Nepal

Mt Everest records 456 south summits, five deaths

Mt Everest records 456 south summits, five deaths

By Rajan Pokhrel

Climbers heading to the summit of Mt Everest on May 19, 2016. Photo: Karma Sherpa

Kathmandu, June 15 With the closure of the climbing season, at least 456 climbers, including 199 foreigners, stood atop Mt Everest from Nepal side while the world’s highest mountain also recorded five deaths this spring. Data compiled by the Department of Tourism states that 199 foreigners from 29 countries and 257 Nepali climbers successfully scaled Mt Everest after nine rope-fixing Sherpas first stood atop the mountain on May 11. DoT had issued climbing permits to 289 expedition members, along with 457 high-altitude workers representing 34 teams in the season. Two Indian climbers - Balkar Singh, 19, and Stanzin Laskit, 18, were the youngest male and female summiteers this season, respectively, the DoT data shows. Youngho Heo, 62, from South Korea and New Zealander Lydia Margarate Bradey, 55, became the season’s oldest summiteers in male and female categories, respectively. There were 45 female climbers who made it to the summit while Maya Sherpa became the only woman summiteer of the season from Nepal. “The season also saw the longest summit window (May 11-16 and May 19-23) while all expeditions except a team of two Slovakians have their members on top of the summit,” DoT’s official Gyanendra Shrestha said. On May 19, as many as 209 climbers scaled the mountain on a single day, he added. According to him, DoT collected Rs 177 million as Everest royalty after 129 expedition members used their extended permits of 2014/15. In figures Age Summiters 10-19 20 20-29 129 30-39 157 40-49 103 50-59 44 60-69 3 TOTAL 456   Country Climbers Summiters Nepal 449 258 India 64 52 US 58 39 China 20 18 UK 29 15 Australia 15 11 Others 111 63 TOTAL 746 456   It was a successful season for the mountaineering fraternity with over 60 per cent success, as back-to-back disasters in the last two years had no impact on climber count, Damber Parajuli, President of Expedition Operators Association of Nepal said, adding that the success rate on Mt Everest was also quite impressive. Saying that there was an unvoiced pressure on operators to have a successful season, owner of the Himalayan Experience Russell Brice understood that Everest expeditions were still the flagship of Nepal tourist industry as this was what the international media focus on. So to have a successful season on Everest also gives confidence to trekkers to also return to Nepal in the future, he told this daily. “It is a pity that the latter part of the season saw so many fatalities as this unfortunately detracted from the early success. If we had a season with no deaths then the season would have had more positive impact,” Brice, who has also been leading expeditions since 1974 in Nepal, added. The season witnessed the death of five climbers including three from India above higher camps. The Everest/ER which runs an aid-post at Everest base camp stated that it saw nearly 300 patients including 65 per cent Nepalis followed by patients from US, India and UK, while 15 per cent of them requiring evacuation after stabilisation. “The vast majority of visits were related to cough (27%) with gastrointestinal complaints coming in a close second.” SPRING 2016 EVEREST SUMMIT DETAILS Name of Expedition Team Leader Handling Agency Members High Altitude Workers Total 1. 2016 IMG Everest Expedition I Mr. Justin Reese Merle Beyul Adventure Pvt.Ltd 11 12 23 2. 2016 IMG Everest Expedition II Mr. Jonathan Flyod Schrock Beyul Adventure Pvt.Ltd 4 5 9 3. 2016 IMG Everest Expedition III Mr. Joshua Tyler Mc Dowell Beyul Adventure Pvt.Ltd 5 10 15 4. Jagged Globe Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. David William Hamilton Summit Nepal Trekking Pvt. Ltd. 4 5 9 5. H.G. Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Timothy John Mosedale Himalayan Guides Nepal Treks and Expedition Pvt. Ltd. 7 7 14 6. Himalayan Experience Everest-2016 Mr. Richard Grant Hunter Mountain Experience Pvt. Ltd. 7 7 14 7. AH Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Lars Daniel Sebastian Aakerman Ascent Himalayas Treks & Expedition Pvt. Ltd. 6 10 16 8. HAD International Everest Expedition Spring- 2016 Mr. Paul Frank Giorgio High Altitude Dreams Pvt. Ltd. 4 3 7 9. Altitude Junkies Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Philip James Crampton Expedition Himalaya. com Pvt. Ltd. 9 19 28 10. Armed Force Everest Expedition UAE Mr. John Doyle Himalayan Holidays Trekking P. Ltd. 8 8 16 11. Desert Troop : Operation Everest Mr. David Mark Rasmussen Himalayan Holidays Trekking P. Ltd. 1 2 3 12. Adventure Globe Mt. Everest Expedition - 2016 Mr. Ronald Kevin Muhl Dream Himalaya Adventures Pvt. Ltd. 7 8 15 13. AAI-Everest Expedition-2016 Mr. Benjamin Mason Jones Shangri-la Nepal Trek Pvt. Ltd. 3 2 5 14. KKC Everest 2016 Mr. Kevin John Farebrother Senge Adventures Pvt.Ltd. 2 1 3 15. SNT- Everest Expedition - 2016 Mr. James Winfield Lumberg Shangri-la Nepal Trek Pvt. Ltd. 2 0 2 16. Indian Army Everest MASSIF Expedition 2016 Mr. Ranveer Singh Jamwal Arun Treks and Expedition P. Ltd 14 14 28 17. Furtenbach Adventure Mount Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Lukas Furtenbach Iceland Trekking and Expedition Pvt. Ltd 6 13 19 18. Adventure Consultants Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Michael John Roberts Himalayan Guides Nepal Treks and Expedition Pvt. Ltd. 8 16 24 19. NCC Girls (India) Everest Expedition - 2016 A Mr. Gaurav Karki Himalayan Expeditions P. Ltd 12 6 18 20. NCC Girls (India) Everest Expedition - 2016 B Mr. Vishal Ahlawat Himalayan Expeditions P. Ltd 4 6 10 21. Madison Mountaineering Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Garrett Christian Madison Alpine Everest Guides Nepal Treks and Expedition Pvt. Ltd. 10 18 28 22. SST Int'l Everest Expedition 2016 Spring Mr. Eduardo Carlos Santalena Seven Summits Treks Pvt. Ltd. 13 26 39 23. ECO-EVEREST EXPEDITION 2016 SPRING Mr. David Liano Gonzalez Asian Trekking P. Ltd 6 12 18 24. Satori Everest Expedition South - Spring 2016 Mr. Jitesh Popatlal Mody Satori Adventure P.Ltd. 6 8 14 25. Assam Mt. Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Manash Barooah Arun Treks and Expedition P. Ltd 3 3 6 26. 2016 Kyungil University Alpine Club Everest Expedition Mr. Jinchol Cha Trekking Camp Nepal Pvt. Ltd. 3 4 7 27. SummitClimb Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Daniel Lee Mazur Everest Parivar Expedition Pvt Ltd. 4 3 7 28. Adventure Guide Mt. Everest 2016 Mr. Kenji Kondo Cosmo Trek Pvt. Ltd. 4 4 8 29. Everest Hard Way Utmost Expedition Mr. Vladimir Strba Utmost Adventure Trekking Pvt. Ltd. 0 0 0 30. SST Everest Expedition 2016 Spring Mr. Naba kumar Phukon Seven Summits Treks Pvt. Ltd. 11 11 22 31. SST Chinese Everest Expedition 2016 Spring Mr. Yujiang Song Seven Summits Treks Pvt. Ltd. 12 11 23 32. High Adventure Expedition Spring 2016 Mr. Hugo David Searle Happy Feet Mountaineers Pvt. Ltd 0 1 1 33. Anish Messenger of Peace to Mt. Everest Mr. Anish Luitel Asian Trekking P. Ltd 1 0 1 34. Makalu Adventure Everest Expedition 2016 Mr. Dinesh Chandrakant Rathod Makalu Adventure Pvt. Ltd. 2 2 4 TOTAL 199 257 456