Posted: May 07, 2008 10:27 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) Confusing circumstances surround the torch, likely to reach the summit between 10:00-11:00 a.m. (2:00-3:00 a.m. GMT) on May 8, according to the latest report on the official torch relay website.

The site states Everest was topped out already on May 5; climbers report that at least there was an attempt on that day. Meanwhile on the south side, the route to C2 is re-opened – but not beyond.

On Annapurna, Iñaki, Horia and the Russians are in full summit push, while Pustelnik’s team has been forced to abort the expedition.

Everest: Watching the Chinese’s summit attempt live

"We have just seen the Chinese approaching the summit!” reported Silvio ‘Gnaro’ Mondinelli on May 5. “They were at 8,600m, in the middle of a very strong blizzard. They couldn´t make it.” Silvio and his mates watched the attempt live... from the summit of Kalapattar.

“It was a large team of about 10 people," Mondinelli said. "They had overcome the Second Step, but then the storm forced them down without reaching the summit.”

As for south side climbers, teams are slowly trekking back to BC, and some of them such as Alpine Ascents, hoping to reach C1 today. However, the route is not yet completely open. “We have found out that camp 2 is opened up again, but we still have to wait for the Chinese to summit until we can go to camp 3,” reported Summit Climb team leader Arnold Coster.

“All ropes and other equipment are now in C2 ready to extend the route upwards. As soon as we can go it will just be a matter of one day to finish the route to the South Col," Arnold stated. Many other teams are in the same position, waiting to fix the route and pitch their tents in C3 as soon as they got green light from authorities – that is, after the Chinese top out.

Sherpas “under influence”

“Many of us did head to Dingboche for some R&R. Jamie did too but got caught up in a rescue (not from our team) and didn't get much rest,” Project-Himalaya team reported. “It was a sherpa who on a couple of rest days drank too much, his alcoholic poisoning leading to some sort of organ failure. He was carried down to Lobuche by some mainly drunk IMG sherpas, where their own team sherpas took over; then in Pheriche their team doctor took over. “

“Alcoholic sherpas are definitely a problem; luckily none of our team are binge drinkers, or have alcoholic tendencies. This is by design, and nor are they allowed to gamble money while working. Harsh? I am not so sure, and it sure does prevent the occasional knife fight, as I have seen in other camps.”

Makalu: climbers ready for the next window

Ralf Dujmovits is back in BC after climbing up to Makalu La (7,450m) together with Spaniards Carlos Soria, Roberto Gorri and Juanito Oiarzabal. Ralf, who had found his tent in C2 buried in the snow, had to borrow a French climber’s for the first two nights, and shared Carlos Soria’s for the night spent at the col.

The German climber hopes to launch a summit bid as soon as weather conditions permit.

As for Juanito, he is definitely ready for a summit push as well. “The route is fully opened – there is only some tough sections between C4 and the summit left to be fixed, but a strong Korean team is on their way their way there to take charge. Afterwards we will agree a contribution in order to use their ropes.”

After one night in C1, on May 3 CloudClimbing team members proceeded up in order to pitch C2. However, the weather soon turned for the worse. “At about half way to Camp Two the snowing got much worse and we had to abseil down like fifty meters where we found an abandoned tent - it looked like abandoned at least, a lot of ice inside and the inside and outside covers were broken in many places,” they reported.

“We spent a not so bad bivouac and in the next morning we reached Camp Two in a mild snowfall," the team added. "In the meantime we found out one fixed rope, supposedly Korean, broke with a Spanish climber abseiling down from Makalu La. It seems not the ice anchor but the rope itself broke. The guy felt about twenty meters luckily just with minor injures.”

Cloud Climbing team also provided details on the first Makalu summits this season. “One Brit and one Sherpa from the British Army Team made the first summit of the season, both using oxygen masks,” they noted.

Percy himself (the British Navy team summiteer) has posted a summit report and some images of the ascent - but none taken from the summit. Safely back in BC, he reports nine other team members are ready to attempt the summit as well, as soon as the next weather window opens.

Joao Garcia has spent two nights in C2. However, he will rather wait to may 18th before launching a summit bid.

Annapurna: Summit bids and loads of snow

“Alexey and Alexander fixed ropes above Camp 4,” Serguey Bogomolov told RussianClimb. “Me and Dmitry have finally found our gear cache and dug it out of 1,5 m of snow – lucky us. Iñaki, Horia and Don are in C2.” The Russian team is facing loads of snow on their current summit push.

Iñaki’s home team confirmed the expedition’s summit push in an update earlier today. However, they only mention Ochoa and Horia - it is unclear whether Don is still with them or may have turned around. The climbers are meant to reach C3 tomorrow, progress along the summit ridge as far as possible on Friday and, hopefully, reach the top on Saturday.

Things are not turning out so well for Pustelik’s team though. “According to a short message received yesterday, the mBank Annapurna West Face Expedition team have decided to abort,” their home team reports. Bad weather conditions forced them back on a previous attempt, and the climbers spent two deys descending in horrible weather. Now they are back in BC, taking care of light frostbites, and waiting for a chopper to airlift them back to Pokhara.

Dhaulagiri

Check in for a special report today.

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
news on the Argentinean team
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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