Kangchenjunga: The Season's Last Summits?
Everest is not the only 8,000'er where time is running out; many climbers are betting on "now or never" pushes on Kangchenjunga.
Today, teams are reporting several summits, including 10 members of Mingma G's Imagine Nepal expedition. Amongst them, Naila Kiani of Pakistan bagged her 12th 8,000'er and fellow Pakistani Sirbaz Khan summited the peak again, just days after completing his no-oxygen 14x8,000'er quest. This time, Khan used supplemental oxygen because he was guiding, leader Mingma G told ExplorersWeb from Advanced Base Camp.
Other members of the summit group included Sashko Kedev of Macedonia (on his 13th 8,000'er with only Gasherbrum I to go), Wang Zhong of China, Hakon Asvang of Norway, and Maria Alexandra Danila of Romania. The guides included Khan, Pemba Chhiri Sherpa, Ngima Nuru Sherpa, Kili Pemba Sherpa, and Prem Bahadur Tamang.
Imagine Nepal's team will try to return to Advanced Base Camp today. At the time of writing (2:45 pm, Nepal time), they were near Camp 2.
Australian Allie Pepper is attempting to reach the summit without oxygen, she is supported by Mikel Sherpa. Earlier today, Pepper left Camp 3 at 6,800m and is slowly ascending. At 2:30 pm, her tracker put her at 7,350m, still far from the 8,586m summit.
As with Everest, teams have gained altitude gradually from camp to camp -- a strategy now possible with the large supplies of O2 -- and have launched summit pushes when the weather allowed over the last seven days. As on Everest, there were many summits on May 18, with teams taking advantage of relatively light winds at summit altitude.
For now, there is little information about those ascending or descending on Kangchenjunga. The descent is a serious challenge; Kangchenjunga is not only the third highest mountain on Earth, but the normal route is very long, longer even than the normal route on K2. It is an exhausting climb to the summit, but climbers need to save enough power for a descent involving steep sections and long plateau traverses.
The mountain has already taken a climber's life. On May 11, Margareta Morin of France died on her first 8,000m climb. Meanwhile, British climber Adrian Hayes was injured while descending and spent a night above 8,000m in the open. He eventually made it down and rescue services airlifted him to hospital for treatment.
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