The climbers ascended from Camp 3 on the Lhotse face through the “Yellow Band” and up the “Geneva Spur” to high camp at the South Col on Mount Everest today.  After a couple of hours of rest, they woke up and started getting ready to head to the summit!!  It’s a long push once they leave Camp 3, and they only got a few hours of rest this evening before getting up at 7pm for a 9pm departure for the summit!  The summit climb from the S. Col is a long day and the team is trying to reach the summit near dawn, so they can watch the sunrise from high on Mount Everest, and more importantly, get back down to the S. Col before the afternoon weather picks up.

Jacob called in from the S. Col before they left at around 9pm Nepal time on the 21st, and reported that they had beautiful weather, calm winds and a starry night.   We hope to get some calls during the summit push, and even from the top, but the satellite phone doesn’t always work on the border with China, so we won’t be surprised if they can’t make a sat phone call during the climb.  We do have a team on the mountain (at the S. Col, Camp 2, and Base Camp) that will be on the radio with our climbers throughout the night checking on their progress.

It sounds like everyone is feeling strong and the weather is perfect, so let’s hope they are all standing on the summit of Mount Everest later today!

Here’s Jacob calling in from the South Col (high camp) on Mount Everest as they prepare to leave for the summit.

recording

And a picture of the climbers on the ascent from Camp 3 to the S. Col earlier today.   The feature in the foreground is the Geneva Spur with Mount Everest in the back ground.

Climbers ascending the Geneva Spur on the way to the South Col on Mount Everest 2017

Here was Jacob’s first call, not a great signal, but we’ll post it just in case.
recording