Unlimited Potential, Up to 8000m

That’s me when I’m not in High Places 🙂

Today is “International Everest Day”, the date (May 29, 1953) Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary have become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border. The two men hugged each other with relief and joy but only stayed on the summit for 15 minutes because they were low on oxygen. Mr Hillary took several photographs of the scenery and of Sherpa Tenzing waving flags representing Britain, Nepal, the United Nations and India. Sherpa Tenzing buried some sweets and biscuits in the snow as a Buddhist offering to the gods. They also looked for signs of George Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine who had disappeared in 1924 in a similar attempt to conquer Everest, but found nothing.

This year’s Mt. Everest climbing season has officially ended, with about 240 successful summits, and six deaths in five days, four of whom were lost last week during a bottleneck of people trying to summit the mountain during good weather. About 150 people reached the summit on Friday Saturday alone.
On May 19th, Ngim Chhamji Sherpa (age 16, Nepal) became the youngest women to climb summit and on the same day, Tamae Watanabe (age 73, Japan) became oldest woman to climb the mountain.
Kami Sherpa (age 51, Nepal) has successfully scaled Mt. Everest three times in eight days. Sherpa informed from the Mt. Everest Base Camp that he climbed the Mt. Everest two times in five days and the third time on the eighth day. Sherpa has successfully scaled Mt. Everest three times in a season by scaling the highest peak at 10:30 am on May 19, May 24 at 3:00 pm and on May 27 at 4:00 am. He claimed that these climbs have set the world record for him

On the less exciting side of the things we have some pathetic readings…

Canadian woman’s body taken off Everest

Days After Deaths, Climbers Attempt Everest

Today more than 3,500 people have reached the summit of Everest, but only 5 percent, or 161 people, have done so without oxygen: 35 Sherpas with no deaths, 117 Westies with 10 deaths. The late, great Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev, author of The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest, made three ascents of Everest without Os, and super-Sherpa Ang Rita from Yilajung, Nepal, made ten oxygenless ascents

To Os or Not to Os – National Geographic

I found this commemorative flag hanging on the dining room of my lodge in Namche Bazaar, the gateway to the magical Khumbu Valley in Nepal. It was hand signed by Korean alpinist Park Young Seok, the first human being in the world to ascend the 14 Highest 8000m Himalayan Peaks, the 7 Summits (the highest peaks on each continent), and reach the 3 poles (Everest, The North Pole, and the South Pole).

Park not only has ascent the 14 8000 Himalayan peaks in the shortest period of time in the world (8years and 2 months), but also holds the Guinness record for ascending the greatest number of 8000 meter Himalayan peaks in one year (6). In addition, he holds the record for reaching the South Pole in the shortest period of time (44 days) by purely walking on foot without any resupply of food in 2004.

Few months after I took this pic, Park and two of his climbing fellows disappeared somewhere in the south face of the most lethal mountain on earth, Annapurna… May his soul rest in peace in the Home of The Gods, the Himalayas.

Truly inspiring… Many ideas coming to my mind right now 🙂

The ascent of Saser Kangri II – the second highest previously unclimbed mountain in the world – is an example of classic exploratory alpinism and committed alpine style climbing at high altitude. The summit was reached via the steep 1,700 metre south-west face after four days of ascent and three bivouacs with the main difficulties concentrated in the upper part of the climb. A wealth of experience enabled the team to take a very minimal lightweight alpine style approach in achieving the first ascent of the peak. Ascent by Mark Richey, Steve Swenson and Freddie Wilkinson, USA.
Video by Vinicio Stefanello (Planetmountain.com) & Francesco Mansutti for the Piolets d’Or 2012. Courmayeur, Chamonix – Mont Blanc.

This three-day alpine style ascent of the previously unclimbed north-west face via a 1,600m sustained mixed route was the third ascent of this famous summit in the Charakusa valley. This young team took their experience of climbing in their home mountains of Slovenia on their first trip to the Himalaya, and used exceptional judgement and commitment on this highly technical climb. The route involved a strong element of exploration and was carried out in minimalist style by a team of non-professional climbers. Ascent by Nejc Marcic and Luka Strazar, Slovenia.
Video by Vinicio Stefanello (Planetmountain.com) & Francesco Mansutti for the Piolets d’Or 2012. Courmayeur, Chamonix – Mont Blanc.

BREATHTAKING…