High Winds, New Snow, and Inexperience on Everest

The past fair weather windows have come and gone but the Olympic torch still resides somewhere down on the north side of Mount Everest. The May 10 deadline that the Chinese expedition hoped to finish the torch excursion by is looming big. All the other climbing parties, down at base camp on the south side or farther down the Khumbu Valley, are twiddling their thumbs and undoubtedly getting a little angry about the situation. I would too if I had spent a pocketful of change to climb Mount Qomolangma, as the Chinese call it. Of course, on the other hand, they knew ahead of time that that mountain was going to be closed and that “it,” as Forrest Gump says, happens.

High winds, as high as 140 mph, coupled with new snow are to blame for the torch not making the summit. The Shanghai Daily reports that despite a couple days of heavy snow, the weather outlook appears favorable, but it will take the climbers another “four or five days to reach the top of the world’s tallest peak if everything is in place. The date of the ascent has not yet been confirmed.” The official Beijing Olympic website also reports Chinese Mountaineering Team spokesman Zhang Zhigian saying, “The snowfall several days ago had some impact upon the ascent, now our climbers are busy fixing the damaged facilities. Yesterday, I heard that they have fixed the 7,790-meter-high camp, but I'm not sure whether or when they will take further action. If the weather looks good all the time these days, I think I will bring you good news as soon as possible.”

The Shanghai Daily also announced the team of 36 climbers “ includes 24 ethnic Tibetans, 10 Han Chinese, one from the Tu ethnic group and one from the Tujia ethnic group.” Spokesman Zhang said, “This well-organized team consists of experienced mountaineers and some university students who have climbing experience, so I believe they will augment each other in every respect of the ascent.” MountEverest.net, however, speculates that the lack of summit success is because of the team’s relative inexperience at high altitude mountaineering. One requirement to be on the team was to have climbed as high as 6,500 meters previously, but most of the experienced Tibetan mountaineers, who have multiple 8,000-meter summits, were left off the short list. MountEverest.net says, “This could explain why the torch hasn't summited yet. Minimum requirement for Everest is at least one previous 8000+ meter summit.” The site also says, “China actually has a skilled climbing team (mostly Tibetan) with at least 50, 8000er summits between them,” but notes that the expedition leader Wang Yongfeng and his four assistant leaders are not among them. This lack of experience could also translate into acclimatization problems.