Posted: May 05, 2008 09:05 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) Land and air troops have literally taken over Everest. Expelled from the higher camps, climbers are currently scattered between a BC and several villages down the Khumbu valley. The Chinese won’t attempt to summit at least until tomorrow, and officials suggest that the peak’s Nepal side could remain closed until May 10.

There is good news from Makalu, where a member in the British Navy team has topped out together with a sherpa; and the worst possible news from Dhaulagiri, where Rafael Guillén reportedly fell to his death this past weekend.

Everest: Troops in BC, fighter planes around the summit

“Its been a tough year to lead the Everest team (and difficult to be a member of course), with all of the Olympic torch closures,” SummitClimb leader Arnold Coster reported. “Foreign military jets are seen flying over the summit. A helicopter landed in BC with embassy officials on board, for an inspection. There are checkpoints in the Khumbu where our team's luggage is being searched for communications equipment, cameras, flags, etcetera.”

By May 1st, ropes on the Tibet side of Everest were fixed to 8300m (27,224 feet), and everybody hoped the Chinese would summit on May 2-3. However, bad weather conditions apparently forced the Torch relay team to stay put, according to Reuters.

“They are hoping for another weather window on the 6th of May,” Arnold noted. “Officials are saying that the Nepal side of Everest could remain closed until 10 May, so no teams would be allowed above BC until that day. No one knows if that will be enforced. Everyone hopes this will not be the case.”

Low spirits down the Khumbu valley

Mother and daughter climbers Cheryl and Nikki Bart, from Australia, describe their trek down to Periche last Thursday as heartbreaking. “With each step we could feel ourselves moving further from our goal,” they wrote. “There was a long train of disgruntled climbers trudging through the Khumbu Valley. Everest is a serious mental game at the best of times and I can't begin to explain what this is doing for our morale."

“People often think that climbing is all about action and adventure,” the Bart ladies noted. “Yet one of the biggest attributes a climber can have is patience […] Another huge skill to have in mountaineering is 'living in the moment'. The ability to enjoy each day, and find merits in each moment, rather than thinking about the summit will ensure sanity in an expedition that is ten weeks long. Often these attributes are required in the face of wild weather. Its easier to understand the extreme boredom, frustration and tedium facing you when you know it is the forces of nature inflicting such things. In our case, we are facing politics, armies, and strict rules. Somehow this is much more difficult to stomach.”

“This is going to be our forth night in Pheriche, and morale in the team is extremely low," they added. "We wake up each morning around the time the Chinese should summit with the Oylmpic torch, and yet hear no news. The ropes to camp three will not be set until the torch summits, and the process of fixing ropes should take at least three days. This means that with each day that passes, our chance of even having a chance at climbing this mountain diminishes.”

“The days have also seen many helicopters flying between Katmandu and base camp bringing more army troops, supplies and food. Base camp is becoming an army camp rather than a climbing base.”

Wasted good weather

“We had to trek down to Diangboche, and pay for a very slow, yet extremely expensive, internet connection,” posted Cordaba Everest team members. “We don’t know when we will finally get green light to go to C3 – it’s such a pity not to be able to take advantage of the current weather conditions, they are so good.”

Shared Everest team leader Agostino da Polenza chimes in: “It’s really a weird ambience here on Everest," he reported yesterday. "Weather conditions are wonderful, yet instead of watching teams going up, all I see is loads of Sherpas in jeans and sneakers, returning to their villages for some days off.”

Teams scattered and confused

As for other expeditions, AC members planned to trek back to BC from Pheriche today; Jagged Globe have not left BC, while Brazilians went down all the way to Namche, and Mountain Trip climbers settled in Periche yesterday.

Finally, some Peak Freaks team members have remained in BC, while others have trekked all the way down to Namche Bazaar. “No one seems to know where the Chinese are, and there is much confusion at BC in Nepal,” they reported. “One day you can make a sat phone call, the next you can't - but someone else can. Yes you can send out messages… no, wait a minute - now you can't. Also, organization of the rules at BC seems to be playing out the same way. Everyone off the mountain- wait.... no... okay, maybe you can take some rope to C3. Everyone not on the permit must leave at once.... wait...well okay, you can stay. What a season!”

UIAA to Chinese team: Don’t take our flag up

“At the General Assembly of the UIAA in October 2007, the member federations applauded the promise of the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA) to take the UIAA flag to the summit of Mt Everest, as part of the Olympic torch relay,” states UIAA’s president Mike Mortimer. “At this time there was no mention that any climbing restrictions would be imposed on the climbing community.”

“The UIAA, which stands for the freedom of access to all mountains, has advised the CMA that it cannot allow its flag to fly over Everest, when the UIAA’s very constituents, the international climbing community, find themselves barred or greatly restricted in their access to the mountain. We have asked that the CMA take our flag no higher than base camp on the Tibetan side. Thus the UIAA flag would face the same restrictions as the climbers on the south side!”

Makalu: British summit

“At 17:30h we received the news that Percy (Flight Lieutenant Jonathon Percival) and Dawa had reached the Summit of Makalu,” reported the British Navy expedition.

In a later report today, the British crew in BC stated they had just spotted Percy and Dawa at the bottom of the ropes above C2. The summiteers are expected back in BC in the afternoon.

After spending two days at 7400m and reaching 7500m yesterday, Denis Urubko and Boris are back in BC, they told RussianClimb - they plan to go further down to 4700m, in order to "recover on the grass" before launching a summit bid on may 8. Meanwhile, team mates Svetlana and Eugeny reached 7400m yesterday for a two-night round at that altitude.

Also team member Eugeny found an O2 canister at 7800m which, once compared with old images, seems to belong to the French team which first summited Makalu back in 1955. Eugeny is now kicking off an auction; the bottle can be yours. The tank will go to the highest bidder for those interested.

Juan Oiarzabal is also considering to launch a summit bid by May 10-15.

Dhaulagiri: Rafael lost

Once again, Dhaulagiri shows its cruelest side to Spanish climbers. Rafael Guillén, member in Himalaya Maestrat expedition, died on the mountain last weekend.

While details are still sketchy, it seems Rafael fell to his death while helping down team mate Jesús Morales. Rafael had turned around during the team's summit bid on May 1, while Jesus pushed on and eventually summited together with an Argentinean climber. On descent, Jesús showed symptoms of frostbite/hypothermia, so Rafael ran to meet him and help him down, while sending an SOS call to another team mate, David Ferrer, who was at a lower camp after having renounced to attempt the summit.

David climbed up, only to find Rafael's body - who apparently had slipped down a slope. There are no details on the Argentinean climber's whereabouts, neither has his name been made official.

Dhaula summit reports

“It was three in the morning when we finally entered back BC – David and I were very, very tired,” Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner wrote. “We had fulfilled our dream of topping out Dhaulagiri and making it safely back down.”

Gerlinde states she and David Göttler reached the summit at 12:00 noon on May 1st, together with the first group from Al Filo team, and Czech Radek Jaros. They had started up from 7350m at 3:00 am, in bitter cold conditions and 50-60km/h winds.

Unkile most summiting teams that day, Gerlinde and David continued all the way down to BC, retrieving their small tent on the way and taking a break just long enough to melt some water at 6750m.

Also summiteer Edurne Pasaban is glad to be back in BC. “She suffered a great deal in order to reach the summit, and also got extremely cold – particularly her feet, already affected since she had been frostbitten while climbing K2 in 2004,” Al Filo’s director Sebastian Alvaro reported. The Spanish team will now pack up and leave BC as soon as possible. “Hopefully, they’ll be back in Spain by next Thursday,” Alvaro said.

Carlos Pauner, Marta Alejandre and Javier Perez are also happy and relieved to be back from a peak which has taken the lives of three of Carlos’ former climbing mates. “On the summit I was, somehow, together with Pepe Garcés, Santiago Sagaste and Ricardo Valencia,” Carlos recalled. “I could feel their presence there.”

Pauner has also noted that they may have some frostbitten fingers. “Once we’re back in Spain, doctors will check the injuries and decide whether they need treatment,” he said. The team hoped to be airlifted from BC today - however, according to reports there was snowing heavily in BC, and thus the evacuation might have been postponed.

Check out Carlos Pauner’s summit video here!

While all summiteers are preparing to leave, there are still other teams on the mountain hoping to succeed on upcoming summit bids. The Lithuanian climbers, for instance, have set up camps 1 and 2, and hope to pitch C3 in a few days time.

Annapurna: The Russian experience

“We have begun our third push," Serguey Bogomolov told RussianClimb on May 1st. “Inaki and Horia decended to BC for a rest, and Don joined them. There’s snow falling, just as forecasted.”

“I've just returned from our high point on the South Face, a small ledge where we are camped at just under 6900 meters,” reported Don Bowie. “My recent illness left me completely out of sync with my partners, Iñaki and Horia, so I've spent the last 6 days working with the Russians, pushing the route up the wall.”

“My recent climbing partner, Alexei, is seemingly carved out of wood,” Don writes. “If he suffers from anything it is never apparent, often spurning adverse conditions with a smug kind of confrontation, as if to say, ‘Hmpf. Is that all you've got?’. At 44 years old, he is medium height, but his build and stature suggest a strength not-so hidden. His climbing resume' is beyond impressive: The North Face of Jannu, Lotse Middle, Makaku West Face Direct, the West Face of K2, etc. Here is a man who knows the hardest hardships of the highest environs. I could learn from this man.”

“After a few days of sharing both rope and tent with Alexei, I discover that one of his favorite sayings is, 'Not necessary', spoken in that perfect Ivan Drago, Russian-English lilt. The quip is loosely applied to all sorts of things I personally deem rather necessary, like say, drinking water, for example.”

Don is now prepared to re-join Iñaki and Horia for a definite summit push, as soon as weather conditions permit.

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).

Everest

Canadian Mallory
Irish Everest/Graham and Ian
Klimb for kids/Tim Warren
James Balfour
No guts know glory/Rob Hill
Lee Farmer
Adventure Peaks
Peak Freaks
IMG
Alpine Ascents
Adventure Consultants
Summit Climb
Alaskan Granite
Danish Everest
Cordoba Everest
Nepalese 77 year old
Eco Everest/Dawa Sherpa
Coldfeat Fiennes/Cool
Mountain Madness
Jagged Globe
Lincoln Hall rescuers Andrew Brash, Myles Osborne and Dan Mazur
MountainTrip dispatches
Project-Himalaya Everest dispatches
Cheryl and Nikki Bart
Miura senior (Japanese)
Alan Arnette
David Tait
Rodrigo Raineri (Vitor Negrete's mate) and Eduardo Keppke (no 02)
Gnaro's Share Everest
www.marcoconfortola.it
Andalusian Lina
www.stephan-keck.at
Keck at www.alpinist.at
Francois Guy Thivierge
SpaceRef.com carrying news of Scott Parazynski
Scott Parazynski blog
Martin McGarvey's blog
Vietnam Everest

OTHER HIMALYA

Makalu

UK Royal Navy
Waldemar Niclevicz and Irivan Gustavo Burda
Andrew Lock
French Makalu
Santiago Quintero
Blair Falahey
Joao Garcia
Ralf Dujmovits' updates
Spanish paper covering Lolo Gonzales
Andalusia/Basques and Lolo Gonzales dispatches
Latvia:Atis Plakans (leader), Liga Plakane, and Kaspars Klapkalns
News on Juanito on Marca.com

Manaslu

Dutch team expedition website
Katja Staartjes
Menno Boermans
Amical
Maxut's updates on Mount.kz (Russian)

Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri west face Babanov/Nick Totmjanin
Martin Minarik
Radek Jaros and Zdenek Hruby
Kinga and Kasia
Gerlinde
Carlos Pauner, Javier Perez and Marta Alexandre
Ivan Vallejo
Polish Dhaula with Artur Hajzer and Ryszard Pawlowski
Himalaya Maestrat
Lithuanian expedition
News on Al filo team on S.Alvaro's blog

Annapurna

Inaki Ochoa
Horia Colibasanu
Don Bowie
Piotr Pustelnik's dispatches
Peter Hamor's website
Piotr Morawski's website
Bogomolov updates on RussianClimb
Ueli Steck
Annapurna 4 ski expedition
Radek Jaros and Zdenek Hruby

Lhotse

DCXP
Rosa's updates on LNE

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