First Teams Summit as Everest Season Begins

Weather forecasts for today predicted clear skies and relatively calm winds, according to several expedition dispatches on EverestNews.com. If favorable weather conditions hold, many more climbers from other expeditions are also likely to reach the summit.

Late May often provides the best window for summit attempts on Everest during the spring climbing season. The all-time record for single-day summits was set two years ago on May 23, 2001, when 89 climbers reached the summit.

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This year, to help avert potentially dangerous crowds of climbers along the summit route, expedition leaders agreed during an April meeting to double and triple-rope key sections of the route above Camp IV (or 23,000 feet/7,315 meters), according to a Web site dispatch by Luanne Freer, an American doctor serving at an Everest Base Camp medical clinic.

Oldest, Fastest, Most Bodacious

Reaching the summit of Mount Everest is hard enough. But a number of climbers this year have sought additional challenges, vying to be the oldest, fastest, or longest-suffering team to reach the summit.

Llahkpa Gulu Sherpa hopes to shatter the Everest ascent speed record by five hours. The current record of 16 hours, 56 minutes was set in 2000 by Babu Chiris Sherpa. Chiris died the following year after falling into a crevasse. Gulu stands an outside chance, however, given the fact that he's previously summitted the mountain an astonishing nine times.

Dick Bass, a 73-year-old ski resort owner from Dallas, Texas, was the oldest climber on the mountain this season, and vied to become the oldest climber to reach the summit.

But Bass, who previously summitted the highest peaks on all seven continents, including Everest, turned back earlier this month due to back injuries. The record remains 65 years old.

The 2003 American Ski Everest Expedition seeks to send seven climbers up the North Face of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen or the use of porters. According to the team's Web site, the climbers expect to spend 45 days on the mountain and, assuming they reach the summit, to be the first Americans to ski from the top.

Italian snowboarder Marco Siffredi carved the first snowboard tracks from the summit in 2001, only to vanish from the mountain during a second attempt the following year.

A more unusual decent was logged in 1988 by Jean-Marc Boivin. The climber launched his paraglider from the summit of Everest, landing 11 minutes later at Camp II at 19,400 feet (5,913 meters).

This year, several expeditions have pinned their hopes on somewhat more modest claims. Karma Gyeltshen aims to be the first mountaineer from the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan to reach the summit.

In April, 14 disabled Americans, five traveling in wheel chairs, others on prosthetic limbs, were pleased to have accomplished their goal of reaching Everest Base Camp after a three-week trek.

More Mount Everest Stories From National Geographic News:
Dark Side of Everest Awaits Climbers, TV Viewers
On TV: Surviving Everest Tells of Triumph, Tragedy
1963 Flashback: First Everest Summit by Americans
Everest Attempt Is Focus of New Reality TV Show
Everest Climber to Emcee Summit Attempt on Live TV
Everest: Now Just Another Tourist Trap?
Everest Clinic Tends Ills on High
Everest Time Line: 80 Years of Triumph and Tragedy
Making Movies on the Roof of the World
Everest Snowboarder Vanishes On Second Try
Altitude a Major Challenge to Climbers
The Sherpas of Mount Everest
Everest Melting? High Signs of Climate Change
Everest Anniversary Expedition Wrap-Up
National Geographic 50th Anniversary Everest Expedition Reaches Summit
Everest Anniversary Team Makes Final Summit Attempt
Jet-Stream Winds Trap Climbers on Everest
Sons of Mount Everest Pioneers to Repeat Historic Climb