chinese authorities made the 48-year-old the scapegoat for not issuing any permits next fall for the three eight-thousanders in Tibet. Adamski, who “illegally” scaled Mount Everest from the north side and then traversed to the south side on 21 May, was responsible that the rules and regulations had to be “adjusted and improved”, informed the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA). To ensure that the problems were solved in time by 2018, there would be no climbing permits for fall 2017, said the CTMA.

Moro also without permit for his Everest traverse

Janusz points to Mount Everest

Adamski did not have an Everest permit from the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism, but only a CTMA permit allowing him to ascend and descend via the Tibetan north route. After his descent from the summit on the Nepali south side, the Pole said that neither the authorities in China nor those in Nepal issued permits for a cross-border summit traverse. “It is not the climbers’ fault that the officials are not interested in issuing such permits,” Adamski wrote on Facebook and recalled Simone Moro’s Everest traverse in 2006, also without permit.

In fact, the Italian had tried in vain for years to obtain an approval for his project from the Chinese authorities. Simone had ascended with a Nepali permit on the south side and descended to Tibet. Later Moro told the Chinese authorities that he had lost the way and run out of oxygen on the summit. And when he had realized he was missing the way, Simone said to the liaison officers, he had been already too low to go back. Moro got away with a fine for an illegal climb.

Negotiations are possible

Nobukazu Kuriki

But there have also been “legal” Everest traverses with permits, e.g. in 2007 by the British David Tait and the Sherpa Phurba Tashi. And also the Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki proved in the just finished Everest spring season that it is possible to negotiate with the authorities. Originally, the 34-year-old had planned to climb from the Tibetan side via the North Face to the summit. But then he changed his plan: Nobukazu ascended from the Nepali south side to the West Ridge, from where he wanted to cross into the North Face. In the end, it did not happen. However, the Japanese returned to his home country without having got any problems with the Chinese or Nepali authorities.

Indications for the decision already in March

But is Adamski’s illegal traverse really the reason for the cancellation of the fall season on the Tibetan eight-thousanders? I think it is more of a pretext for the Chinese authorities. As early as mid-March it was clear that they would not issue any permits for Everest and Shishapangma, and probably only about 50 for Cho Oyu. “Obviously there will be a kind of event in Tibet this fall. The Chinese are afraid that there may be unrest and therefore want as few foreigners staying in Tibet as possible,” told me then Dominik Mueller, head of the German expedition operator Amical alpin. At that time, hardly anyone outside Poland was aware that the first Polish Everest traverse was planned. Janusz Adamski, by the way, informed on Facebook today that he had agreed not to speak in public about the accusations against him until his departure from Nepal.

Mount Everest

No mercy for Everest cheaters. According to the Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times” a three-member investigation commission recommended that the Nepalese government should withdraw the summit certificates of the Indian climbers Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod and forbid the couple to go to Nepal for mountaineering for at least ten years. It is seen as a formality that Tourism Ministery will nod the recommendation through.

Liaison officers not in Base Camp

Real (1,2) and fake (3,4) (© The Himalayan Times)

The commission considered it proven that the Rathods – as reported before – had manipulated the summit pictures of another Indian mountaineer with an image-editing program to prove their own summit success. The two Sherpas who had accompanied the Indian couple during the ascent, are also to be removed from the list of this year’s Everest summiters. In the course of the scandal it had been made public that 15 of 32 Nepalese liaison officers who had been deployed for last spring’s Everest expeditions had not even been at Base Camp which, however, had not prevented them from rubberstamping summit successes. But it’s not really surprising that every second liaison officer collected his pay but stayed absent from the expedition. This has been rather common practice in Nepal for years.

Negligent handling also in China

The lax handling of Everest summit certificates is by the way not a purely Nepalese phenomenon. In the high mountaineering scene the China Tibet Mountaineering Association has also the reputation of certifying summit successes too negligent. Maybe in the not too distant future the idea of ​​German mountaineer and Everest chronicler Billi Bierling will become reality that summit aspirants on the highest mountain on earth – like already now long-distance runners or participants of open cycling races – are equipped with electronic chips. But as is well known, chips can be hacked too.

Update 17 November: The Indian police has suspended Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod because of their Everest cheating. Both had been working for the police in the town of Pune.

South side of Mount Everest (l.) at first light

Bad news is good news, learns every prospective journalist. But actually it also can be good news, if there is no bad one. This spring, this applies particularly to Mount Everest, after the disasters of the past two years. In spring 2014, the season on the Nepalese side ended prematurely, after an ice avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall had killed 16 Nepali climbers. 2015 even turned out to be a year without summit success on both sides of the mountain due to the devastating earthquake in Nepal. On the south side, 19 people lost their lives, when the quake triggered an avalanche that hit the Base Camp. Later all climbers departed. On the north side, the Chinese authorities closed all eight-thousanders after the earthquake in the neighboring country. This year, in my view, the Everest season is running so far largely normal.

Rope-fixing team soon on the top?

North side of Everest in the last daylight

On the Nepalese side of Everest, Climbing Sherpas have prepared the route up to a point just below the 7,900-meter-high South Col. They had to interrupt their work because of smaller avalanches in the Lhotse flank. Some commercial teams have meanwhile stayed overnight in Camp 3 at about 7,000 meters for further acclimatization. On the Tibetan north side, the rope-fixing team of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) has reached an altitude of about 8,200 meters on the Northeast Ridge. The team “hope to go to the summit on the 5th”, American climber Adrian Ballinger wrote on Instagram yesterday. On the south side, it’s expected by next week that the rope-fixing Sherpas will reach the summit.

Not unusual

Anything else? The Nepalese newspaper “The Himalayan Times” reports that so far 17 foreign and ten Nepalese mountaineers had to be flown out from Base Camp because they showed symptoms of HAPE and HACE. These figures seem to be spectacular at first glance, but are likely to be on average of a normal Everest season. On the south side, there are some complaints about the work of the Climbing Sherpas, but this also happens time and again. Lastly, the media excitement about helicopter tourist flights over the Khumbu Icefall is understandable and justified. But that the topic receives so much attention at all, shows that the real climbing season on Everest has been running so far without major incidents. And that’s good news, right?

Tyler Armstrong (at the foot of Aconcagua in 2013)

For once, I must compliment the Chinese. The country’s authorities refused Tyler Armstrong the permit for climbing Mount Everest. As reported, the now 12-year-old American wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world from the Tibetan north side this spring. Tyler and his parents had hoped to get a “special permit” – as already in 2012 for the ascent of Kilimanjaro (5895 m, highest mountain in Africa) and in 2013 for Aconcagua (6962 m, highest peak in South America). But this time the Chinese stood firm. From my point of view, it’s a victory for common sense. Everest is no place for children, no matter how fit they are.

Two 13-year-old in the record lists

Jordan Romero (in 2010)

In 2010, the 13-year-old US boy Jordan Romero had reached the summit of Everest becoming the youngest climber ever on the highest of all mountains to date. In response to the global criticism of the teenager’s ascent, the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) had announced in the summer of 2010 that in future Everest permits would be granted only to climbers older than 18 years. However, four years later, they had let the Indian Malavath Poorna on the mountain. She was only a month older than Romero and became at the age of 13 years and eleven months the youngest girl ever who stood on the roof of the world.

Armstrong: “Really bumped out”

The refusal of an Everest permit came a few weeks ago, Tyler said: “I was really bummed out because I did so much training and I felt I was really prepared.” In August 2015, Armstrong had scaled the 5642-meter-high Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain, his third of the “Seven Summits”. Despite the decision of the Chinese authorities, Tyler has not given up his plan to become the youngest Everest summiter. He says that he is going to climb more high mountains, for example in in Peru, “to help the Chinese think like ‘This kid is ready. We should let him on the mountain.’” In May 2017, Armstrong – with then 13 years and four months – would still be the youngest Everest summiter ever. If he will reach the highest point and descend safely. And if the Chinese or Nepalese will give in on the subject of Everest age limit. Hopefully not!

Nepalese south side of Mount Everest

The Base Camps on both sides of Mount Everest have got empty eleven days after the devastating earthquake in Nepal. The climbers are on their way back. What about their permits, after they could not even make a single attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth? In Nepal, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) has requested the government to extend this year’s permits until 2016.

Risk too high

The SPCC is responsible for the Sherpa team setting up and maintaining the route through the Khumbu Icefall. The committee defended its decision not to send the “Icefall Doctors” back to the Base Camp. The earthquake on 25 April had triggered an avalanche from Pumori, which had killed 19 people at Base Camp. “The risk of setting a route in the current situation cannot be taken”, the SPCC’s statement says. In addition, the window of time until the start of the monsoon was now too narrow. And “many of the Icefall Doctors as well as the local support staff in the remaining expedition teams have suffered family deaths or injuries”, tells the SPCC.

Government is considering

The permits in Nepal are valid until end of May. Those responsible in Kathmandu are keeping a low profile on the matter. “The government will study whether it would be better to refund their money [11,000 US $ per expedition member] or extend the climbing permit validity”, said Tulsi Prasad Gautam, director general of the Department of Tourism. That would take at least two months. After the spring season 2014 on Everest had ended prematurely due to the avalanche disaster with 16 deaths, the authorities had extended the permits until 2019 – however, this decision had taken eleven months.

China reacts unbureaucratic

Tibetan north side of Everest

How to act quickly and without bureaucracy, the Chinese authorities have shown us – so far not just known for such behavior. After they had stopped all activities on the Tibetan mountains last week, they announced that the permits for Everest and the two other Tibetan eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Shishapangma would remain valid for three years. Only an additional fee of 500 or 300 dollars will have to be paid. The expeditions also received a statement in which the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) informed about the reasons to cancel the season: “The devastating earthquake changes the structure of ice and snow of the whole Himalaya, it becomes unstable and dangerous, avalanches occur at any time. More aftershocks continue, extreme weather and secondary disasters will follow up, it significantly increases the risk of montaineering.” Many Sherpa guides were eager to return to Nepal, the CTMA added and said that the decision to end the season also showed the “respect to the dead people” on the south side of Mount Everest.

The Potala Palace in Lhasa

China shows its friendly face. For 10 May, the Chinese government is planning “to provide a charter flight free of charge form Lhasa to Kathmandu for all Sherpas – not just for Climbing Sherpas, but also for cooks and kitchen helpers”, Ralf Dujmovits wrote to me calling it “a generous gesture” – despite  the expected propaganda of the Chinese. The most successful German mountaineer arrived in Lhasa, like many other western climbers who were on expedition in Tibet. “The China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) generously bears the costs of transport to Lhasa, accommodation and meals. And they take care of the visa formalities for the stranded climbers coming from all Tibetan peaks”, the 53-year-old said. The land route from Tibet to Nepal is still blocked nine days after the devastating earthquake. Since yesterday, Chinese helpers are trying to clear the damaged road from the Nepalese border village Kodari to Kathmandu, using heavy equipment.

Boulders as large as rooms

ABC on the north side of Everest before China closed the mountain

Originally, Ralf wanted to climb Everest from the north without bottled oxygen, along with the Canadian climber Nancy Hansen. When the earth shook in Nepal, they were just above Chinese Base Camp at 5,200 meters. “We ran for our lives, when boulders as big as rooms crashed down from the moraine hills”, Ralf wrote. Four days later, when the Chinese authorities finally closed all Tibetan mountains because they considered the risk of further quakes to be too great, Ralf and Nancy were already in the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,400 meters. Then they returned immediately. “The probably best way to describe our and my own mood is calling it ‘emptiness’”, says Ralf. “Thousands of people have died on both sides of the Himalayan main ridge, tens of thousands are homeless, and those who survived are facing great distress and incalculable misery. Thus Nancy and I don’t want to breathe a single word about disappointment. We had hopes and dreams – and primarily we escaped with our lives (on the north side of Everest).” Dominik Mueller, head of the German expedition operator Amical alpin, reported on Facebook that a big avalanche released from the North Col on Saturday: “It was right to cancel all activities.”

Still many missing

Dujmovits and Hansen are going to fly from Lhasa to Kathmandu. Ralf wants to see for himself the scale of the damage in Sindhupalchowk district which is located in the east of the Nepalese capital. Along with the German aid organisation “Nepalhilfe Beilngries”, he had founded two schools in the area a few years ago. “Reportedly they either were severely damaged or destroyed”, Ralf wrote. This region, including the Langtang National Park, was hit by the earthquake particularly hard. To date, the Nepalese government has registered more than 2,800 dead in the district. Several hundred people are still missing. Among them are numerous trekking tourists, also from Germany. Overall, the death toll in Nepal has been rising to more than 7,300.

North side of Everest

He cannot just carry on as if nothing had happened, says Dominik Mueller. The head of the German expedition operator Amical alpin today abandoned his expedition on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest – after consultation with his clients, who according to Dominik also did not want to continue. “When I look in the faces of our cook, the kitchen boys and all the other Sherpas here, I cannot climb on in good conscience”, Dominik tells me by phone from the “Chinese Base Camp” at 5,150 meters, where according to his estimate are still 250 to 300 climbers and staff. The team’s cook has lost his house in Kathmandu, many others have not even been able to contact their families. “We can not sit here on a beautiful island and make for love, peace and harmony while there are thousands of deaths around us.”

A text message, not an official document

Dominik Mueller

There is still confusion about whether the Everest is now definitely closed, says Dominik: “This morning Thomas Laemmle, our expedition leader on Cho Oyu, received a call from the Chinese authorities that all Tibetan mountains were closed from 9 a.m and that the spring season was over.” Then Dominik sent a request to the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) whether this was also definitely true for Everest. “I received a text message: Everest is closed”, says the 44-year-old. “But there is no liaison officer or anyone else here at Base Camp who has an official document or who says: Yes, it is definitely closed.We are in limbo.” During the meetings, the Chinese officials mainly referred to the risk of aftershocks, says Dominik. They told the expedition leaders that the quake had torn new crevasses and that the North Col was very dangerous this year.

Dujmovits in Advanced Base Camp

Dominik says, the team of Chinese climbers that was to fix ropes on the normal route left Base Camp and was taken to lower villages – for him another sign that climbing will not continue on the north side of Everest. “If the authorities would really see a chance to climb on, the fixrope team would still be here and would be sent to ABC (Advanced Base Camp) to wait there for a few days.” Mueller expects that the whole mountain infrastructure will be taken back. Ralf Dujmovits, so far the only German mountaineer who climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, is staying at the 6,200-meter-high ABC. Ralf had reached the camp before the Chinese authorities ordered most of the climbers to return.

Way back to Nepal cut off

Mueller’s clients will travel back to Germany via Lhasa and Beijing at the beginning of May. Dominik himself want to stay with the Sherpas of his team at Base Camp. “It’s about the Sherpas and their families,” says Dominik. “They have supported us so often. Therefore it is for me a matter of course to stay with them in this difficult situation and to ensure that they come home.” According to his information, the way from Tibet to Kathmandu is still cut off.

Everest North

It is time to look to the north side of Mount Everest. After the early end of the spring season on the Nepalese south side because of the avalanche accident in the Khumbu Icefall with 16 dead, everything is proceeding on schedule on the Tibetan side of Everest. About 100 climbers have got a permit of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) to climb on the north side of the highest mountain in the world. The members of an expedition from Malta have already climbed to Camp 2 on 7500 meters by mid-week. “We need to wait for our summit window”, expedition leader Greg Attard reported. “The team is performing very well. Everyone is exhausted but excited and in good health.”

Tibetans fix ropes up to the summit

There are also Nepalese Sherpas working for the teams on the north side. So far there is no evidence that they would return to their home prematurely because of the avalanche disaster on Good Friday. In contrast to the south side they are not responsible for preparing the normal route up to the summit. This job is done by a team of young Tibetans who were trained at the “Tibet Mountaineering Guide School” in Lhasa. Alex Abramov is leading the Russian “7 Summits Club” expedition, which is, in his words, with 19 members the largest on the north side. From the Advanced Base Camp at 6400 meters Abramov is spreading optimism: “All is perfect, the weather is nice, the sun shines, just in the afternoon it sometimes snows.”