Everest 2008: Chinese Olympic Torch Expedition–SUMMIT PUSH IS ON!

Quick Update to the following post: Kraig, over at The Adventure Blog is reporting on a story on ESPN that states climbers are currently sitting at 25, 560 Ft on the North side, the usual spot for Camp 5. Not sure where ESPN has gotten this info, but it looks as if the climbers are definitely in place for a run to the summit! From the ESPN Update:

The command center has given its order for the final assault tomorrow,” Shao Shiwei of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games told reporters.

Will Update a bit more as I get more info.. 2:12pm May 7, 2008

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It looks like the Chinese Olympic Torch expedition is currently heading towards the summit with top-out likely sometime after midnight tonight. ExplorersWeb first made the anouncement, but reports are now surfacing on the Official Olympic Torch relay site as well.

From the Torch Relay site:

“A total of 19 mountaineers have been selected to bring the Olympic flame to the summit of Mount Qomolanga (known in the West as Mount Everest), the mountaineering headquarters announced at a press conference tonight. They will likely reach the peak between 10:00-11:00 a.m. (2:00-3:00 a.m. GMT) on May 8.

This comes on the heels of reports suggesting that a couple of the Chinese expedition members had tried for a summit on May 5th, but were turned around due to blizzard like conditions in the high altitude of Mt. Everest.

Silvio ‘Gnaro’ Mondinelli, who was on a summit push of his own on Kalapatter with teammates on May 5th, reported in to ExplorersWeb:

We have just seen the Chinese approaching the summit!” reported Silvio ‘Gnaro’ Mondinelli on May 5. “They were at 8,600m, in the middle of a very strong blizzard. They couldn´t make
it.” Silvio and his mates watched the attempt live… from the summit of Kalapattar.

“It was a large team of about 10 people,” Mondinelli said. “They had overcome the Second Step, but then the storm forced them down without reaching the summit.”

EverestNews, who had been following the Chinese Expedition pretty closely, has not released any new updates other than suggesting that China did not make the summit on May 5th. No word of today’s assault on Everest’s summit by the Chinese team.

From Nick Mulveney’s Olympic Torch Blog, who happens to be following the action as a Reuters reporter (and currently stationed at Everest’s northern base camp, we get a bit more on the recent developements:

“If the word around camp is anything to go by, the final assault on the summit of Everest will begin in the early hours of Thursday morning. Journalists and accompanying officials have spent much of the day taking souvenir photos and snapping up post cards at the “world’s highest post office”.

A paragraph later, Nick also says the following:

“The rumours would appear to be based on nothing more than collective will (or hysteria,perhaps)

Jumping over to the BBC News site, (they had also been updating reports live from base camp), they have not posted anything new since May 1st. It has been suggested that the BBC may have been banned from base camp and may explain why nothing new is being reported.

Yesterday, China released information about the Chinese Olympic Torch Relay team on Mt. Everest. Here is the news report from CCTV:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=212fzv1Qcdw]

I think it is pretty safe to say that China is definitely making a new assault on the summit of Mt. Everest, Since their own “Official” Olympic Torch Relay site has suggested the same. I guess over the coming hours we will have to wait and se how it goes. The weather has ben playing a major role in recent days, but current summit conditions, from EverestWeather, would suggest that the winds have died down and the temperature is holding steady. You can see the latest Everest weather update on the right-hand sidebar on this site. Let’s hope for the best so that everyone else can get on with doing what they need to do on the south side.

Speaking of the south side, Peak Freaks has suggested that a few of their Sherpas have been allowed to leave Camp 2 and begin laying ropes to Camp 3. Everyone is probably starting to clamber around a bit more on the south, especially if they have heard that China is currently moving up on the north. May 10th lingers on the horizon. Let’s just hope that this might go as planned. Keeping the fingers crossed!