The Podcast on alanarnette.com

Everest teams are doing the usual acclimatization rotations but are seeing heavy attrition that will ease crowding concerns. There's a new level of base camp luxuries that might be beyond the pale for some purists.  Heavy snow is forecasted on Dhaulagiri, stalling movement there. Overall, it's been a low-drama year, thankfully. In this episode, I explore controversy on Shishapangma, explod...

Weekend Update While teams are as high as Camp 2 on Everest, most of the attention was on Annapurna, where one climber died, and two other climbers were miraculously rescued. Heavy snow hit Everest, but climbing continued. Everest Base Camp is filling up as permits topped 400, a record for the Nepal side. The fixed rope was set to the South Col. I expect it reach the summit late next week. I cover...

This was a week of highs and lows across the Himalayas. On Everest, three Sherpas lost their lives in the Icefall. The season's first 8000 meters summits occurred on Saturday, April 16, on Annapurna. Everest Base Camp is filling up as permits top 300. And a description of the first days at base camp and the puja. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything

Lukas Furtenbach, a major mountaineering expedition guide company and is now a top supplier of supplemental oxygen systems to all teams climbing Everest.  He partnered with Neil Greenwood of Summit Oxygen to create Everest Oxygen focusing on supplying supplemental oxygen to the mountaineering industry. His Austrian-based  Furtenbach Adventures  offer global climbs, including most of the 8000-meter...

Scott Lehmann and Shayna Unger, are aiming to be the first American deaf couple and, to their knowledge, the second and third deaf climbers to summit Mount Everest. Also, they are trying to become the first deaf couple to compete the Seven Summits. Both were born, as they say, profoundly deaf, meaning they had no hearing at all. They live in the Washington, D.C., area and are educators and mountai...

German Alpinist Jost Kobusch became only the third person to complete a solo winter Denali Summit successfully. He summited on Sunday, February 19, 2023, around 3:00 am. I caught up with him at his home in Chamonix, France, only a few weeks after his summit. Jost style is to climb alone during a season that few other people would choose. He climbs completely unsupported and often on the most...

Becks Ferry is back in the Nepal Himalaya mountains 2023 for Makalu, but with a twist - she will climb the fifth highest peak at 27,825 feet/8481 meters without supplemental oxygen and then run the 225 miles back to Kathmandu! In 2021, along with British Professional Mountain Guide Jon Gupta, they climbed on six peaks reaching the main summits of three. Everest (Summit) Makalu (reached 7500m) Lhot...

Welcome to the first Podcast for the Everest 2023 season.  In this podcast, I talk about what we can expdct this year, now with the Tibet side closed again.   I expect 2023 to be a big year for Everest-Nepal. With the COVID-19 pandemic letting up, Nepal is open. It expects many foreigners attracted by Nepali operators marketing low prices and requiring minimal climbing experience but pro...

The Manaslu 2022 season is moving nicely, with the first client summits for the season on Thursday, September 22, 2022. There are a record number of people there, with 400 foreigners with permits and an equal or greater r number of support climbers, so it's crowded. This means there is an opportunity for more trash, crowds, and poor practices. In this podcast, I talk about my 2013 experience on Ma...

A new trend in 8000-meter climbing is how many you can get in one trip and how fast. Norweigan Kristin Harila is on track to smash long-time records this year. Thus far, she has eleven of the fourteen, all with climbing Sherpas, Pasdawa Sherpa , and Dawa Ongju Sherpa , of 8K Expeditions . I had the opportunity to record this interview with her during a short respite back home in Norway. The curren...

K2 had a record year this 2022 summer. Most of the summits were by Sherpas or Pakistani climbers helping their paying clients, but a handful were the rare type: no supplemental oxygen, no Sherpa support, and no commercial team. Danish climber Andreas Ritzau Frydensberg with American Eric Gilbertson summited Broad Peak on July 18th and K2 on July 28th. On his website, Country Highpoints, Eric...

And the summits keep going with many firsts, records, and races to the top thanks to this summer’s, and for that fact, this spring’s, unusually stable weather across the Himalayas. It’s not uncommon for climbers to have three, four, or even five, or more 8000er summits this year. Let’s run a few down with more to come before it’s all over.   Big Picture  The season is winding down. I thi...

Well, the K2 climbers pulled it off. Congratulations to the 150++ who summited and especially to the Sherpas who fixed the lines to the summit. The weather cooperated, and there were limited problems, albeit with one death and one K2 climber is currently missing. We are approaching 200 K2 summits.   Big Picture Summits Continue, Missing K2 Climber   Several media outlets report that Cana...

If you follow mountaineering, Adventure Consultants is one of the names that evoke almost three decades of memories. Guy Cotter, who began running the company in the mid-1990s, has deftly led his team through years of climbs worldwide. But in 2020, COVID was too much, and Guy made the difficult decision to put AC into 'hibernation.' Now, in 2022, he is ready to resume operations, smaller, leaner,...

This has been a ‘lay-low’ week with storms hitting the higher elevations of Pakistan’s 8000ers. Yet, there were thwarted attempts. Many teams are finalizing preparations for their summit pushes beginning soon in what could be very short weather windows, but the predicted conflict with so many people has begun.  Big Picture – The Summit Rush  With this odd statement, “We are not ready for...

It's been a dramatic week in the Pakistani mountains. We saw summits on a couple of 8000ers, climbers in trouble, and tragically two deaths. The weather is currently keeping the K2 teams at base camp but look for a rush starting later this next week—all in all, a normal season thus far, despite the record number of climbers. Big Picture - Will 2022 K2 be like Everest 2019? As I've mentioned multip...

Several strong Sherpas from various Nepali operators fixed the ropes on Nanga Parbat over the past few days thus facilitating a handful of clients to reach the summit. In total, there were 18 summits consisting of six members supported by 12 Sherpas, a 1:2 ratio of support. Pakistan issued 100 (member with support) permits this season; thus, look for more activity on Nanga. Big Picture The 2022 su...

We sometimes hear about a climber who has to make a tough decision as we follow mountaineering each season. Usually, it involves weather moving in that might jeopardize the team's safety or rescuing a teammate. Well, this spring, my long-time friend, Wilco van Rooijen, 55, faced a difficult decision, but it involved staying true to his style. The Dutch mountaineer cheated death in 2008 on K2, but...

2022 brought even more stable weather windows than during the great Everest 2018. This May, a stalled high-pressure system made for horrendous temperatures in Northern India while paradoxically creating nearly ideal climbing conditions across much, but not all,  of the Himalayas. The net result was nearly 650 people summiting from Everest's Nepal side and another 50 on the Tibet side.  U...

The world's fifth-highest at 27,765 feet (8,463 meters), Makalu saw multiple successes this season. Still, on Monday, May 9, 2022,  Adrian Ballinger , co-founder of Alpenglow, texted me, "I summited today with Dorji Sonam and Pasang Sona (Alpenglow Sherpa). We fixed to the summit from where rope fixing ended by French couloir. And….I skied Makalu!!!!!! I just got back to ABC. First on top for...

This Everest season is like a runny nose that won't stop. You blow hard, wipe it clean, and all of a sudden, there it goes again. Just as I thought base camp was empty, as well as the other 8000ers, people keep showing up at the South Col and summiting. I guess with winds so calm (relatively - there are still those moments) that leaders are demonstrating great patience and trust in the weather for...

While we watch summit after summit on Everest 2022, I reached out to my long-time friend, mentor, and climbing partner, Jim Davidson, to take a trip down memory lane and talk about our Everest experiences. We talk training, preparation, and being on Everest during the tragic 2015 earthquake, and of course, my summit in 2011 and Jim's in 2017. It's a fun, fast-paced conversation that I know you wil...

This is a special Podcast and YouTube interview with Tim Bogdanov, 37, who was rescued from Annapurna last month. He tells a chilling tale of getting lost and multiple mistakes he made during his no Os climb. Tim has summits of Manaslu and Dhaulagiri plus over 30 6,000-meters peaks around the world. His style is to climb alone and without supplemental oxygen. He summited Annapurna on April 28 alon...

It was a busy week in the Himalayas with summits on multiple 8000ers, including Everest. On the Nepal side of the mountain, Kami Rita Sherpa led the rope team to the summit and at the same time extended his summit record to 26. Sadly, there were two more deaths of the season, one on Kangchenchunga and another on Everest. Still, thus far 2022 is a low-drama season. With the good weather emergi...

With both sides of Everest seeing significant activity, let's pause and talk to three world-class weather experts about the current situation and what they see in store for May. Also, I ask them to predict the first day for a member to summit Everest.   The historical weather pattern on Everest has been a calm April, a rough beginning of May before calming again starting around May 15 fo...