Posted: Feb 01, 2008 02:11 am EST
(MountEverest.net/K2Climb.net) "I received a forecast from Karl Gabl in Innsbruck," wrote Lena from RussianClimb yesterday. The verdict, according to the veteran Himalaya weather man: Light or no snowfall, but actual temperatures around -40 °C at the 8000 meter level.

Worse; the jet stream sits over Nepal Himalaya with hurricane force wind over 120 km/h (33 ms/75 mph) expected in the next few days.

"It's as if we had set our tent on a railroad track, with a new train arriving every minute; passing us by just one meter at the last moment..." sms'd Denis yesterday after the climbers had reached 6700 meters.

The Windiest place on Earth

Extremely exposed and often hit directly by the Jet wind - the summit of Everest is the windiest place on Earth. At 8463 meters, neighboring Makalu is not far behind.

In a previous series, ExplorersWeb found the highest forecasted wind speed on Everest during a two-year period at 78 m/s (175miles/hour) on Feb 6, 2004. This is well above the 156 miles/hour threshold for a Category 5 Hurricane.

But it’s not the maximum wind speed that makes winter Himalaya extremely windy; it’s the consistency of high winds. From October 20 until end of March, there is an almost constant Category 1 Hurricane (32m/s - 74 miles/hour) pounding the summit of Everest. During this period 3 out of 4 days experience above 32 ms/74 mph.

Moving around in hurricane wind is hard but possible at sea-level. But add oxygen depravation and below -30C/-22F temperature to the wind and you'll find close to impossible climbing conditions - even for the absolute elite of climbers.

A combination of -12F/75mph gives a less than 5 minute frostbite time in the latest wind chill charts. Note that we are counting an average here, not extremes - and not including the altitude.

The information below and in the charts is compiled from 868 forecasts from May 1, 2002 to Nov 1, 2004, by AdventureWeather:

Monthly Average 2002-2004 Coldest temperature Everest Summit
July -18
Aug -18
Sep -21
Oct -27
Nov -30
Dec -34
Jan -36
Feb -35
Mar -32
Apr -25
May -20
Jun -18

The coldest 3 months on Everest summit are December-February. The coldest climbs in Himalaya take place between Mid December to Mid February - marking a season that is dry, very windy, very cold, and dark.

The coldest temperature of the year starts in the second half of December and holds until end of January. The charts show a steady drop until Dec 21, which correlates to the darkest day of the year (winter solstice) where it lands to an average of -37C (-35F) on the summit.

From that day until Feb 28 the temperature never rises above -33C (-27F) at the summit.

During January the average wind chill drops to -70C (-90F). This makes Everest summit not only the tallest, but also among the coldest places on earth to humans - if not the coldest. Note also that this is an average.

The official record for the coldest Northern Hemisphere temperature is -67.8C (-90F) in Siberia, recorded on Feb. 6, 1922. The lowest temperature ever recorded on earth was -89C (129F) recorded in 1983 at the Russian Base Vostok in Antarctica. None of these data include the wind chill factor, but at sea level these kind of cold temperatures generally occur during calm conditions.

The skinny on Himalaya winter history

Up until now 8 out of the 14 eight-thousanders have been winter climbed.

Climbing an 8000 meter during the winter has been the ultimate trophy, achieved only 33 times (by 27 people). 16 out of those 33 summits where made by Polish and 8 by Spanish (all on Cho Oyu). The other summits where reached by Japan (3), South-Korea (2), Nepal (1), Argentina (1), Switzerland (1 – only female) and Italy (1).

Cho Oyu is the most 'visited' in winter or near winter, followed by Everest, Dhaulagiri and Manaslu. Even the perilous Annapurna main summit has six summits in the cold season - mainly because the risk of avalanche is supposed to be lower then.

The first winter ascents

All first winter accents previous to Shisha Pangma were made by Polish climbers. Their feats revolutionized the Himalayan climbing community in the eighties.

First out was Leszek Cichy on Everest in 1980. Then came Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski on Manaslu in 1984. The following year, Maciej Berbeka went to Cho Oyu in 1985, together with Maciej Pawlikowski.

That same year Andrzej Czok and Jerzy Kukuczka took Dhaulagiri (1985). The following year, Kukuczka came back for Kangchenjunga, together with Krzysztof Wielicki (1986). And in 1987, Kukuczka returned again, this time with Artur Hajzer, to accomplish the first winter climb of Annapurna.

Next Krzysztof Wielicki summited Lhotse solo on New years Eve in 1988 and in January 2005 finally, Simone Moro broke the Polish "first winter chain" when he and Polish Piotr Morawski summited Shisha Pangma in its first winter climb.

Pakistan

Currently, Simone is in Pakistan - where none of the 8000ers have been summited in winter yet. The Karakoram winter weather conditions are even harsher than in the Nepalese or Tibetan mountains. A Spanish TV team that aimed to climb Broad Peak in winter said that just to get to BC was a long, frozen walk from hell. They didn't get very high. A storm totaled their camp II.

One climber however almost made it, on Broad Peak exactly. Polish Maciej Berbeka (Manaslu winter 84, Cho Oyu winter 85) was part of a Polish expedition to K2 during the winter of 87/88.

Maciej climbed solo to the summit of the neighboring Broad peak, a mountain partially protected from the wind by K2 itself. Berbeka actually reached the summit, and came back exhilarated by his success.

Only later did he notice that he had actually reached Broad's central summit, not the main. Although the central summit is higher than 8000 meters (8030), the central summit can't be considered an official winter climb of the mountain.

Denis Urubko

A big attempt was led by Polish Krzysztof Wielicki, who commanded a group of young Polish, Kazakh and Georgian climbers on K2. The 'Georgian' branch (incl Gia Torlazde - who recently escaped a car bomb), as well as part of the Kazakhs soon went home, but one stayed: Denis Urubko.

Denis reached the last high camp and gave up his summit bid to help down one of his climbing mates, who was seriously ill from the altitude and extreme cold. It was on this climb, that Denis left the ice axes he meant to fetch during his attempt on K2's north face last fall.

Here are link with previous stories and more details on Himalaya winter weather and winter climbs:

ExWeb series - Winter climbing: The BAD chart, part 4 final

K2 series: Karakorum and ultimate winter challenges

ExWeb series: The meaning of winter in 8000+ climbing
ExWeb series: The meaning of winter in 8000+ climbing, part 2
ExWeb series: The meaning of winter in 8000+ climbing, part 3 final

Data: "BaseCamp" is at Pressure (hPa) 495 or app. 6100m of altitude.
"Summit" is at Pressure (hPa) 346 or app. 8750m of altitude.

None of Pakistan’s 8000ers (K2, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, GI, and GII) have been summited in winter. In Nepal, only Makalu still remains unclimbed during the cold season.

This winter season Italian Simone Moro and Pakistan Shaheen Baig and Qudrat Ali are attempting Broad Peak; while Italian Nives Meroi, Romano Benet and Luca Vuerich are attempting Makalu together with Kazakh climbers Denis Urubko, Serguey Samoilov, Eugeny Shutov and Gennady Durov.

French Jean Christophe Lafaille accomplished some remarkable climbs in the Alps and the Himalaya, frequently alone. He summited 11, 8000ers and had only Makalu, Kangchenjunga and Everest to finish all 14, 8000ers.

On October 1st last year, Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov summited K2 in its latest summit ever and the first K2 north side summit in 11 years. K2 became Denis's 12th 8000er and Serguey's 5th 8000+ meter summit, all done without supplementary oxygen and several through new routes.

Nives and Romano have returned to Makalu only months after their previous attempt on the peak in fall, 2007. The couple latest summited Everest in spring 2007, without oxygen from the north side.

Nives Meroi shares the world top position with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner for most 8000ers climbed by women. Both ladies have summited 10, 8000ers. Nives has Makalu, Kanchenjunga, Manaslu and Annapurna left to finish the quest for all the 14, 8000 meter peaks summited.

Romano Benet has summited ten 8,000ers as well.

North Face athlete Simone Moro, 38, has summited Mount Everest (three times), Broad Peak, Cho Oyu, Shisha Pangma (winter), Lhotse (twice) and 5 peaks over 7000 meters. He did the first winter climb of Marble Wall 6400m (Tien Shan), a 24-hour climb on Fitz Roy's West Face (Patagonia), and has completed many other climbs around the world.

Simone attempted the first winter climb on Broad Peak also last year. Originally, he planned to climb solo, but then teamed up with local climber Shaheen Baig, 28, who summited K2 in 2004 and GII in 2001 in addition to eight 7000ers.

For 2008, Simone has included Shaheen Baig again; and also Shimshal climber Qudrat Ali (who summited 4 out of the 5, 8000ers in Pakistan).

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