The spring season on Mount Everest is turning into the home stretch. For this Wednesday the possibly last summit day of the season is expected. After that, the weather will probably become more unstable and windy. Traditionally, the season ends at the end of May, only in exceptional cases it is extended by a few days at most. Then the “Icefall Doctors” dismantle the route through the Khumbu Icefall. So far, about 300 summit successes have been reported.
Today Pasang Dawa Sherpa climbed – with bottled oxygen – to the highest point on earth for the second time this spring. This time, the 46-year-old led a client from Hungary to the highest point on earth. With 27 ascents now, he shares the title of man with the most Everest summit successes with Kami Rita Sherpa – but probably only temporarily, as Kami Rita is also on his way to his second ascent this season. It would be his 28th.
Successful trio: Mathieu Maynadier, Roger Schäli, Simon Gietl (from l. to r.)
“Good news, South Face of Meru South Peak is climbed,” Swiss Roger Schäli wrote on Instagram today. “On the second attempt it worked. Big dreams need more than one try!” Schäli, Frenchman Mathieu Maynadier and South Tyrolean Simon Gietl climbed the South Face of the about 6,600-meter-high Meru Peak in India’s Garhwal Himalayas late last week – on a new, challenging route with two bivouacs.
In their first attempt in fall 2019, Schäli and Maynadier – then accompanied by Belgian Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll (he succeeded in a solo ascent of the so-called Fitz Traverse in Patagonia in 2021) – had to turn back at 6,400 meters due to bad weather. This time they were luckier, even though it had snowed heavily during the first phase of the expedition.
Kami Rita Sherpa – climbing Everest again and again
Today, Wednesday, was the most successful summit day of the spring season on Mount Everest so far. According to the newspaper “The Himalayan Times”, more than 100 members of commercial teams reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters. So, it is likely that there was jostling at the summit and also on the route.
For Kami Rita Sherpa, standing on the highest point was routine. The 53-year-old Nepalese led – with bottled oxygen – a billionaire from the US financial sector to the Everest summit. Kami Rita thus stood on the roof of the world for the 27th time, more often than any other person.
They still exist, the ambitious alpinistic projects in the Himalayas, although rarely on the eight-thousanders. Last Friday, the Slovak Peter Hamor, the Slovenian Bojan Jan and the Italian couple Nives Meroi and Romano Benet climbed for the first time the West Face of the 7,318-meter-high Kabru South – “on a new route, without bottled oxygen, without Sherpa support, without high camps, without fixed ropes,” in other words in alpine style, as Hamor’s wife Maria reported from base camp. “Fortunately, the weather improved on the last day (of the climb), and the wind died down.” We’re sure to hear more details in the coming days.
The good weather window over the Himalayas with little wind seems to hold. And accordingly, it is hardly surprising that summit successes from the eight-thousanders are now being reported daily. After on Saturday – as reported – a nine-man team of the operator Imagine Nepal had fixed the ropes up to the summit of Mount Everest, on Sunday and today Monday also the first clients of the commercial teams reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters. Among them was the Pakistani Sajid Ali Sadpara, who climbed without bottled oxygen. For the 25-year-old son of Muhammad Ali Sadpara – the legendary Pakistani climber died on K2 in the winter of 2021 – it was the sixth eight-thousander and the second this spring after Annapurna, which Sajid had also climbed without a breathing mask.
Unbelievable what kind of idiots there are – also on Mount Everest. New Zealander Guy Cotter, head of the commercial expedition operator Adventure Consultants, sounds the alarm. At the last high camp, on the South Col at an altitude of just under 8,000 meters, he says, one of his team’s material stores has been looted.
“We just discovered we’ve had a cache of gear stolen from South Col. Tents, stoves, pots and gas all gone,” Guy wrote on Facebook. “The thieves do not consider the impacts this might have on the safety of our people when they arrive to find this vital equipment gone.”
It was half as long ago as the first ascent of Mount Everest, which this year marks its 70th anniversary. Exactly 35 years ago today, on 12 May 1988, Stephen Venables became the first Briton to reach the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters without bottled oxygen.
Beforehand, he had succeeded together with the Canadian Paul Teare and the two U.S. Americans Robert Anderson and Ed Webster in making the second ascent of the 3,000-meter-high, heavily glaciated and thus avalanche-prone Everest East Face. All four climbed without breathing masks. In 1983, the U.S. climbers Carlos Buhler, Kim Momb and Louis Reichard had mastered the Kangshung Face for the first time – with bottled oxygen.
The first good weather window of the season suitable for summit successes on Mount Everest is shaping up for this weekend. Expedition operator Imagine Nepal, responsible for rope-fixing from Camp 2 at 6,400 meters to the summit at 8,849 meters this season, announced that its Sherpa team will attempt to secure the last remaining section from the South Col at nearly 8,000 meters to the highest point with fixed ropes this weekend. Some commercial teams are in the starting blocks, the first summit wave is emerging.
Forty-five years ago, Everest was still a lonely mountain. A single team led by Austrian Wolfgang Nairz had received permission to climb the highest mountain on earth. The expedition made history: On 8 May 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first humans to reach the summit without bottled oxygen. Three days later – exactly 45 years ago today – Reinhard Karl also stood at the top. He was the first German on the summit of Mount Everest.
Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler proved that it is possible. 45 years ago today, on 8 May 1978, the South Tyrolean and the Austrian became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest at 8,849 meters without bottled oxygen. However, this did not lead to the fact that the highest mountain on earth would have been approached henceforth predominantly without breathing mask. Rather the opposite is the case: The trend is toward the bottle.
Tom Hornbein did not live to see the 60th anniversary of his pioneering feat on Mount Everest. The legendary climber from the USA died yesterday at the age of 92. On 22 May 1963, Tom had written Everest history together with his compatriot Willi Unsoeld. On that day, the two reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 meters – after a groundbreaking ascent.
Bivouac at 8500 meters
They opened – with bottled oxygen – a new, difficult route that has been repeated only seven times to date. First Hornbein and Unsoeld climbed the West Ridge, then traversed into the upper section of North Face , in strong winds. Via a prominent gully, which has since been called “Hornbein Couloir”, the two climbed upwards, traversed back to the West Ridge and finally stood on the summit in the early evening of 22 May.
Tom Hornbein died morning 6 May, at 92. He was a member of the legendary American #Everest Expedition 1963 Together with Willy Unsoeld completed what is still the greatest achievement in mountaineering history; the West Ridge traverse & South Col descenthttps://t.co/lvL9Kjf29cpic.twitter.com/nUulGmlPSM
“Just one week after summitting Shishapangma – a mountain Kristin has never climbed before – Harila reached the summit of Cho Oyu, marking the end of her journey in Tibet,” reports the team of Norwegian Kristin Harila today. “After reaching the top of 12 mountains [higher than 8000 meters] last year, it’s a relief for Harila and her team alike that the two mountains she did not get to summit in 2022 have finally been reached.” Nepalese expedition operator Climbalaya confirmed the Norwegian’s summit success and informed Harila was accompanied by Nepalese guides Ngima Rita Sherpa and Tenjin Sherpa.
The fourth death in the still young spring season is reported from the highest mountain on earth. According to media reports, a 69-year-old retired doctor from the United States, who had ascended to Camp 2 at about 6,400 meters to acclimatize, passed away. He had not felt well when he arrived at the camp and died there a short time later, they said. It is possible that he suffered from high altitude sickness.
70 years after its first ascent, Mount Everest is no longer an exclusive mountain. It has been scaled over 11,000 times since New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the world’s highest point at 8,849 meters on 29 May 1953. For the anniversary year, the Nepalese government has already (as of 28 April) sold more climbing permits to foreign climbers than ever before: 466. So it’s going to be crowded on the normal route through the Khumbu Icefall, the Western Cwm (the “Valley of Silence”), via the Lhotse flank to the South Col at just below 8,000 meters and then up to the summit. Hari Budha Magar has waited a long time to be able to join the ranks of the summit contenders on the highest mountain on earth.
Successful in court
Mount Everest
Five years ago, the Nepalese had already wanted to climb Mount Everest – with bottled oxygen and Sherpa support. But in early 2018, the Nepalese government decided to stop issuing Everest permits to double-amputee climbers, blind people and even solo climbers. Hari, as a soldier in the British Gurkha Regiment, had lost both legs above the knees in a 2010 bomb blast in Afghanistan. Along with others, he sued in the Supreme Court – and succeeded: In March 2018, Nepal’s highest court overturned the controversial rule.
Mont Blanc, Kilimanjaro, Mera Peak
Hari in the Khumbu Icefall
Hari postponed his plan to 2019, later to 2020. Then the COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner in his works. Now everything – including funding – is finally falling into place for him, so he wants to put his plan to climb Mount Everest into action this spring. In the meantime, the Nepalese has stood on the summits of Mont Blanc (4,810 m), Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) and Mera Peak (6,476 m), among others. Hari climbed the latter mountain in Nepal (with his helpers) on 16 April for the second time after 2017 – to acclimatize for Everest.
“I hope my journey of this expedition will send hope, positive vibes and optimism around the world,” Hari wrote on Instagram yesterday from Everest Base Camp. The 42-year-old is upfront about his disability: “If I had the opportunity to bring my legs back today, I would actually decline. It was only after losing them that I found my true self, the real Hari Budha Magar.”
20 Everest summit successes by handicapped people
The number of disabled climbers on Everest is statistically negligible. By 2022, according to the Himalayan Database, a total of only 34 climbers (one of them a woman) with handicap had attempted to scale the highest mountain on earth – with all types of disabilities being grouped together here. 20 of them reached the summit, the most recent being Andrea Lanfri, an double amputee climber from Italy, in spring 2022. It goes without saying that the disabled climbers needed the support of others. But after all, that is now the case for almost all summit aspirants on Mount Everest.
The Climbalaya team that climbed Shishapangma (in the background).
“We have finally reached the summit of Shishapangma in Tibet, it’s been a very very long and hard way up here. I’m very happy,” Kristina Harila told her team back home via satellite phone after reaching the highest point of the mountain located in Tibet at 8,027 meters today.
It was the 13th eight-thousander for the 37-year-old Norwegian. In 2022, she had had to abandon her plan to climb all 14 eight-thousanders – with bottled oxygen, Sherpa support, on the normal routes – in the same year. The Sino-Tibetan authorities had closed Shishapangma and Cho Oyu to foreign climbers because of the COVID-19 pandemic and made no exception for Harila. This year, she plans to attempt her project again – in her own words, without bottled oxygen, in less than six months. It is not yet known whether she climbed without a breathing mask on Shishapangma.
Mount Everest remains a crowd puller. Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism issued permits for 454 foreign climbers to the world’s highest mountain so far this spring season (as of 21 April) – already more than ever before. Most of them come from China (96), the second most from the USA (87). Since a permit costs $11,000, this has already flushed around five million U.S. dollars into the Nepalese government’s coffers.
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