Ascent on Cho Oyu

After yesterday’ first summit success of this fall season on Manaslu, the spell has apparently broken on the eight-thousander Cho Oyu in Tibet too. Two US operators reported that their teams had reached the highest point at 8,188 meters today. “Cho Oyu Team just checked in from the top of the sixth highest peak in the world,” Mountain Madness wrote on Twitter. The expedition operator Climbing the Seven Summits also declared: “We are thrilled to announce the entire CTSS team is currently standing on the summit of Cho Oyu in perfect weather.” Probably Tendi Sherpa was also among today’s summiteers. The 34-year-old (whom I had met in Kathmandu last march) accompanies the expedition as their Sirdar, the head of the Sherpa crew. Tendi had reported on “pretty good mountain conditions” after their first ascents to the high camps for acclimatization. Yesterday the American operator International Mountain Guides had announced on Twitter that the rope fixing team had reached the summit plateau, adding that a couple teams were “in position to summit”.

South side of Mount Everest

The spell is broken. For the first time this spring, climbers have scaled the summit of Mount Everest also from the Nepalese south side of the mountain. An employee of the Ministry of Tourism informed from the Base Camp that today 14 climbers reached the highest point on 8,850 meters. The route is now secured up to the summit with fixed ropes. According to consistent reports three members of an expedition of the British Gurkha military brigade were among the successful climbers.

Hundreds are waiting for their summit chance

A first attempt by a Sherpa team to fix ropes up to the summit had failed last week due to bad weather. On the south side about 375 foreign mountaineers and as many local climbers await their summit chance. On the Tibetan north side, the first climbers of this spring season had already reached the highest point on Friday and Saturday. Some 170 climbers from abroad have got a climbing permit from the Chinese authorities.

North side of Mount Everest

The ropes are fixed up to the summit of Mount Everest – at least on the north side of the highest mountain on earth. On Thursday, according to consistent reports, nine Sherpas of an Indian team, responsible for securing the normal route on the Tibetan side, reached the highest point at 8,850 meters. The Nepalese operator Arun Treks, who had organized the expedition, dedicated these first ascents of the Everest season to the Swiss climber Ueli Steck, who had fallen to death on Nuptse on 30 April.

Summit, pre-summit or even below?

Meanwhile, the situation on Makalu remains confused. Who was how far up? On Wednesday – as reported – some teams had reported summit successes on the fifth highest mountain on earth. The German climber Thomas Laemmle, who is staying in the Advanced Base Camp after he had canceled his own summit attempt, wrote on Facebook, these were “fake news”: “So far nobody summited Makalu this season! Not even the fore-summit was reached due to lack of 100m fixed rope.”

Elisabeth Revol on Makalu

The Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol had informed via Facebook: “We stopped at the antecime (pre-summit). To the main summit too much snow, wind patches and too much wind. We were only 3 without oxygen on 20 climbers.“ I asked her via email whether this applied to all of the 20 climbers she had mentioned. “Yes, everyone turned back on antecime … not safe to climb,” Elisabeth replied.

On Thursday, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese expedition operator Dreamers Destination, announced: “We are now on Makalu summit. Clear weather and great view.” On 30 April on Dhaulagiri, the 31-year-old Mingma had succeeded the first summit success on an eight-thousander this spring, along with two more Sherpas and two clients. If his success on Makalu is confirmed, it is Mingma’s tenth eight-thousander. Only on Mount Everest, which he has climbed already five times, he used bottled oxygen.

Mount Everest

A solitary summit experience is different. Gyanendra Shrestha from the Nepalese Tourism Ministry told the Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times” that about 150 climbers had reached the 8850-meter-high summit of Mount Everest since the morning. The number would probably increase to more than 200 during the day. After the strong wind had calmed down, many teams set off from South Col on the Nepalese side of the mountain. The numerous summit successes on Everest were overshadowed by a fatality on the neighboring mountain Lhotse.

According to the expedition operator Aun Treks, Ang Furba Sherpa fell down the Lhotse flank to his death. He belonged to a team of six Sherpas who were securing the route on the 8516-meter-high Lhotse with fixed ropes.

On the north side of Everest, the first summit successes are expected soon. The rope-fixing team of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association was on the last slopes below the summit, American climber Adrian Ballinger wrote on Twitter.

South side of Mount Everest

The workers were the first. Today nine Sherpas reached the summit of Mount Everest, as first climbers this spring, said Ang Tshering Sherpa, President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA). The Sherpas belonged to a team including members of several expedition operators, which fixed ropes up to the highest point at 8,850 meters. It was the first summit success on the Nepalese side of Everest since 2013.

Two seasons ended prematurely

I deliberately ignore the alleged success of Chinese Wang Jing and her Sherpa team on 23 May 2014. She had been flown by helicopter to Camp 2. That spring, the season had ended prematurely, after an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall had killed 16 Nepalese climbers. In 2015 a huge avalanche which was triggered from the nearby seven-thousander Pumori by the devastating 25 April earthquake had hit Everest Base Camp and killed 19 people. After that all expeditions had departed.

Way is paved

After the Sherpas have now prepared the normal route on the south side up to the summit, the way for the members of the commercial expeditions is paved. Several teams want to take the very the first good weather window for a summit attempt. It is due to open from Saturday to Monday.