Climbers typically rest at base camp for several days to acclimate to reduce the risks and severity of altitude sickness. The best time to visit Mount Everest is in the spring and autumn for several reasons. Weather conditions in the high summit is notoriously difficult to predict. In the winter months, from January to March , Mount Everest is cold, but from afar, visitors can get some of the clearest and most beautiful glimpses of Mount Everest.
Snow, unsurprisingly, can be expected from December to February. From April to May, even mid-June , is arguably the ideal time to Mount Everest; not only is the peak often visible and clear.
For mountaineers, the climbing window between April and May is also one of the best times to attempt an ascent to the summit. From mid-June to August , summer may sound like the prime time to visit Mount Everest, but it is also monsoon season during which the mountain can receive large amounts of rainfall. During the monsoon season, the Everest peak is, more often than not, shrouded in mist. However, it is very cool in this season in Tibet and visitors can enjoy fine weather in other parts of the region.
Summer, then, is the best time to visit Tibet though visitors wishing to see the Everest peak may be disappointed. From September to November , after the monsoon passes and just before the harsh winter moves in, a small window of opportunity opens up for travellers eager to glimpse the mountain at its best.
Autumn is also the peak time for climbers, with many more climbers seeking to reach the summit than in the spring. Visitors who are interested in making the trek from Tingri to Everest Base Camp , the best time extends from mid-September to May, coinciding with the end of the monsoon season. By the end of September through December the weather tends to be relatively stable with mild to warm days and cold nights.
At this time such permits must be arranged via Tibet travel agencies such as Tibettravel. Trekkers on a two-week holiday were not willing or able to spend ten days in quarantine, so they stayed home. The teahouses were empty, only filled with climbing teams—the trails, eerily quiet. The mood in the Khumbu was somber as any expected windfall from this season slowly evaporated into the thin mountain air.
The first summits of on an meter mountain came on Annapurna. A stunning 67 people summited, shattering any previous one-day records. Nepal-based and Sherpa-owned operator Seven Summits Treks solidified their stranglehold on the ers with a simple model: overpower the mountain with many Sherpas to fix the route, break trail and guide commercial clients to the top.
This model is the same they use on Everest, and now used it successfully on K2, Annapurna, and had planned for it on Dhaulagiri. However, not everything went according to plan. The rope fixing team ran out of line above the High Camp, and the herd had to regroup and wait for a helicopter from Kathmandu to resupply the mission. After an uncomfortable night at several spots high on Annapurna, the chopper dropped off more rope, oxygen, and food.
The Sherpas continued their street building to get the masses to the top. Three Russians decided to spend an extra night after going a bit too slow, so the chopper returned and got them off the peak using a long line. In a blink, the face of mountaineering changed with all the gymnastics.
However, a few climbed in the traditional style of small teams. The Everest season progressed in the usual manner under fantastic weather. The notorious jet stream was on holiday south of Everest, so climbers made good use of the calm conditions to spend nights at Camp 2.
A few slept at Camp 3, but most were content to tag it or ignore it, knowing they would start using supplemental oxygen at Camp 2 around 21,feet instead of the traditional C3, another 2,feet higher.
This early and lower use of oxygen is another sea change on Everest today that caters to commercial clients, especially the ones lacking experience on an meter peak.
MoT officials, waking up after their champaign brunch, the hangover subsidizing, must have looked at the permit numbers again and realized that climbers, along with a Sherpa required for each foreigner, resulted in over people potentially on the mountain.
Shades of came into focus. In yet another unbelievable set of decisions demonstrating how totally out of touch they were with mountaineering, they dictated which team could climb when in the order that they received their team permit and a maximum of how many people could be on the mountain at one time. The operators just laughed and went about executing their plans.
The gates were open for the rest of the teams to start their summit bids. When asked, the MoT had their story ready. There are similarities between symptoms of high altitude sickness and Covid. But there is no equipment to find out if the sickness is Covid Media reports are not accurate to say that there is Covid in base camp. Some operators, afraid of being punished, implemented a gag order on their members and posted only happy talk, further undermining any semblance of transparency.
The collusion had begun and would get worse. In nearby India, the virus exploded. Nepal, with its open border, became a magnet for the disease. Hospitals became overrun, doctors and nurses in short supply, and low supplies of life-giving oxygen served as a rallying point for global criticism. The Everest climbers became enemies of the State.
Calls came from climbing organizations for all climbers in Nepal using supplemental oxygen to cancel their climbs and donate their Os to the hospitals. Falling on deaf ears, they called for the cylinders to be donated after the expeditions were over. But missed in this effort was the technical detail that the climbing canisters were small, significantly smaller than the six-foot cylinders used in hospitals. Sadly, the virus picked up speed throughout Nepal, and the situation became dire. Thousands of new cases each day, hundreds dying, had created an all-out crisis — full stop.
The government finally said it was out of control, and Nepalis were on their own. However, countries came to their aid. Middle Eastern countries, Spain, South Korea, the US, and even China and India began flying medical supplies to Kathmandu, including oxygen concentrators, cylinders, respirators, and more. He wrote on his public Facebook page this look behind the scenes:.
Thanks to my friends who were there and met me at arrival, I arrived last night just one day before all international flights are closed in Nepal. For the past three weeks, I have been interviewed by TV, radio, and newspapers from all over the world. I told them that this expedition was planned for almost three years. I had hundreds of training hours and other preparations. Besides, I had not got back what I had paid for the expedition because no insurance covers. I would not have traveled for any other reason.
I also told that we checked the infection situation in Nepal carefully before I went down. Among other things, after a close dialogue with our Sherpas down there. This development was impossible to predict.
Also, the fact that I was going up in the mountain a short time after arriving in Kathmandu felt safe. Some suggested that the Annapurna climbers who took a break in Pokhara got exposed there. In the confines of base camp, the virus spread quickly. Soon over 25 people, including members of the Nepal military there to clean up trash from base camp, were evacuated to Kathmandu for COVID treatment.
Again the MoT had no comment. After a few weeks, the season on this er came to an end with no summits due to the devastating impact of the virus. The strategy of denial and confusion began to take hold at EBC. Alex Txikon , who wanted to summit sans Os, ended his effort:. We thank the efforts of local agencies, especially Seven Summit Treks, all the people who accompanied us, and all the friends we left at BC in this context of a global pandemic.
Nepal saw a dramatic spike in new cases and closed the international airport in Kathmandu to all foreign flights from May 6 through May China joined the censorship coverup party with one of the most confounding moves ever for mountaineering with a press release that. A line in the snow, so to speak. A few weeks later, they canceled their entire expedition, citing virus concerns.
Michael Fagin, a long-time Everest forecaster at Everest Weather , was the first to send the alarm of a potential cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. It was odd in that it was forming east of India. Cyclone Tauktae developed quickly and moved onshore, then turned right directly towards Everest.
Fagin thought it might impact Everest around May Teams hearing this moved quickly to be in a position to summit and get back down before it hit. He supposedly took a helicopter from Camp 2.
Such are the perks of being a Prince, I suppose. He also allegedly flew to the high camps last year on Manaslu during his Everest training climb. The 12 member Bahrain team had 26 Sherpas in support. Success was widespread with Ascent Himalaya 5 members, 11 Sherpas. Peak Promotions and more from Seven Summits Treks saw success. Climbing the Seven Summits 7 members, 10 Sherpas , Imagine Nepal 6 members, 9 Sherpas were part of the summit parties in this period.
But, according to the Himalayan Times newspaper, public health experts thought it was a gross underestimation because of the limited number of tests. As has become expected, members die on Everest. Two clients of Seven Summits Treks died.
If they were infected, the world would never know. Perhaps the bombshell of the season occurred on May 15 when Austrian-based Furtenbach Adventures canceled his entire expedition. His 20 members, four guides, and 27 Sherpas were all acclimatized, their high camps stocked with supplies for the summit push.
He cited two primary reasons. First were legal issues that he and his team doctor could face for knowingly sending his customers on the summit push with the risk of injury or death magnified by COVID. The second was a moral issue that his customers made their own choices, but the Sherpas would be doing a job. Furtenbach fired back that Everest Base Camp was out of control with parties, limited testing, few teams enforcing quarantines, teams intermingling, members going down valley to teahouses, and other lax protocols.
However, even with all this protocol, Furtenbach had seven individuals who tested positive. But, more bad news emerged for this disastrous season. A second cyclone was developing—this one in the Bay of Bengal with May 25 as the target date for impacting Everest.
Once again, leaders scrambled to be in position for a quick run for the summit or hunker down at base camp and hope for a late-season window. With the warming temperatures as summer approached, the Icefall was becoming more unstable to complicate matters further. The Icefall Doctors said they would stop maintaining the route and remove the ladders on May The pressure to summit increased, and so did the winds.
The remanence of Cyclone Tauktae played cat and mouse with the aggressive teams. Madison Mountaineering hoped to get a jump on everyone and went to C3 only to find high winds.
They were forced to spend two nights there instead of the usual one miserable night. Another meteorologist, Marc De Keyser , with weather4expeditions. May 25 was the date for the newly named Cyclone Yaas. Kilian Jornet and David Goettler reportedly hoped to summit Everest via the West Ridge and then follow the ridge to Lhotse and perhaps Nuptse for a true traverse were caught by the weather just like everyone else.
They eventually called off their attempt citing health, not weather. The airport closure was extended to the end of the month. Foreign embassies called for their nationals to evacuate on charter flights. Other countries followed suit. China, Nepal Agree on Mt. More South and Central Asia Stories. Bus Bombing Kills Afghan Journalist. The Day in Photos. November 14, Back to top.
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