The Central Peak is not the main summit of Shishapangma. Climbers and expedition operators who tackle this eight-thousander in Tibet should know this. The Central Peak is at 8,008 meters. From there, the normal route continues over a ridge to the 19 meter higher main summit at 8,027 meters. Only when this is reached, Shishapangma is officially considered as scaled. Many are not too particular about this rule. And so the news was premature that a Chinese expedition had scaled Shishapangma on 29 September and that Luo Jing was the first woman from the “Middle Kingdom” to complete the 14 eight-thousanders. Just a few days later, a Basque mountaineer, who had ascended the same day, piped up and said that nobody had climbed the ridge to the main summit due to bad weather. “They were clearly only on the Central Peak,” tells me Eberhard Jurgalski, German chronicler of mountaineering in the Himalayas and Karakorum, who had received a video of the Chinese group from their turning point. “Luo Jing has already admitted this publicly.”

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The Everest wave rolls, at least on the Tibetan north side of the mountain. According to an Indian operator, six clients of their commercial expedition team reached the summit on Saturday, accompanied by ten Sherpas. Among those who stood on the highest point on 8,850 meters was reportedly also Lhakpa Sherpa. It was her eighth summit success on the highest mountain on earth. The 43-year-old Nepalese who lives in the USA remains the woman with the most Everest ascents. Other commercial expeditions have started their first summit attempt.

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