EVEREST 2008: Summit Attempts BEFORE May 1st? South Side Climber Planning Speed Ascent

The recent rules and regulations put in place by China and Nepal concerning this Spring’s Mt. Everest climbing season have many wondering if they will have enough time for a summit bid. From the north (Tibet) side, climbers are not being allowed on Everest at all before May 10th. From the South, climbers will be allowed to go up and acclimatize to Camp 2, before being forced down to Basecamp for a 10 day wait. At this point, climbing the higher reaches of Mt. Everest has only been banned for a 10 day period, May 1st-10th.

This leaves many questions–one of which: will someone be stopped from attempting a summit bid from the south before May 1st?

Saad Naseer, who is a member of the PeakFreaks Expedition, may be willing to test the waters. He is planning on a full speed onslaught of Mt. Everest in an attempt to set the record of a 21 day speed ascent from Kathmandu to the summit and back. Saad Naseer will be climbing without the aid of the usual couple of weeks worth of acclimatization that climbers usually partake in before attempting the summit.

Saad Naseer will be using a pretty new technology that will allow him to bypass this acclimatization process, or so he is hoping. AltitudeTech, a Toronto, Canada based company, has provided Naseer with a pre-climb acclimatization tent. This will allow Naseer to technically acclimatize before ever stepping foot on the world’s highest peak.

Last season seen the successful summit of 69 year old Werner Berger, who was the first person to enact the use of this tent. Naseer plans to be the second test. Perhaps after this test, the pre-climb accimatization tent will hit the market as a viable option for people with time restraints.

Another possibility, if it comes out that this acclimatization tent really helps, perhaps it could be used in helping to treat people with high-altitude sickness, that is if it is feasable to get up in the higher altitudes.

I am not sure yet when Saad Naseer is planning on making his run up the South side. I do know that his PeakFreak teammates are already in Kathmandu waiting on a couple of other members before setting off towards Everest–If he would go to it as soon as he gets there, pending weather and political issues, he could very well beat the deadline of May 1st on the South. Naseer would be forced to break trail though, if he does lead everyone across the starting line this season. If a trail is broke to the summit before May 1st, it would easily have to be rebroke and set after the ten day wait.

Another South side early summiter could very well end up being David Tait. David has rescheduled for a south expedition after the North was closed off. If you will remember from last season, David came to Everest very well prepared. So prepared, in fact, that Russell Brice felt comfortable allowing David to leave camp and make his way towards the Everest summit, almost a week in front of everyone else. David’s quick summit, and subsequent traverse to the South side (he climbed from the North (Tibet) side last season) allowed him to break trail for the South climbers, allowing them to make successful summit pushes in the coming days. He is a strong climber–likes to do things pretty much by himself, and I would not be surprised at all to see him try to beat the crowds with an early summit as well.

We will have to keep our eyes out for both of these guys to see if one will dare to try an early Everest summit before May 1st. I am not sure how the Chinese Torch Team would react to someone beating them to the summit.