“Summit Push Time,” writes Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, head of the Nepalese commercial expedition operator Imagine Nepal, on Instagram. The picture shows him in a helicopter on his way back to the 8,091-meter-high Annapurna I in western Nepal. The Sherpa team, which secures the normal route with fixed ropes for the commercial teams, had already reached Camp 3 at around 6,400 meters some time ago. Then, however, snowfall and the associated high avalanche danger had made a summit attempt impossible. In the next few days, stable, dry weather with little wind is expected, only on the weekend there should be some snow showers again.
Continue reading “Summit attempt on Annapurna announced”Summit successes reported from the north side of Mount Everest
The first summit successes of the spring season on the highest mountain on earth have apparently the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest. Mingma Sherpa, head of the commercial Nepalese expedition operator Climbalaya with good connections to China, reports that last Friday a team from the Chinese operator Yarla Shampo Expeditions fixed the ropes to the summit at 8,849 meters.
On Saturday, a commercial team of 20 Tibetan climbers and eleven paying clients ascended to the summit (almost certainly with bottled oxygen, if it were not, it would have been announced). Another team is aiming for tomorrow (Wednesday, May 4) as summit day, Mingma informed.
Continue reading “Summit successes reported from the north side of Mount Everest”Nepal ahead of spring season: Fewer climbers on Mount Everest?
And again it will probably be a difficult spring season in the mountains of Nepal. In 2020 nothing went at all because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, a wave of infections also hit the base camps on Mount Everest and Dhaulagiri – the fact that the Nepalese government has not admitted this to this day is and remains a scandal. And now in spring 2022, the Russian war in Ukraine is causing uncertainty worldwide – certainly also among mountaineers.
Continue reading “Nepal ahead of spring season: Fewer climbers on Mount Everest?”Chinese summit success on Cho Oyu
The first eight-thousander summit success of the fall season is reported from Tibet. Twelve clients and eleven climbers working for the operator Tibet Himalayan Expeditions reached the summit of Cho Oyu today, confirms Mingma Sherpa. The head of the Nepalese operator Climbalaya has good contacts to China. The Chinese expedition team had set off for Cho Oyu on 14 September.
Continue reading “Chinese summit success on Cho Oyu”In their husbands’ Everest footsteps
Mount Everest took their husbands. And the fathers of their children. Nevertheless, Nima Doma Sherpa and Furdiki Sherpa want to climb the highest mountain on earth this spring. “We are doing our expedition for the respect of our late husbands because they were mountaineers too,” Nima Doma replies to my question about the purpose of their project. “And we want to motivate all the widows.” Everest has left a lot of single mothers behind. According to the mountaineering chronicle “Himalayan Database”, 37 Sherpas have died there in the past 20 years alone. Furdiki’s husband, Mingma Sherpa, belonged to the so-called “Icefall Doctors” who set up and secure the route through the Khumbu Icefall every year. The 44-year-old died in a fall into a crevasse on 7 April 2013. One year later, on 18 April 2014, Nima Doma Sherpa’s husband, Tshering Wangchu Sherpa, was one of the 16 Nepalese victims of the major avalanche accident in the Icefall.
Continue reading “In their husbands’ Everest footsteps”