Everest 2009 Update: Icefall Doctors Begin Work, Teams Heading To South Basecamp, North Side–Opened or Closed??

April 6, 2009

The action surrounding the 2009 Mt. Everest climbing season is starting to heat up. Teams are already well in route and some have even trekked in to the South Side basecamp. Some of the early South basecamp arrivals include a large Indian Expedition, a Korean Expedition, as well as Altitude Junkies–as Alan Arnette reports:

But teams have made it and some are now at base camp including a large Indian team plus Altitude Junkies’ leader Phil Crampton and his Sherpas and cooks. Most teams are in mid trek spending the nights in the teahouses along the way. Only the most economical (or purists) spend the nights in tents since the teahouses are quite comfortable, safe and clean. In fact that is part of the experiences of trekking the Khumbu and one I would not want to miss.

Over the next few days many more teams will be trekking into Basecamp from Lhukla–which is generally about a 15 mile journey on foot.

The famous Icefall Doctors have began their work to install the ladders and ropes across one of Mt. Everest’s most dangerous features: The Khumbu Icefall. This is part of the yearly ritual, but always a good sign that things are going as planned and are right on schedule. The Icefall Doctors–generally consisting of three Sherpas–probably have one of the most dangerous and respected jobs on Everest. Without their work (and the danger they put themselves in.) Many expeditions would be scrambling to find a way around the treacherous ice seracs and crevasses. Quite honestly, without this work being done, most expeditions would probably pass on a South Side expedition. Teams will be looking to use the ropes and ladders as they migrate up to Camp 1 in the coming weeks.

North Side (Tibet) Opened or Closed??

There were some early reports circulating that China had decided to once again close the North side of Mt. Everest again. These were originally attributed to a Chinese ‘cleanup’ effort on and around Mt. Everest. Then the North side was reopened and China played it off as rumors. Teams began to scramble for North side permits. After a full season of Everest’s North side being closed, many teams were looking forward to a return. Then Everest was closed again. (Can the Chinese make up their minds?) The second closing of Mt. Everest’s North Side was attributed to violence in Tibet–most teams quickly switched their Expedition, or joined other’s permits to climb from the South Nepali side. China then reassured everyone that the North was going to be open for climbing, but not until April 5th.

The North side of Mt. Everest is generally the first side to make a successful summit. There are two reasons for this: the first is that climbers don’t have to fight through the Khumbu Icefall. The second reason is that the North is generally the first side to have all the ropes in place and up the route. Much of this has been due to the efforts of Russell Brice, whose Himex Expedition has generally controlled the rope setting on Everest. After Chinese officials couldn’t make up their minds on whether Everest was going to be opened or closed from the Tibetan Side, Himex decided to head South–as well as most other teams. As it currently sits, it looks like there will possibly be 8 expeditions taking place on the North. Those numbers are down quite drastically from the 25 to 30 from 2007. (The Chinese had the only expedition in 2008 with their Olympic Torch team. They shut down the mountain to everyone else.)

So is the North opened or closed?

On April 2nd, Adventure Peaks sent a report in to EverestNews saying that the Tibetan border was still closed. On April 5th, Alan Arnette is reporting an email from the Canadian Mad Frogs Expedition saying that the team should be arriving in Tibet within the week. As of right now, I guess the news is that nobody really knows if China has officially opened the Tibet border to tourists and climbers. News reports did widely suggest that the border had been reopened, but no ‘official’ word has come down from any of the North Side expeditions. I guess we will see in a week.

There were a couple of climbers who had originally planned to do an Everest Traverse–Climbing up one side of Mt. Everest, and down the other. The interest with the Tibet border closing has made these climbers reevaluate their expeditions. One of these men, Bill Burke, who switched his traverse to a South Side climb, is now saying that if the border is open and climbing permits are available, his traverse might be back on. This is coming from an ExplorersWeb Update.

ExplorersWeb is also reporting that Nobukazu Kiriki will be taking part in a North Side expedition and is planning on doing so with no O2 and on his own. That could be something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks. No website was given for Kiriki, so I am not sure about getting updates and so forth. Anyone know about this? Also if anyone gets word on the Tibet border situation, please drop us an update by using the Contact Form.

Everest Coverage Update: You may have noticed the nifty scrolling marque at the top of this page. I still have a few bugs to work out of it, but by clicking the Expedition names you should be able to go directly to their live updates pages for the 2009 Mt. Everest climbing season. After this season is over, I will probably use that space for breaking news and items of interest. You can also catch the latest Everest updates on The Adventurist by clicking Everest 2009.

Climbing News: I have added a new page to The Adventurist entitled ‘Climbing News.’ This feature will take you to a page of RSS feeds from some of the top climbing websites and blogs on the internet. These include Alan Arnette’s website, UKClimbing.com, Rock and Ice, Climbing Narc, All Climbing, etc. If you have ever seen the topic specific pages at AllTop, then you will know the basis behind this new addition. It should offer some relevent news and insight to your daily reading–with the bonus of constant updates on the hour. Check it out.

By the way, Why does EverestNews and ExplorersWeb not have an RSS feed for their sites yet? That could be a good addition to your sites. I give this same reccomendation to all the Expedition companies. Get your news out there! You can find mine here.

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