08:58 am CDT Apr 30, 2008
(MountEverest.net) South side Everest teams are retreating to BC or even lower down the Khumbu valley, as the entire route is expected to be closed from Thursday. However, last-minute reports suggest the north side torch relay expedition may have delayed their summit bid due to high winds.
Meanwhile on Dhaulagiri, about 25 climbers are approaching C3 in a massive summit push.
Journalists in Tibet’s EBC: unhappy campers
International journalists invited by the Chinese Government to Everest’s Tibetan BC are ungrateful campers. Tired and sick from too rapid altitude gain; they’ve come to find a new 90km black-top road and a media center in Rongbuk – but no news to report, or any word on the torch’s whereabouts.
“Having invited us here to cover the ascent of the flame, the Chinese appear to have taken fright,” reported Jonah Fisher for BBC. “It now seems that they only want us to report the victorious summit moment. We may never know if there were failed attempts, or indeed if someone hurt themselves trying for the top.”
Chinese summit bid delayed?
In a later report today, Reuters’ Nick Mulvenney told The Guardian that the Chinese summit attempt was postponed today due to high winds up on the mountain. The reporter quoted the Chinese expedition’s head meteorologist, Yan Xingguo: "It would be hard to climb the summit today," Xingguo said. "It's certainly not possible in the next three days because there is wind above 30 m/s (108 km/h) ... According to our experience, we can scale the summit when the wind is 20 m/s."
That's bad news for the south side climbers, who hoped to get clear way by the end of this week.
South side closed to climbers tomorrow?
Peak Freaks report: “Rumors are that the torch is at BC on the Tibetan side of Everest, because they have asked the Nepal side of Everest to be closed from May 1 to May 3,” they posted yesterday. “The weather forecast is showing a couple days of calm, it is thought that they are planning on going to the summit during this time.”
In any case, most climbers are headed down after acclimatizing in C2 where at 6400m; a huge banner alerts everyone not to proceed beyond this point. A post with armed soldiers guards the spot.
Some teams may remain in BC and wait. Others such as Adventure Consultants and Jagged Globe intend to go down the valley for some thicker air. Everest is like a war zone; expeditions’ websites report little about their members' movements between C2 and BC, and avoid making other comments.
“Due to restrictions on Everest this spring, we apologize for the lack of in-depth reports from the team," posted Jagged Globe yesterday. "We hope that this will change soon.” Also Brazilians Rodrigo and Eduardo, just back from C2, mentioned they can only use the phone with a soldier listening in.
Dangerous bids ahead, according to doctors
A high-altitude physician working in the Everest area, who did not want to be named, told the BBC he was worried that many climbers would run up as soon as the route is reopened, without enough acclimatization – a dangerous situation if combined with a storm blowing in at higher camps.
"You're going to have weak climbers who are not acclimatized stuck very high on the mountain," the doctor said. "And we could have potentially the worst disaster in Everest's history because of those conditions."
The doctor also said he had already treated many members of the military who had fallen sick because of the altitude. Meanwhile, a dozen more soldiers were reportedly on their way to BC yesterday.
Dhaulagiri - massive summit push
“Yesterday at 2:00 pm we reached C2, barely four hours after departing C1,” Edurne Pasaban wrote yesterday. “It’s windy here at 7700m, but not as windy as on Monday.”
“We are a total of 25 climbers going up, Spaniards, Poles and Austrians," said the Spanish female climber. "Tomorrow (today) we are setting off early in the morning for C3, at 7300. We need to move as soon as possible, since we still need to fix 300 meters of rope on the way. An early arrival in C3 is also mandatory: There’s not much room for tents there, so hopefully we’ll reach it ahead of the other teams.”
“From C3, there’s ‘only’ 850m to the summit.” Edurne added.
Carlos Pauner and Marta spent yesterday’s night in C2 as well. Team-mate Javier turned back before C1. Carlos and Marta planned to move to C3 today.
Annapurna - summit fever burning
Iñaki Ochoa latest logged on from BC. “We are waiting for the right weather window, to climb all the way to the main top of this strikingly beautiful mountain,” he wrote.
“During the last week we have found and climbed a very safe route to the base of the South face of Annapurna. Then we climbed twice on the face: up to 6.500 meters on the Kukuczka-Hajzer 1987 route and up to 6.800m on the route opened last year by Tomaz Humar. Both lines are magnificent and safer than they might look. I have never felt such a pure and wild desire for simply a summit.”
“By the way, we are not climbing the east Ridge, but the immense south face,” Iñaki added. “We will only access the east Ridge at 7.500 meters.”
Makalu - summit on Labor day?
RussianClimb reports that Urubko's team got all their gear at last. “Also, we have completed a second trip up, reaching 6700m. On Thursday we'll go to 7800m," Denis said.
Portuguese Joao García showed up in Makalu’s upper BC (5680m) yesterday. “We are feeling great, although it’s snowing and getting colder,” he posted. “I see high winds blowing off snow plumes from the summit. Tomorrow we are celebrating the ‘Puja’. Other teams, on the contrary, are speeding up – hoping to reach the summit on May 1 or May 2!”
Links to teams on Everest and Himalaya:
The "Climbers Without Borders" Everest 2008 hotline allows climbers, their relatives and friends to report anonymously from the mountain as long as the caller is known to ExWeb. Pls call (1) 206-666-2407 (from a sat phone pls dial 001-206-666-2407). State your name and message (your name will be withheld).
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