Everest climbing season underway

The Everest climbing season is upon us, and once again there are dozens of teams attacking the mountain from both sides, Tibet and Nepal. (Yeah, it’s bad form to say “attacking” the mountain, especially since this one is the “mother goddess.” But if the climbers are mounting an assault to conquer the peak, the vocabulary is already tainted.)

The prognosis is for an early climbing season, with summit attempts possible within the next week, around May 1. In fact at any time we may hear that two climbers from Kazakhstan made the top – they set off from the north base camp two days ago, attempting the climb without supplemental oxygen.

Earlier in the season, the lama at Thyangboche Monastery was speculating that the best climbing would be accomplished between May 1 and May 10; now he’s saying the weather will turn bad May 17-June 2, generally the prime season for summitting Everest. Lots of unseasonal snowfall on unsteady slopes, a plethora of climbing teams that include many under-experienced dreamers… an uneasy situation. Pray for good sense to prevail.

The best place for round-the-clock coverage of climbing Everest, and other nearby Himalayan peaks as well, is the dedicated site http://www.mounteverest.net/ (part of the comprehensive Explorers Web). Latest news shows that the mountain has claimed a Sherpa who fell to his death near Camp Three on the south approach (from Nepal). Bad weather may be to blame – avalanches off the Lhotse Face are more frequent than usual, and the Khumbu Icefall had to be closed yesterday because of deteriorating conditions. Could this be another casualty of global warming?

It’s certainly global crowding. Up to 25 climbing teams are thought to be making Everest Base Camp their home this season, plus the trekkers who visit the place as the end point of their journey. And that’s just the south side -- the north side has also been busy, and in the news with its own set of problems. Five Americans were arrested this week protesting China’s claim on Tibet and the scheduled passage of the Olympic Torch through Tibet (by way of the summit of Everest) en route to Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games (see story).

Largest camp at EBC (south) this year is that of Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a medical project sponsored by the University of London and underwritten by British telephone entrepreneur John Caudwell. The Xtreme camp is over 100 tents, at the base of the Khumbu Icefall, to host the 40-some research scientists stuck there for almost three months, they each get their own tent – none of this sacrificial doubling-up for them.

In addition, some 200 volunteer research subjects are trekking in this spring to take part in the extensive project, on the effects of low oxygen levels in the blood, and they too need shelter. Add tentage for research, Sherpas, cooking and dining... it probably looks like Woodstock in the Snow.

Among the trek volunteers is sponsor John Caudwell himself, who is in Trek Group F expected to arrive at EBC next week. More details on the Xtreme Everest project can be found at their robust and timely website.

I am compiling a series of dispatches for MacGillivray Freeman Films, the IMAX production company that made the award-winning Everest (1997) about the ill-starred 1996 climbing season. They are in the midst of field production of Return to Everest 3D, which will pick up the story of several figures in the 1997 film and cover the Xtreme expedition as well. Mountain photographer Michael Brown is in the field now, working on his first IMAX production (his earlier work includes the award-winning Farther than the Eye Can See).

Three of the dispatches that MacGillivray Freeman are distributing to participating museums and IMAX theaters have already been released; I will be reprinting them here over the next several days, and tighten the time between their distribution and appearance here. The dispatches will also be presented as PDFs, available on the web only here. So, stay tuned for the the continuing story as it unfolds.