Everest closures?

Over the past week there have been many rumors and much speculation surrounding the access to climbing Mount Everest for the 2008 season.

China has closed climbing on Mount Everest from the Tibetan side for the 2008 season in order to keep the mountain free of any protests while the Chinese are conducting an Olympic torch ceremony on Everest. Nepal has also considered placing a limit on climbing activities from May 1-10 on the south side (Nepalese side). At this point we are awaiting official news from Nepal authorities regarding the situation for climbing from the Nepal side.

The current expectation is that climbers from the South side will be granted their permits to climb as expected, with some conditions. These conditions include:

• No team members will climb above Base Camp between May 1 and May 10, 2008
• Prior to May 1, teams will be allowed to climb up to the South Col (Camp 4) in order to acclimatise and to stock camps
  
• After May 10 climbers will be able to ascend to the summit as planned

This means that our climbing team will still continue with a climbing itinerary that is very similar to our original plan. We will still arrive into Base Camp on April 7th as planned. This leaves us 23 days to acclimatize up to Camp 3 and get the upper mountain camps placed and prepared for our summit bid.

During the period of May 1-10 we will take a much needed break at lower altitudes (already planned and expected in our original plan) and spend a few extra days climbing and trekking in the Khumbu region in order to maintain our acclimatization. On May 10th we will return to Base Camp and continue on back up the mountain as scheduled. Our Summit window will realistically be between May 17th and May 30th. Typically, this is the best time to be climbing to the summit of Everest.

In my opinion, if Nepal decides to limit the climbing during May 1-10 this will not have a great impact on our ability to safely and reasonably attempt Mount Everest this season.

• we will not be speeding up our climb (if anything, this will cause us to slow down a bit, which is good)
  
• we will not be taking any unnecessary risks (our philosophy towards climbing this mountain safely will not change any more than if we had a weather delay)
  
• we will not be climbing with any less support (all our supplies, oxygen and safety equipment will still be placed on the upper mountain)
  
• we will not be climbing during times that are normally outside of the typical summit window time-frame (May 10th and onwards is the usual summit window)
  

Climbing Everest is a serious endeavor and comes with many potential challenges (weather, altitude illness, avalanches, logistics, other teams, etc) , even in a "good" season. This latest challenge of dealing with the Chinese request to have the mountain free of climbers for 10 days is certainly less then ideal, but it is not an insurmountable challenge by any means.

Attempting to climb Mount Everest always has included (and always will include) the potential for many different factors to interfere with the best laid plans of the most experienced climbers. Illness and weather alone are two factors that every Everest climber accepts as a very real risk that may cause them to not achieve their dream of standing on top of Mount Everest, along with many other variables that may stand in the way. A 10-day period of time not being able to go above 5,300 meters is not a major obstacle, given the amount of time allowed for such "unforeseen circumstances" in a 70 day expedition.

We should have final news today, Tuesday March 18th regarding the decision by the Nepalese Tourism Board as to how, and if, they will restrict climbing access on Mount Everest this season.

Thanks for keeping in touch with our Everest climbing plans and reading this update!

Brian Jones