Third time is a charm? According to the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua, a team of the Chinese expedition on the Tibetan north side of the mountain set off again yesterday, Sunday, from the Advanced Base Camp at 6,500 meters towards the summit of Mount Everest. If this time the weather and conditions on the mountain play along, the climbers would reach the highest point on earth at 8,850 meters on Wednesday. The first two attempts had failed due to bad weather and high avalanche danger. On 12 May, the team that fixed the ropes via the Northeast Ridge turned back at 8,600 meters, on 21 May they reached an altitude of 8,000 meters.
Some days ago Dulal Tanka sent me new pictures of the school in Thulosirubari, 70 kilometers east of Kathmandu, which could be built with your donations for our aid project “School up!”. In the meantime the outside facilities have also been completed: The schoolyard is flattened, small beds have been planted. It has become a real jewel, “our” school.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your great support, without which the project could never have been successfully completed after the devastating earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. A big thank you also to my friends, the Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and the German climber Ralf Dujmovits, who had the staying power needed for an action like ours. And of course also to Nepalhilfe Beilngries and their local liaison men, Sunil Shrestha and Shyam Pandit, who did an incredibly good job.
Especially now, in times of the corona lockdown, my thoughts are often with the people in Thulosirubari. My heart is there anyway. This little video (all recordings were made before the corona pandemic) is a greeting from and to Thulosirubari.
This time the point of return was at about 8,000 meters. The climbers, who have been fixing the ropes for the Chinese expedition on Mount Everest via the Northeast Ridge towards the summit, had to turn back today. Deep snow and also rockfall stopped them, a representative of the Chinese mountaineering authority said.
According to his words, the team was exhausted and decided to return to Advanced Base Camp at 6,500 meters. The climbers had spent the night in Camp 2 at 7,950 meters.
As in spring on the eight-thousanders in Nepal and Tibet, it will probably be lonely on the mountain giants of Pakistan this summer. Most of the expedition operators from abroad have already canceled their trips to the Karakoram planned for this summer or at least put them on the back burner. For example, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the operator Imagine Nepal, announced that their expedition to K2 would be postponed until 2021 due to the uncertain situation caused by the Corona pandemic.
The expedition operator Summit Climb also canceled the expeditions to K2 and the eight-thousanders Gasherbrum I and II originally scheduled for this summer. Summit Climb expedition leader Felix Berg gave me a few reasons: “Who is allowed to travel from where, quarantine on return, some members are no longer mentally prepared, we would have to get Sherpas from Nepal to Pakistan – this cannot be achieved with six weeks’ notice in Pakistan.” No matter who you talk to, the flight problem and the uncertainty of the clients is pointed out again and again – and of course the number of infections.
The second half will have to wait. Actually, Sergi Mingote had planned to continue his ambitious project this spring: all 14 eight-thousanders without bottled oxygen in 1,000 days. But the corona pandemic put a spoke in the wheels of the 49-year-old Spaniard. Instead of climbing mountains in Nepal, Sergi had to stay at home in the small town of Parets del Valles near Barcelona – with extremely limited freedom of movement, like all people in the country that was particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
It took Sergi only 444 days to scale the first seven eight-thousanders without breathing mask. In 2018, the Catalan summited Broad Peak, K2 and Manaslu, in 2019 Lhotse, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum II and Dhaulagiri. Actually the ascent of Mount Everest was scheduled as the end of Sergi’s project for May 2021. Mingote has already scaled the highest mountain on earth twice, both times with breathing mask: in 2001 via the Tibetan north side of the mountain, in 2003 via the Nepalese south side. He must now revise his timetable.
Sergi, Spain had one of the strictest curfews in the world due to the corona pandemic. How did you cope with that?
Actually seven climbers from the team of the Chinese expedition operator Yarla Shampo wanted to fix the ropes up to the summit of Mount Everest at 8,850 meters today. However, according to information from Tibet, nothing came of it. The wind blew too strong over the highest mountain on earth. According to Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who has close contacts with the Chinese expedition, the team turned back at 8600 meters. The climbers had spent the last night in Camp 3 at 8,300 meters. For Wednesday the meteorologists expect even higher wind speeds.
Everest legend Apa Sherpa worries about the people in his home village Thame during the corona crisis. “If the fall season is canceled and they run out of little saving that they have, I am not sure what will happen,” writes the 60-year-old, who reached the summit of Mount Everest a total of 21 times by the end of his career in 2011. “The only source of income for most people in the region is tourism, so if no tourists come, things might turn out bad. I hope that is not the case.”
Apa Sherpa (in 2013)
Apa lives with his family in Salt Lake City in the USA. With his foundation he supports the people in the Everest region, also in Thame, where he recently had funds distributed to ensure basic supplies. Many Climbing Sherpas, who earn their money on the highest mountain on earth, traditionally come from this village. Among them is the current Everest record holder Kami Rita Sherpa, who has scaled the summit 24 times so far. “The situation in Thame so far is good,” says Apa Sherpa. The emphasis is on so far, because the corona crisis is still going on.
Food aid for the poorest has begun
Mingma Norbu Sherpa, CEO of the Himalayan Trust in Nepal, is also worried about next fall season. The aid organization was founded 60 years ago by Sir Edmund Hillary, who made the first ascent of Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. The organization has financed numerous schools, hospitals and other infrastructure projects in the Khumbu region (see video below). By the way, the German section of the Himalayan Trust celebrates its 30th birthday in 2020.
Mingma Norbu, how is the mood among the people in the Khumbu region?
The mountaineers of the Chinese expedition on the north side of Mount Everest must train themselves in patience. The clients of the operator Yarla Shampo are currently staying in the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,500 meters, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, who is in contact with members of the team, informs me. In the course of further acclimatization, he said, a night on the North Col and an ascent up to 7,500 meters is planned – if conditions permit. Currently, the avalanche danger seems to be too great. According to Mingma, the mountaineers who secure the route to the summit with fixed ropes and who already reached an altitude of 8,300 meters, have descended to the ABC.
Namche Bazaar in the Everest region depends on tourism
The Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is sounding the alarm. “The crisis is deepening and set to get even worse,” NMA president Santa Bir Lama told the Kathmandu-based newspaper The Himalayan Times: “It seems that there will be no trekking and mountaineering activities in the upcoming autumn or winter season and thousands of people, who depend on tourism activities and products, will be unable to make their daily ends meet.” More than 3,500 travel and 2,600 trekking agencies have closed their operation due to the nationwide lockdown, he said.
Actually the first summit success on Mount Everest in 2020 was scheduled for this Sunday. Until then, the rope fixing team of the Chinese expedition on the north side of the mountain wanted to have worked their way up to the highest point at 8,850 meters. But due to snowfall, the Tibetan climbers returned to the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,500 meters, Mingma Gyalje Sherpa informs me, adding that the next good weather window is to be used for the summit push.
Michael Füchsle during training in times of corona
Bouldering at the dinner table. Also Michael Füchsle is currently training at home in the small German town of Bobingen near Augsburg. He hopes that the corona crisis will soon be over and that he can leave the exile in his own four walls. “Climbing is my purpose in life”, the 53-year-old tells me. “I cannot live without it. Next to my girlfriend, climbing is the most important thing.”
After all, Michael also earns his living with it. “I can’t make big leaps, but it’s enough to live on.” Füchsle is no ordinary professional, but a paraclimber, a climber with a handicap, with an artificial bowel outlet, to be precise, a so-called stoma. In addition, he is suffering from a neurological disease that leads to deafness and paralysis in parts of his arms and legs.
Normally the base camps at the eight-thousanders in Nepal and Tibet would be occupied by now, and the acclimatization phase would be underway. And for those teams that want to make their way to the eight-thousanders in Pakistan this summer, the final preparations would be made. But what is normal in these times of the corona crisis? Nothing is happening at the highest mountains in Nepal. At the weekend the Nepalese government extended the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic until at least 7 May. In Tibet, only one Chinese expedition with 21 members has received permission to climb Mount Everest. According to reports, the Tibetan mountaineers preparing the route are in the Advanced Base Camp. How high they have climbed on the mountain in the meantime has not yet been communicated.
Great uncertainty
And whether expeditions will really set up their tents on the mountain giants in Pakistan this summer remains open. “There is a lot of uncertainty, but some hope too,” Mirza Ali, head of the Pakistani operator Karakorum Expeditions, writes to me. The restrictions that were imposed to limit the infections have been eased somewhat in northern Pakistan. But even if the Pakistani government should allow expeditions to climb K2, Nanga Parbat and Co. this summer – will the foreign climbers really come? Expedition operator in German-speaking countries are still keeping all options open, but a certain skepticism is unmistakable.
He’s a humble knight. Actually, Sir Chris Bonington could stick his nose up. After all, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 1996 for his great services to British mountaineering. But Chris does not stick up his nose or carry his title in front of him. Bonington has remained true to himself and has proven his down-to-earth attitude – despite his many successes as a climber (including the first ascents of Ogre (7,285 m) in Pakistan, Kongur (7,649) in China and Changabang (6,864 metres) in India) and as an expedition leader (including the first ascents of the Annapurna South Face in 1970 and the Everest South West Face in 1975).
I wondered how the 85-year-old would be in times of the Corona lockdown. I reached him at his home in Caldbeck in the county of Cumbria in north-west England.
Chris, like to everyone else in these strange days of the corona crisis, the first question is: How are you?
The mountaineering scene mourns the loss of one of their greats. Joe Brown passed away peacefully at the age of 89 in his home in the village of Llanberis, Wales. In his eventful climbing career Brown opened more than 1,000 new rock climbing routes. Joe became known worldwide when he and George Band (1929-2011) made the first ascent of the 8,586-meter-high Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain on earth, on 25 May 1955.
The people of Jalandhar could not believe their eyes. For the first time in decades, the inhabitants of the city in the northern Indian state of Punjab were able to see the mountains of the Dhauladhar Range in the Himalayas, which are more than 100 kilometers away and up to almost 6,000 meters high. Barely two weeks earlier, the Indian government had ordered one of the world’s strictest curfews due to the corona pandemic. Public and economic life in India has been largely at a standstill since 24 March. And the quality of the air has improved.
What nature really is and how we screwed it up.
This is Dhauladhar mountain range of Himachal, visible after 30 yrs, from Jalandhar (Punjab) after pollution drops to its lowest level. This is approx. 200 km away straight. #Lockdown21#MotherNature#Global healing. pic.twitter.com/cvZqbWd6MR
In the capital New Delhi, the particulate matter pollution has fallen by about half in the past three weeks. The otherwise omnipresent pall of smog has disappeared, as in many other Indian cities. And so the people of Jalandhar could suddenly see the Himalayas.
Good visibility also in Kathmandu
Also in the Kathmandu Valley many people might have rubbed their eyes in amazement at the moment. There, too, the nationwide lockdown due to the corona pandemic is leading to unusually clear, blue skies and an unobstructed view of the Himalayan mountains, which can usually only be enjoyed after leaving the valley in which the Nepalese capital is located.
