Posted: Mar 23, 2009 03:42 am EDT
(MountEverest.net/MADRID) There is news of disorders and strikes in several areas of Nepal. Unrest has delayed Babanov’s porters on the way to KTM and, moreover, has caused Nives Meroi and Romano Benet to change their expedition plans altogether: They are going for Annapurna’s south face instead of the problematic Kangchenjunga region, where their expedition staff and gear is reportedly blocked by Maoists cadres.

A huge Indian border police team has been granted a permit to climb Everest from Tibet, although the climbers – some of them hoping to ski down from the summit – are not allowed to use their own comms equipment; they’ll rely on sat-phones instead.

Nives and Romano forced to switch Kangchen for Annapurna – expedition staff detained by Maoists

Disorders in Kangchenjunga region have forced Romano Benet and Nives Meroi to go for a Plan B and attempt instead Annapurna’s south face – located right on the other side of the country.

After arrival in Kathmandu (which they describe as a town in a poor state with severe shortage of water and power), the Italian climbing couple sent ahead the expedition cook and assistant, Prem and Bahdur, towards BC together with the expedition gear. However, the men were stopped on the way by reportedly Maoist cadres.

Expedition staff fleeing across the Indian border?

According to Nives’ latest update on Saturday, Romano and she were arranging their trip to Phokara – the starting point towards Annapurna. The problem is that Prem and Bahdur were still blocked somewhere in Kangchenjunga region in a rather unclear situation. “Our friends are unable to enter, nor to exit the area,” Laila Meroi stated on Nives’ website. “They’ll try tonight, maybe trying to reach the Indian border, proceed towards Annapurna region and then entering Nepal again in order to meet the climbers in BC.”

“Meanwhile, Nives and Romano hope to depart on Sunday towards the last Lodge they can find before BC,” Nives’ sister Laila added. “Obvioulsy, since Prem and Badur have all the expedition gear with them, it is impossible to set up BC until they show up. At least, Nives and Romano hope to acclimatize by climbing nearby peaks while they wait.”

Indo-Tibetan Police Border team granted permit for Everest north side – and a sky-ski descent

A team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is one more year heading for Everest. Departing from Delhi today, this time the huge, 28-member expedition will climb Everest’s north side in Tibet. Once on the summit, eight team members hope to ski back down to BC.

“The mountaineers will carry satellite phones since the Chinese Government has not allowed them to carry their own communication equipment, citing security reasons,” Indian Express reported. “The team will first go to Nepal and then cross over to China via the Friendship Bridge on the Nepal-China Border.”

Babanov & Afanasiev: No porters left to hire on Annapurna

On their latest report on Saturday, Valeri Bavanov and Victor Afanasief were still in Kathmandu waiting for the porters, but otherwise confident they would be able to leave town on the following day.

“On March 19 we met with Miss Hawley and then had a briefing session at the Ministry of Tourism, where we were given a climbing permit for Annapurna West face,” they reported.

The problem was not toget a permit,but to find porters in the Annapurna region. “There is a huge Korean team climbing on Annapurna’s classic route on its north face, and they’ve taken all the local porters from Lete village (their starting point to BC),” Valeri said. “Thus we’ve had to look for porters in other villages. On their way here, they were delayed by a strike – but were supposed to arrive in Ktm today (Sautrday). We are filling good and ready to go.”

Lance Fox: Oh gear!

Less than 72 hours now until take-off;” Lance Fox reported yesterday. “The gear is all packed and ready to go. In all, just over 200 lbs (91 kg) and that doesn't include the food (other than some "comfy" food of course:-) supplied by our expedition leader as well as the tents and cookware.”

American Lance is climbing Everest from its South side.

Finnish Airborne Rangers: Everest - there we go!

“Well well… Everything has been packed, everyone arrived at the airport almost in time and without mishaps (except one who got caught speeding), check-in has been done and everyone is in the airport international area waiting for boarding. All we can do now is to sit back and relax,” the team reported on the go on Saturday.

”We will have a transit in Delhi and continue to Kathmandu,” they explained. “There we will arrive on Sunday evening local time. First thing to do is to check the cargo and ensure it is intact. If something has broken down we try to repair it or get new item from Kathmandu. We will also get some more food supplies from local stores.”

Billi Bierling: Cleaner air in KTM

“After about five months of dry weather, on Saturday the skies opened for about one hour and we had the long-awaited downpour,” Billie reported. “This has cleared the air a bit, got rid of the dust and eased the smog! We can finally see blue skies again and breathing is no longer painful!”

“According to weather reports, there was a bit of snowfall in the Everest region and on Friday some flights to Lukla were diverted to as far as Pokhara;” she added.

Mehdi Etemadfar: From Iran to Dhaulagiri

Iranian climber Mehdi Etemadfar is leaving for Nepal today, on his second attempt to summit Dhaulagiri. Etemadfar is a member in a seven men-strong international expedition, climbing on the mountain’s NE classic route.

Mehdi has previously climbed Broad Peak, GI, and the highest summits of the former soviet Union (thus gaining the “Snow Leopard” title).

Links to 2009 Himalaya expeditions:

Everest South side:

Everest traverse - Bill Burke's blog
Richard Hidalgo's blog
Singapore's women on Everest updates
Airborne Ranger Club of Finland
Croatian female Everest expedition
Scott Woolums' Adventures International
Altitude Junkies
Manuel Pizarro - news
Lance Fox's dispatches
Jason Maehl
Yuri and Laura
Nic Cunningham
Billi Bierling - Everest diary
David Tait's dispatches
Adrian Ballinger
Alec Turner's dispatches
Eugene Constant's blog
Megan Delanty's blog
Chris Dovell's blog
Norwegians Hjertnes, Jacobsen and Rambøl
Gilad Stern
Robert kojetin
German Thomas "Tomsky"
SummitClimb - News
Laserer Alpin
Iberic Everest expedition
Nancy Norris

Everest north side.

Czech Hornbein Couloir expedition - Libor Uher's website
Abramov's 7Summits-club
Kobler&Partner
Lee Farmer

Kangchenjunga:
Edurne Pasaban
Nives Meroi & Romano Benet

Makalu:
Zangrilli's blog
Zangrilli's guiding blog
Roland Hunter's expedition blog

Annapurna:
Martin Minarik
Valeri Babanov
Libor Uher's website

Lhotse:
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner - news

Manaslu:
Joao Garcia's expedition blog
Jean Luc Fohal's website
Piotr Morawski - news
Andalusian female team - news
Lina Quesada
Carlos Pauner
Nick Rice's dispatches

Dhaulagiri
News on Mehdi Etemadfar -MountainZone.ir

Shisha Pangma
Andrew Lock's Shisha+Everest dispatches

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