Posted: Apr 30, 2009 12:12 pm EDT
(MountEverest.net) A short sat call to his home team from Czech Radek Jaros said he summited Manaslu yesterday 12 am without oxygen.

On Everest south side, the Kazakh traverse climbers are chasing altitude before a forecasted bad weather spell. On Makalu and Kang, a female dark horse reportedly has two teams at work while a summit push could be underway on Dhaulagiri.

Lhotse-Everest traverse: next stop, C4

The Kazakhs set off on their third rotation trip to C2 yesterday, planning to continue to C3 today, Andrey Verkhovod reported. The goal is to set and supply C4 at 8,000m, spend a night and then return to BC for final rest before the planned Lhotse-Everest traverse.

Makalu: Korean female dark horse attacking 8000ers with two work-teams

After a failed attempt to reach Makalu La last weekend due to high winds, Roland Hunter and his team made it to the Col on Tuesday. The team is now waiting out a forecasted spell of bad weather in BC, before heading for Makalu La again. “Once we have slept there for one night, we should be ready for a summit attempt given good weather conditions,” Roland stated.

Iñurrategi’s Basque team also planned to spend yesterday’s night at the 7,300 meters high Col, to acclimatize before attempting Makalu West Pillar, in alpine style.

Their BC crew reported on teams currently climbing the normal route: a 16 men-strong Indian team, two Swedes, two Spaniards, one Japanese, one Mexican, and an American team led by Steve House (currently acclimatizing on Baruntse).

A 12-member Korean team is currently fixing the entire route and breaking trail for a female team member. “She has not left BC yet. Once the route is ready, she’ll just go all the way to the top, while a chopper waits in BC, ready to airlift her to Kangchenjunga," the Basques reported.

"Another Korean team is currently working for the lady on Kanchen, so she can go for another summit push right after arrival in BC, with everything fixed for her.”

The Korean lady is probably Oh Eun-sun, hoping to bag the 14x8000ers in record time.

Kangchenjunga: Edurne hits C3

Edurne & Co left a cache in C3, while Oscar Cadiach's team did a first trip up to C1. No news yet on Nives and Romano, expected in BC any day.

Dhaulagiri: No summit push news yet

German Louis Stitzinger’s team left a cache at C1 and returned to BC. “An Indian expedition has fixed thick 10mm ropes on the lower sections of the route,” they reported. “In addition there are Korean, Japanese, Polish and Czech teams here.”

Some climbers reported there might be a summit push ongoing, but no news is available yet. The Polish team of Tatra Mountain rescuers reported strong winds and tough sections of crystal ice between C2 and C3, which forced the climbers to fix a large amount of rope.

Everest South side: bad weather expected

“I have climbed all over the world, but never with a group that has bonded as close and as fast as this Eco-Everest 2009 team,” Bill Burke reported on Wednesday. Eco Everest’s team members are Bill Burke, Nick Cunningham, Jesse Easterling, Mogens Jensen, Will Cross, Yury Pritzker, Henry Voigt, Krushnaa Patil (female, 19), Bud Allen, and leader Dawa Steven. By the way, Dawa’s “cash for trash” project has already gathered 5 tons of garbage.

“We are expecting a weather front to move in on Friday, which should bring 1-2 inches of snow,” Bill added. “I expect we will wait this out before moving back up the mountain for our next rotation early next week.”

“Tim, Patrick, Craig, Gerardo, Todd and Daniel are heading up to C2 and hope to tag C3 and return to C2 before the snow comes, which looks like possibly May 3,” Peak Freaks’ Tim Rippel reported.

“We had another 11 Sherpas carry to the Col today,” IMG stated yesterday. “The plan is now to start fixing above the Col in a few days. Jangbu has put together a consortium representing about a half dozen teams to make it happen.”

Alpine Ascents team had a rather windy trip to C2 a couple of days ago. “We thought we'd share a video of just how blustery it really was,” JJ. Justman reported. “If you're at work, turn down your speakers,” JJ warned (Ed note: find link below).

Everest North side

Libor Uher’s team has crossed the Nepal/Chinese border and reached Nyalam today.

“The roads to Tingri are in much better shape than in 2007, because of the 2008’ Olympics,” reported Manuel Pizarro.

"This allowed us to arrive BC faster but, as with everything in life, with good also comes the bad. We climbed to 11,000 feet in a little less than 72 hours: we still have some acclimatization left and can cope although we are short of breath. However, we’ve met other mountaineers that literally were crushed by the altitude and had to descend all the way to Kodari.”

“They say that in mountaineering you know you are having fun when you are suffering,” SummitClimb reported yesterday. “Using this definition, the group members have been having a big party for the last several days."

"On 26 April we ascended to the North Col at 7000 metres/23,000 feet from ABC and then had a 22 kilometre descent from ABC to Chinese Basecamp the following day. On April 30th the team will ascend back to ABC, eventually sleep at camp 1 and camp 2, and then once again return to BC. After several rest days the third trip will be the summit attempt.”

Cho Oyu: space available

Spanish Al Filo team members are planning to climb up to C1 today and C2 tomorrow. “We’re barely 50 foreign climbers and about 20 high-altitude Sherpas in Cho Oyu BC,” member Alberto Ayora reported. “There are no more than eight teams attempting the (usually crowded) mountain this spring season.”

Links to 2009 Himalaya expeditions:

Lhotse-Everest traverse
Mountain.kz - expedition's official website
RussianClimb
Mount.kz

Everest South side:
Everest traverse - Bill Burke's blog
Alex Gavan
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
Gavin Bate's Adventure Alternatives
Dutch Everest team- Bernice Notenboom's blog
Jason Maehl
Peak Freaks - Everest updates
RMI Guides/First Ascent - Everest dispatches
Johnny & Brian Strange's dispatches
Asian Trekking - news
Yuri and Laura
Nic Cunningham's updates
John Golden's dispatches
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
Abramov's 7Summits-club
Adventure Consultants
Alpine Ascents
IMG
Mountain Madness
Jagged-Globe
Kenton Cool's dream Guides
Kari Kobler

Everest North side:
Czech Hornbein Couloir expedition - Libor Uher's website
Jarle Traa
Kanagawa University Alpine Club
Kobler&Partner
Lee Farmer
Serbian Everest expedition
Gabriel Filippi's posts

Kangchenjunga:
Edurne Pasaban
Jon Gangdal
Kinga Baranowska

Makalu:
Zangrilli's blog
Zangrilli's guiding blog
Roland Hunter's expedition blog
News on Vallejo, Iñurrategi, Zabalza - EiTB blogs

Annapurna:
Martin Minarik
Elisabeth Revol's blog
Valeri Babanov
Nives Meroi & Romano Benet

Lhotse:
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner - news
Ralf's Amical Alpin
Hirotaka Takeuchi's blog
David Göttler's website
Xavi Arias' blog
News on Mondinelli on Montagna.org

Manaslu:
Joao Garcia's expedition blog
Windhorse Trekking - News on KOrean Dynamic Busan
Andalusian female team - news
Lina Quesada
Carlos Pauner
Nick Rice's dispatches
Mario Merelli
Radek Jaros

Dhaulagiri
Piotr Morawski - news
Peter Hamor
Polish Tatra Rescuers team
News on Mehdi Etemadfar -MountainZone.ir
Luis Stitzinger - news
Nobukazu Kuriki - English blog

Cho Oyu
Al Filo Spanish team's website
Belgian expedition's website

Lesser Himalayan peaks:

Polish Nanda Devi East expedition
Moran's British Nanda Devi East expedition
Puryear and Gottlieb on Lunag Ri
Ben Clark - Baruntse updates
News on Russian Pumori and E-Gongga teams on RussianClimb

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