Everest 2008: Mike Browder, Climbing with Summitclimb Expedition, in Trouble on Everest–Updated

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Mike Browder, who is a part of the Summitclimb Expedition on Mt. Everest this season, is in trouble. He was going for a late season summit bid as Summitclimb, one of the last teams on Everest this season, was looking to finish up what had, thus far, been a successful expedition.

From SummitClimb (through EverestNews)

Mike Browder seems to be in trouble on the south summit. He’s with Pasang Sherpa and Lakpa Sherpa, two of our best. It seems he is snow blind, and they are trying to get him down. As soon as we heard the news, we sent two more sherpas, Gyelzen and Sangay up from camp 2 to camp 4 with extra oxygen, food, water, and emergency equipment. We are very worried and doing everything possible to get Mike down safely. Our prayers go out to Mr. Browder and the entire sherpa team. We will keep you informed.

Here are the details that I know. I know that this is an ongoing situation on Mt. Everest. Mike Browder had started his push for the summit on May 27, where he was sitting at the South Col with Pasang Gyalu Sherpa and Lhakpa Gyalu Sherpa. At that point, he was looking good and everything was going as planned. At 6 am this morning, Mike, and his two climbing Sherpas arrived at the South Summit. The South Summit, is not THE summit of Mt. Everest. The South Summit is reached at an elevation of 28,700 feet. The “True” summit, or the one all climbers are striving for sits at 29, 029 Feet, just a couple hundred feet higher.

From this point on, the SummitClimb dispatches do not mention that Mike had made it to the summit of Mt. Everest. This is important to point out, only in the fact of where he could be positioned at this time, which, in the post above, is said to be the South Col at 28,700 Feet. Camp 4, where the additional Sherpa support have been dispatched with extra Oxygen, food, water, and emergency supplies sits at 26, 300 feet. When looking at the actual feet, or the distance one has to go from the South Col to Camp IV, you can think that this isn’t far at all and he should be fine, especially with the added support of his Sherpa team. Let me remind you, this is Mt. Everest. Mike is in the “death zone”, his body is shutting down, he is blind. Each step forward involves a break to gasp for air. The climb from Camp IV to the summit takes close to 12 hours on a good day, the return trip down can be done in four. All of this is not even mentioning the wind–which, from a couple different sources yesterday, had picked up quite a bit. -30 degree temperatures and winds in excess of 30-40 knots can definitely add a whole new degree of difficulty.

Hopefully Mike will be able to be bought down. Over the course of May 22-23, we heard of a few rescues taking place on Mt. Everest. Many of these involved climbers who had become snowblind. The reflection of the sun’s rays off the peaks snow and ice can be killer on your vision.

It is now 8am in the morning where I currently live, in the United States. In Nepal, it is roughly 6-7 pm. On Everest, climbers are expected to be back at Camp IV no later than 4 pm. This incident could very well be over. Mike could be sitting at Camp IV as we speak, but no update has been given. Given Sumitclimb’s experience in handling matters of this nature, hopefully Mike can be bought down safely and without to much drama. Would hate to end a pretty good year, as far as safety issues, on Mt. Everest with bad news.

I will try to keep you posted as I find out more.

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For Latest Update–8:57 am May 29, 2008–Click Below

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SummitClimb has dispatched a new update on Mike Browder:

At 4:00 am this morning we heard that Mike is on the South Col with 4 sherpas and they are preparing to help Mike down the mountain to camps 3 and 2. We sent an additional sherpa, Tenzing, up with more supplies and oxygen to assist, so Mike will now have 5 sherpas helping him. We are doing all we can to get him down and send Mike and the rescue team all of our prayers.