Indonesian Digital News Archive

The next few days could potentially be exciting ones on both Everest and Lhotse. The promised weather window appears to be on track and ready to open starting tomorrow, which will grant access to the summit at last. As a result, the teams that have been struggling there most of the fall are now ready to make the final push to the top.

Among them is Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki, who is attempting the West Ridge of Everest alone and without oxygen. Kuriki has spent much of the past week in Camp 2, waiting for his opportunity to go higher, and over the weekend he was able to move up to Camp 3 in order to get into position for his summit bid. According to his Facebook page, Kuriki will stay in C3 for today, gather his strength and wait out the weather. Tomorrow he'll proceed up to Camp 4 and weather permitting he'll go to for the summit on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Polish team led by Artur Hajzer climbed up the South Col route over the weekend and now have five climbers in Camp 4. Their weather forecasts indicate that starting tomorrow things improve quite nicely with a window that will remain open late into the week. Having struggled in high winds and snowy conditions the past few days, the team is a bit weary and battered, but they are excited to get the chance to tag Lhotse's summit at last. If the weather window stays open as expected, a second group of climbers will attempt to make another summit bid on Friday.

Finally, there have been no updates from the Korean team that is attempting Everest along the traditional South Col route but presumably they'll be moving into position as well. It wouldn't at all be surprising to learn that they are also in Camp 4 and waiting on the weather window tomorrow as well, but for now we'll just have to wait to see if they are able to complete their climb as well.

Good luck to all the climbers. Stay safe and get up and down in one piece.

As the weekend draws near, more information is creeping out about the teams that remain on Everest and Lhotse who are hoping to make summit pushes sometimes in the next few days. We've known for awhile now that there is a Japanese climber (identified as Nobukazu Kuriki) and a Korean team on Everest and a Polish squad hoping to summit Lhotse, but beyond that details have been scare. Thanks to Explorers Web, we now have a clearer picture of these teams and their ultimate goals.

According to an update from ExWeb, the Korean team is the 2012 Everest Peace Expedition from the Gang-Won University Alpine Club. The group is led by Himalayan vet Sung-Wook Hong, and includes the following members: Bong-Ha Park, Young-Hoon Oh, Jin-Seok Kim, Joo-Hwan Ahn, Seok-Joo Woo Young-Rae Kim, Jin-Young Jeong, Keun-Young Choi, and Il-Jin Im. Updates from the team have been a bit sporadic, but a few days back they indicated that they were in Base Camp on the South Side of the mountain, waiting out the weather. Their forecasts indicate that a shift could come in the next four days, and they are preparing to make a summit bid when that happens.

The Polish Lhotse team is essentially in the same boat. It is a young squad led by Artur Hajzer who have also been hoping to wait out the weather. ExWeb quotes Hajzer as saying that his considerable experience in the Himalaya tells him the weather won't make a permanent change until late October or into November, and if they stay patient they'll get their opportunity. They're planning on starting for the summit of Lhotse this weekend with an eye on topping out in the Sunday or Monday timeframe. Since Everest and Lhotse share the same route up to Camp 4, they'll likely be climbing in tandem with the Korean team over the next few days.

As for Kuriki, he's making a solo, but supported, climb along the very dangerous and isolated West Ridge. As if that route wasn't challenging enough, he's also going up without oxygen. The latest news from his Facebook page indicates that he is still in Camp 2 today waiting for the weather window to open. He believes that will happen in the next day or two as well. His forecasts indicate the winds will drop on October 15 or 16, providing access to the summit for a short time. If thats true, he'll start to move up tomorrow and Sunday so that he'll be ready to take advantage of the calm (relatively speaking!) conditions.

Seems like it should be an exciting weekend on Everest and Lhotse. Wish these teams luck and lets hope the weather cooperates. In the meantime, check out the latest YouTube video from Kuriki which he posted this morning. It is some beautiful images from the Himalaya that are sure to inspire.

The fall Himalaya climbing season is slowly grinding to a halt as the jet stream seems to have already shifted across the region, bringing unpredictable weather conditions and high winds with it. That hasn't deterred a few climbers that remain on their mountains, hoping to get one last weather window that will allow them access to the summit. Two mountains that still have climbers in place are Everest and Lhotse, where teams are moving up although their chance at success remains very much up in the air.

One climber that has set some ambitious goals for himself this fall is Nobukazu Kuriki who is attempting a true solo summit of Everest without oxygen and along the West Ridge no less. According to updates on has Facebook and Twitter pages, Kuriki arrived in Camp 2 yesterday amidst high winds, which he is hoping will die down in the next day or two. The forecast indicates that low pressure could settle over Everest this weekend, giving him an opportunity to make a summit bid, but for now he sits and waits to see if he'll be able to move up. The Japanese climber has been sharing videos of his progress and you'll find his most recent video below.

Alan Arnette says that this is Kuriki's fourth attempt on Everest , with his most recent expedition taking place last fall. He also has solo climbs on  Denali, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro and Carstensz Pyramid, while also knocking off 8000 meter climbs on Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Dhaulagiri.

Meanwhile, Alan also reports that the Korean team that I mentioned last week is still attempting the South Col route on Everest, although there has been no updates on their progress. Similarly, the Polish team on Lhotse, which shares much of the same route as Everest, is reportedly still on the mountain and still hoping to summit as well. Last week we knew that they had reached as high as Camp 4 on the mountain, which means they should be well acclimatized and read to go, weather permitting.

Finally, over on Dhaulagiri teams have called it quits for the season as well. Carlos Soria has decided that the mountain is simply too unstable to attempt a summit bid, so the 74-year old Spaniard is heading home, saying that he has learned that you must climb the mountain in the spring, when conditions are more stable. The Summit Climb team, led by Dan Mazur, came to that same conclusion a few days back and that squad is headed home too.

That means it is all eyes on Everest and Lhotse to see how we'll finish out the season.

It looks like predictions of the end of the fall season in the Himalaya are proving to be true. This past weekend there were summit bids scheduled on several mountains across the area despite the fact that the jet stream had begun to settle in at the higher altitudes. But those summit attempts were stalled out, at least on Makalu, due to high winds.

One of the climbers who saw her climb brought to an abrupt end was Billi Bierling. She had been on Makalu for the past six week and expected to top out last week until her Sherpa team put Camp 4 in the wrong place. Billi and the rest of her squad had hoped to rest up and give it one more go this past weekend, setting out for the summit on Friday with the hopes of topping out today. Unfortunately they only made it as high as Camp 2 before returning to Base Camp due to the high winds on the upper slopes. The weather forecasts didn't look promising for the days ahead, so the expedition was cancelled and the climbers started for home. After 10+ hour trek to Yangle Kharka yesterday and a brief helicopter ride to this morning, Billi is already back in Kathmandu and promising more information on her experience soon.

Commercial guide service Alpenglow Expeditions posted a dispatch explaining the situation on Makalu as well. They note that they decided to pull the plug on their climb due to the dire forecasts which show no break in the winds for the next two weeks and beyond that it is impossible to tell. Sitting and waiting for two weeks without knowing what lies beyond simply wasn't an option, so they pulled up camp, collected their gear and hit the trail for home. The dispatch hints at more than a little frustration with the situation but such is the experience when climbing in the Himalaya, where the weather is always unpredictable and even more so at this time of the year.

There is also late season news from Manaslu, where EpicTV reports that amidst the tragedy of the avalanche, and the triumph of the summits that followed, one success story was over looked. Last week, German skier Benedikt Bohm became the first person to successfully climb and make a ski descent of the mountain without the use of supplemental oxygen. More impressively, he also made the climber from Base Camp to the summit and back in under 24 hours. Bohm is part of the Dynafit ski team, which also played an instrumental role in helping aid the survivors of the avalanche. Strong members of that team were amongst the first on site in Camp 3 when word of the accident reached the other teams. This is a tremendous achievement on the part of Benedikt and congratulations are certainly in order.

The other two mountains that were expecting summit attempts this past weekend were Everest and Lhotse. I haven't seen any updates on the progress of the teams on those two mountains yet, but it is likely that the jet stream may have prevented them from going up as well. We'll just have to wait for dispatches from Nepal to get word on their success.

Over the past six weeks or so, we've been following the fall Himalayan climbing season quite closely, watching as various teams attempt to summit Makalu, Dhaulagiri and of course Manaslu. But it seems there may have been a few teams flying under the radar and ExWeb now reports that there may be summit bids brewing on Everest and Lhotse as well.

According to this story, posted late yesterday, there is a large Korean team, consisting of ten members, who are attempting Everest along the South Col route. Perhaps more intriguing, ExWeb also says that there is a lone Japanese climber who hopes to summit along the seldom visited West Ridge as well. Those teams haven't been alone in Base Camp this fall however, as the report also indicates that there is a seven member Polish team, along with another two-person team, that are attempting to climb Lhotse. As many of you know, Everest and Lhtose share the same face, only diverging at Camp 4 where climbers go their separate ways.

Apparently this has been a relatively fast climb. ExWeb says that the Ice Doctors didn't have the route through the Khumbu Ice Fall finished until September 19 and the teams have worked with limited Sherpa support. Some of then even built their own high camps in preparation for the summit bids. The Polish squad as reportedly been as high as Camp 4 this past weekend and are now preparing to make their summit attempt ahead of the shift in the jet stream.

The weather forecasts say that the jet stream has already settled in over the region, but there will be a lull in wind speeds around the 8th. That means that any teams left in the Himalaya who hope to top out this fall need to get underway now with the hope that they can finish their climbs on Monday. Among those who are making a last minute attempt is Billi Bierling, who thought her chances of summiting Makalu were over after her Sherpa team put their Camp 4 in the wrong place. Billi left BC this morning with an eye on topping out early next week.

Stay tuned for more updates when we get them. It seems we have one more potentially busy weekend in the Himalaya before the season comes to an abrupt end next week.

There has been a fairly consistent theme across the Himalaya climbing updates the past few days and it almost always revolves around the weather. Across the region the weather conditions have played a direct impact on what is happening at the moment, with a number of teams stalled out as they wait for conditions to clear.

On both sides of Everest high winds are causing issues and keeping the teams in Camp 2 or lower. The winds are so bad that that the Sherpa teams haven't had the chance to finish fixing the ropes to the summit on either side of the mountain yet, and until those gusts die down, access to the top will be extremely limited. Numerous teams are also reporting that conditions have been colder, windier and dryer than normal this year, which has not made life pleasant on the mountain. Because it is so dry, the climbers are looking at the possibility of climbing in crampons on bare rock, which is very challenging and dangerous. Snow and ice would be much more preferable to that, but it seems unlikely that they'll see any significant snow fall before the summit push begins.

Ueli Steck has announced that he is on his way to the Big Hill and he gets a bit philosophical in his latest dispatch from the Khumbu. He notes that while his ascent of Ama Dablam with Freddie Wilkinson was a good warm-up expedition, now that his plans for the Khumbu Express II have fallen apart, he is now completely focused on Everest. He's still weighing his options for the climb and is flirting with the idea of going up the West Ridge. He isn't ruling out a speed ascent of some type, or possibly going up without fixed ropes. He says that he feels that he isn't quite as driven as he has been in the past and he can accept what ever comes his way. He also says he is examining other challenges (The New York Marathon!) and is less prone to taking risks at this point. Still, this is the Swiss Machine we're talking about here, and we all know that if conditions are right, he'll still do something special.

A few days back I mentioned that the route up Lhotse was especially dangerous this year due to the lack of snow and ice keeping loose rock in place. The Sherpas fixing the ropes on that peak were going to have to route around the area to lead climbers up a different way this season. Apparently this new route will present some unique challenges of its own but work on those ropes has stalled out as well due to the same winds that are affecting Everest.

On Manaslu, the Adventure Consultants team has returned to Camp 1 where they've found plenty of fresh snow. In fact, several meters have dropped on the area, completely burying their camp. Further up the route has plenty of snow blocking the way, so while the conditions are currently good, it is going to be tough breaking trail to Camp 2.

Also reporting in from Manaslu is Allie Pepper who is hoping to top out on that peak before heading over to Lhotse. Her latest dispatch talks about the heavy snow there this season and also mentions that the Sherpa teams have not been able to fix ropes up to C2 just yet. She says that they hope to resume that work tomorrow and are keeping their fingers crossed that the sun will help clear the way for that to happen.

The teams on Annapurna came across similar conditions as they made another summit bid yesterday. They found that there was too much snow between Camp 2 and 3 on that mountain, and they determined that the chances of an avalanche were simply too high for them to proceed. They've now retreated back to Base Camp where they'll wait for another shot at top.

All of these reports are simply business as usual in the Himalaya. There is a lot of "hurry up and wait" progress at the moment, which is typical for this stage of the season. Weather reports indicate that things could improve over the weekend, and if they do, we'll probably see a lot of action. Stand by for updates.