First lot of climbers head out to Everest summit
Over 400 climbers left basecamp for higher camp early Friday morning aiming to reach the summit of Everest by May 14, right after the rope fixing team opens route to the summit.
Around one third of the 2,000 people at Everest base camp has left for higher camp Friday morning as the rope fixing team headed out to Camp IV on Thursday to finish opening route up to the summit.
“The climbers are following right behind the rope fixing team to scale the world’s highest peak as the weather window is ideal after May 14,” said Khimlal Gautam, government official coordinating this season’s expedition at the base camp.
At 4 am, Khumbu Icefall, the treacherous section of the Everest route, was lit with headlights of the climbers. A long line of climbers can be seen snaking up to Camp II as the moon shone at the base camp tent, a rare view of Everest expedition that Gautam has captured. “This is just a start of the long march to the summit,” Gautam, who scaled the peak twice—in 2011 and 2019 -said. He was the leader of Nepal government survey team that measured the peak in 2019.
This year the route opening has been delayed due to bad weather. A serac collapse at the Khumbu Icefall swept three Sherpa guides into the Khumbu crevasses, which also delayed the rope fixing.
“Our team will try to fix the route to the summit on May 13-14,” Mingma Gyalje Sherpa aka Mingma G, of Imagine Nepal updated his post on social media. This year, Imagine Nepal has been awarded the task of fixing rope to the summit.
Nepal has issued a record 466 climbing permits, which could cause traffic jam at some point. However, the weather is predicted to be good until May 19, which gives enough time for everyone to attempt the peak.
“No one wants congestion on the way. So, expedition teams are coordinating with each other in order to avoid crowds,” said Gautam.
Nepal has been cautious about potential crowding at death zone. In 2019, a photograph of climbers queueing up at the summit of Everest taken by Nirmal Purja Magar ‘Nimsdai’ went viral, due to which Nepal was heavily criticized for issuing climbing permits for everyone. However, mountain community has been maintaining that weather window ideally determines the number of climbers on the mountain.
Gautam said that the summit attempt will continue till the end of the month if weather permits. “The successful summits though will likely be between May 14 to 18,” he said, adding, “About 60 percent summits will take place during this period.”
