Peak season in the Nepal Himalaya

It is currently summit week on Everest, with strong pre-monsoon storms lashing the world’s highest mountain. Climbers and their Nepali guides alike are making their way up the mountain in the hundreds. 

Although there have not been traffic jams seen in previous years, there could still be bottlenecks on the southeast ridge on weather windows on the last week of climbing in May. And now there is a cyclone heading towards the Bay of Bengal right before the end of the spring season. There have been some first ascents, ultramarathons, rescues and even wingsuit dives planned off Lhotse. 

“When summits happen is absolutely dependent on the weather windows,” explains Khim Lal Gautam, Chief Survey Officer at Everest Base Camp, who has summited the mountain twice.  

Spring 2024 has seen fewer summits on Everest than previous years, but there have been some notable alpine style climbs on other Himalayan peaks with no bottled oxygen or Sherpa support.

Even as the climbing season draws to a close, came word that Apple’s Tenzing Norgay biopic is set to star Willem Dafoe as John Hunt and Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary. Tenzing’s character has yet to be cast. 

China has opened its side of the peak for the first time since 2021, although it has kept Cho Oyu and Shishapangma closed. In comparison to Nepal side, the northeast ridge on Everest is usually less crowded, is open till mid-June and attracting ‘flash’ teams who go on very short expeditions of three-six weeks. Such expeditions require members to acclimatise at home in tents that simulate low oxygen conditions.  

The crowded south side route has some higher-end expeditions, willing to bear the cost of extra days at base camp to wait for traffic to clear up.

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Preliminary permit data showed that the number of expeditions was much lower than in 2023, but the total has climbed to 414, with about 300 climbers and Sherpas having summited so far. Bhutan also put its first climber on the top of Everest.

The 2023 season saw 18 fatalities -- a record. This season started out safer, but is slowly turning out quite deadly. There have been three deaths so far and four more are missing. 

Two Mongolians climbing without guides or oxygen died after summiting last week, and a Romanian climber died at Camp 3 on Tuesday. A British national and a high altitude guide were swept away onto the Kangshung Face when a section of ice near the Hillary Step fell away on Wednesday. A Kenyan national attempting a no-oxygen summit and his Sherpa guide have gone missing close to the summit, also on 22 May. 

Video footage retrieved from the phones of the Mongolian pair showed that they did in fact reach the top, although it does seem that they did end up having to use bottled oxygen.  Their families, devastated at the news, are waiting in Kathmandu. Many Mongolians, however, have celebrated the pair for having accomplished what they set out to do.

“Most likely what happened with the Mongolian climbers was that they ran out of oxygen on the descent,” said Alan Arnette, who has been covering Everest since 2004. “The Romanian death is, sadly, one of those expected that happen every season because of the harsh conditions and exertion.” 

Their story brings to mind the Mallory-Irvine expeditions exactly 100 years ago on the northeast ridge of Everest. They were last seen alive only 240m below the summit, Mallory’s body was located only in 1999 but there is no evidence that they reached the top. 

Besides the two Mongolians, others have also done no-oxygen climbs. Sirbaz Khan, from Pakistan, is collaborating with the Imagine Nepal team to complete his 11th no-oxygen 8000er. Piotr Krzyzowksi from Poland climbed Lhotse without oxygen, as did Hugo Ayaviri from Bolivia. Ayaviri also climbed without guide support and was thinking about doing Everest too. Currently, he has returned to Base Camp, slightly frostbitten.

Jigme Pelden Dorje became Bhutan’s first Everest summiteer this week.  Bhutan was the only Himalayan country without someone who had reached the top.

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There have been several individuals with multiple ascents this season, which is nothing new for the Sherpas but novel to climbers. 

Kami Rita Sherpa reached the top twice, beating his own record to notch up 30 summits – a record. Dawa Funzok Sherpa is attempting a fourth summit for the season, and photojournalist Purnima Shrestha is going for her third. Ukrainian guide Valentyn Sypavin scaled Everest twice, then climbed Lhotse, and now plans to do Everest again.

“I don’t know if I would want to depend on a guide going on their fourth ascent,” said Arnette, “It is extremely draining to summit.”

Questions have been raised as to whether one permit should allow for multiple summits. The government’s stance seems to recognise the first climb and deem the others unofficial, but not illegal.  

However, with Sherpa to client ratios growing, overcrowding is already an issue on the routes to the summit, especially from Camp 3 and up during the narrow weather windows. This trend could jeopardise the safety of other climbers, especially those on no-oxygen climbs.  

Nims Purja, the star of ‘14 Peaks’, has faced accusations of taking clients with cheaper Lingtren permits to Camp 3 on Everest, and of faking a rescue to take a chopper to Camp 2 from Kathmandu via Lukla. Earlier, Purja mounted an expedition to Shishapangma with a special permit from the Chinese to recover the bodies of team members who died in an avalanche on the 8,000m peak last autumn. The rescue team cut new routes to retrieve the bodies of American Anna Gutu and Mingmar Sherpa. 

Purja, an ex-British Special Forces member famed for climbing all 14 8000ers in six months and six days, called the recovery mission one of his most challenging climbs. 

Gutu had been competing with Gina Marie Rzucidlo, accompanied by Tenjen Sherpa--both of whom were also killed in an avalanche half an hour earlier. Both trying to be the first American women to complete all 14 8000ers and were on their last mountain. The competition led them to push for the summit too soon after a snowfall, when the snow isn’t bonded yet and avalanche danger is high. 

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Alpine Style

In addition to non-oxygen summits, there have been other unique, trailblazing ascents. A Korean-Nepali team summited the unclimbed 6,591m Jugal I. The cluster of mountains around Jugal, located 35km north of Kathmandu were only opened to climbers last year. The group is now planning to climb Jugal II.

Americans Patrick Johnson and Patrick Gephart climbed a new route on the Northeast Pillar of 6,487m Tengkangpoche in Rolwaling Himal on 23 April. Climbing strictly alpine style, the pair rated the climb a WI3+, a Water Ice climbing grade given to climbs with a near vertical gradient but good places to rest and place screws.

Late last year, Tim Miller from Scotland and Paul Ramsden from the UK had completed a first ascent of Surma-Sarovar in Bajhang, having planned the summit with no more than images from Google Earth. It was an eight day climb, with four of the days dedicated to climbing the 2,100m north face. In Spring 2022, the same duo also were the first to ascent Jugal Spire alpine style, a feat for which they earned the highest honour in mountaineering, the Piolet d’Or.

Other Adventures  

Besides climbing, there has also been some running. The Great Himal Race, a west-to-east marathon along the Great Himalayan Trail, is on Stage 42 out of 51.

The runners are currently in Sagarmatha National Park at Chheplung, and are scheduled to finish at Kanchenjunga Base Camp on 31 May. A separate race, the Everest 135, was also held in early May. It is a gruelling 135-mile race that starts at Jiri and ends at Everest Base Camp. 

British alpinist and BASE jumper Tim Howell was attempting a wingsuit jump from Lhotse, which would be a record for the highest jump of its type. Howell and his team had been climbing new routes on Lhotse in order to find ideal launch and exit sites. Howell reached an unclimbed point on the Lhotse Ridge 8,200m high where he was to jump from, but he had to cancel as cloudy weather persisted.

“Climate change is having a large impact on Everest, especially on the Khumbu Ice Fall. I see a point in time where climbers are forced to take the north route or helicopter rides to Camp 2 become a routine part of the expedition,” said Arnette.

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