More news from the Himalaya today, courtesy of ExWeb and other sources.
The biggest news is on Makalu where we're told that Steve House, Vince Anderson, and Marko Prezelj are acclimatized, rested, and ready to begin their alpine style assault on the summit. Weather conditions remained poor yesterday, but are expected to improve over the next few days, and the team scheduled to leave BC tomorrow, and begin their single-push attempt on the summit. They'll likely be ready to leave base camp behind, if their story about the amount of trash and refuse their is to be believed.
On Ama Dablam, teams are preparing for their own summit bids, with reports indicating that the trail up to C3 is in adequate condition. Above C2 there is more snow than usual, but the climb is manageable. IMG Sherpas are expected to repair lines up to C2 today, and begin fixing lines above C3 tomorrow. The latest updates indicate that avalanches at C3 have damaged the tents there, but it can be rebuilt fairly easily. The Alpenglow Expedition has joined IMG and the two teams will work jointly on fixing the lines, as they work together on a new route up the mountain.
The latest news from Fredrik Ericsson on Kangchenjunga isn't as promising however, as he reports that he and Jörgen Aamot have returned to BC when conditions on the mountain became too dangerous. It seems that the 50 cm (roughly 20 inches) of new snow made things quite unstable at altitude. The latest dispatch promises more news tomorrow, so hopefully that update will include plans on their next summit attempt. Fredrick and Jörgen are attempting to become the first men to make a complete ski descent of the Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain on Earth.
Finally, a hearty congratulations to the Amical Team. On October 23rd, the team put nine climbers, including two Sherpas, on the summit of Baruntse in what has been described as "bitterly cold" conditions. The summitters included: Germans Rainer Picher, Thorsten Aurisch, Werner Göring and Eberhard Tenbusch; Austrians Andreas Gschwendtner and Christian Lutz; Ralf Wohlwend from Lichtenstein, and Nepalese Kharma Gelchen Sherpa and Mingma Tenjee Sherpa.
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