The Podcast on alanarnette.com

It's May Day on Everest and some teams are having a party, while others are focused on their acclimatization schedule, and some now eying the summit. But everyone needs to wait for the fixed ropes. The upper mountain may have some moderate winds that may delay the rope team. We saw summits on a few 8000ers but the conditions remain iffy. Still, thus far 2022 is a low-drama season.    Big...

As we enter the last week of April, the climbing on Everest is in the full program. Climbers are all over the lower mountain from EBC to Camps 1 and 2. Sherpas are incredibly busy stocking camps. Meanwhile, on the other 8000ers, progress was stalled by weather, but still climbing underway on some others. All in all, it's a low-drama year thus far.   Big Picture   As of April 24, 202...

Everest used to take a minimum of two months home to home. In 2019 Roxxane Vogel did it in two weeks. So what's changed and what's a reasonable time today?  You can see the blog post with more details at https://www.alanarnette.com/blog/2022/04/19/everest-2022-how-fast-can-you-climb-everest/   Climb On Alan Memories are Everything

Activity is strong at Everest Base Camp, with more still on the trek. The permits increased as expected this past week and will top out fairly soon. They still lag behind last year by over 100 for Everest. The fixed lines are now to Camp 2 in the Western Cwm, ready for more teams to arrive at EBC this week. We saw the first 8000er deaths of the 2022 Spring season this past week. #everest2022 ...

Activity is picking up with climbers getting closer to Everest Base Camp, plus many more have arrived in Kathmandu. The permits have increased as expected this past week but lag behind last year. Teams will arrive at EBC this upcoming week. We saw the first 8000er summits of the 2022 Spring season this past week.  The Khumbu has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. The teahou...

Jenn Drummond doesn't let much stop her from achieving her goals. Having all of her climbing gear not show up for a climb was a mere inconvenience for this 41-year-old mother of seven children. Jenn is on a mission to be the first female climber to summit the so-called Second Seven Summits. We are all familiar with the first seven, and around 500 people have accomplished that goal. Still, only a h...

I caught up with Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering from Nepal's Namache Bazaar while on his way to Everest Base Camp. He describes #Everest2022 as looking more like a normal season. He has 12 members with three guides plus two private parties of a guide with their client. We also talk about climbing the so-called Second Seven Summits.

Teams continue to arrive in Kathmandu from afar. Many are proudly posting pictures of receiving their Everest climbing permits, but as of today, the pace is way off what we saw only a few years ago or even last year. In this post, I talk about the first time I thought about climbing Everest, back in 2002. Big Picture By early April 2021 Nepal had issued 222 permits for 23 teams, but this year that...

Now that we are in April, the trekking and climbing season will get serious. Many teams have already arrived and are trekking. Several teams are acclimatizing on their 8000-meter peaks while the Icefall Doctors are constructing the route through the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 2. Soon it will be time to climb!   \ In this podcast, I discuss teams arriving but go into detail on the time our climber...

Welcome to Alan Arnette's first Everest 2022 Podcast. I introduce the season with an overview of how many people might be climbing this year, the impact of COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the number of foreign climbers, and more. I hope you enjoy it. #everest2022   Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything

Every person who climbs Everest is unique. So, of course, that person feels special, but some stand out. Take Kuntal Joisher, for example. He has summited Everest from the Tibet and Nepal sides, plus Lhotse, and completed many other amazing adventures like the Northern Icecap in Chile. But what makes Kuntal stand out is his dedication to a vegan lifestyle that goes all the way to shunning any item...

With the Everest 2022  season just around the corner, it appears the Tibet side will be closed and continued uncertainty about the wisdom of climbing on the Nepal side. There are questions as to whether operators should run their programs at all. Many are moving forward but a few are not. I discuss the situation with Adrian Ballinger, founder of Alpenglow Expeditions  who has canceled hi...

2022 will be my 19th season of all-things Everest: 14 times providing coverage, another four seasons of actually climbing on Everest, and two years attempting Lhotse. I did similar coverage for the  2004 ,  2005 ,  2006 ,  2007 ,  2009 ,  2010, 2012 ,  2013 ,  2014 ,  2015,   2016,   2017 ,  2018 ,  2019  and  2021  se...

I caught up with British climber, Rebecca 'Becks' Ferry to discuss her amazing 2021 where she climbed on six 8000-meter mountains. This British mother of five children ages 12 to 18, had limited high altitude experience before with summits of Island Peak and Ama Dablam, but deep inside she wanted to try the hard ones. Along with British Professional Mountain Guide, Jon Gupta, they started with Eve...

I caught up with British climbing Guide, Jon Gupta of Mountain Expeditions to discuss his amazing 2021 where he guided mostly one client, fellow Brit Rebecca 'Becks' Ferry on six 8000-meter mountains. He also climbed a 7000er with a friend and is now on Ama Dablam. Overall he climbed (time the discussion starts in the video) Everest (Summit) at 19:50 Lhotse (Summit) at 22:00 Makalu (reached 7500m)...

It was an honor to do this video interview with three of the nine members, seven male, and two female, of the Full Circle Everest team. They hope to make history as the first Black climbing team to attempt to summit Everest. As of late 2021, there have been 10,184 summits but only eight Black climbers have stood on the top. According to the Himalayan Database, South African Sibusiso Vilane became...

I caught up with German Alpinist Jost Kobusch , who now lives in Chamonix, France to discuss his upcoming winter, no O's, solo attempt of Everest's West Ridge. This exact style and the route had never been attempted or accomplished. In 2019, Jost tagged his high point at 7,329-meters/23,750-feet. He said before starting the expedition, he would be pleased to tag 8,000-meters so he got close. This...

In this episode I close out the summer climbing season in Pakistan's Karakorum area. Also I discuss what we can expect in the world of mountaineering over the next several months. The summer Karakorum season is over, well, I think so. There are always a few surprises. The 48 summits on K2 were close but not a record. 2018 saw a record with 62 total summits, followed by 2004 with an estimated 51. T...

Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering has now summited K2 three times. Only one other person has more. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan. He was the leader for the 21 person team who submitted on July 28, 2018, at approximately 6:07 AM PKT (local time) We discussed...

In this Podcast I cover the recent events in Pakistan's Northern Territories on K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum I & II. Heavy snowfall and high winds have delayed progress on K2 but there have been summits on Gasherbrum II and Broad Peak along with the death of Mr. Kim Hong-Bin, 57. The bodies of winter K2 climbers Pakistani Ali Sadpara, Icelander John Snorri, and Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto...

Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering  is one of the few people on the planet to have summited K2 twice. He's hoping to get his third this 2021 summer. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan. With the new 4G Cell tower in Concordia, Garret took the hour walk from K2 Base Camp...

The 2021 summer climbing season in Pakistan's Kararum Range is heating up as we approach mid-way through the season. Teams are making great progress with Camps set as high as 7,000-meters, C3 on K2 and Broad Peak. Also, we already have summits on Gasherbrum II by a French team who skied down. Then there was a guide who paraglided off Broad Peak around 6600-meters. So lots of activities I discuss i...

The summer season has begun in Pakistan's Karakoram range with climbers on K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I/II, and Nanga Parbat. The ropes have already reached C1 on K2 and climbers have slept at C1 on both Broad and GI. Due to some mixed signals from Pakistan authorities, many operators canceled their climbs this summer making for a relatively low number on the peaks a bit less than 200 across all f...

The 2021 climbing season on North America's highest peak, Denali, is nearing the end. I take a look at some "fun facts" and how this season has progressed.

Art Muir at age 75 became the oldest American to summit Mt. Everest on May 12, 2021, with Maddison Mountaineering. He surpassed Bill Burke who held the American Everest age record for 11 years. Burke summited at age 67 on the Nepal side and again from the Tibet side in 2014 at 72. Japanese mountaineer Yoichiro Miura is the oldest person to summit in 2013 at age 80. I spoke with Art about his motiv...