It took 100 years from the time that Everest, called Sagarmatha by the Sherpa, was identified as the highest mountain in the world until the time that Hillary and Norgay first climbed it (not from a lack of attempts!). In the 45 years since the first climb the technology of climbing has been revolutionized. Now it is possible for much smaller expeditions than that of the British in 1953 to successfully achieve the summit. Although I would never describe a climb of Mt. Everest as routine, it is now common for large numbers of people to reach the top of the world every year. One single day in 1995 forty people reached the peak. Over 700 climbers have made it to the summit since 1953. 

The spring climbing season in the Khumbu (Everest) region of Nepal begins in early April. During the winter months the jet stream moves south from the Tibetan Plateau and intersects the Himalaya. Everest is high enough that it protrudes into the jet stream producing 150 mph winds on the summit and giving rise to Everest's trademark plume. The wind also renders the mountain unclimbable. By late May the summer monsoon comes up from the south producing storms and heavy snow, again making the mountain unclimbable. This leaves a short window in April and May for the spring climbing season. The expeditions use most of April to acclimatize to the high altitude and slowly ferry supplies up to progressively higher camps on the mountain. Some time in the first weeks of May summit attempts may begin.

This year, I'm going to try to follow the progress of several expeditions as they climb the mountain. Below is a simple table showing the location of each group and the climbers in that group. This table is not comprehensive in that there are other groups attempting to summit this season. Reports below are the expeditions I've been able to gather the most information about. In addition to these two teams I know of at least 7 other expeditions attempting to summit Everest this year; Everest Challenge 98 (Tom Wittaker, disabled climber), an Iranian Expedition, Himalayan Kingdoms (a UK commercial expedition), a solo Danish climber, the American Environmental Expedition, the Bob Hoffman expedition, and a Czech Expedition attempting the North Col Route from Tibet.

Everest 98 - updated 5-28-98

April 1, 1998. The Singapore Team was first this year to base camp. They have employed the 'Ice Doctors' to lay a route through the ice fall for all of this year's expeditions. Two of the Ice Doctor Sherpa almost lost themselves in the ice fall last night, not returning until 2:30am in a ferocious blizzard. High winds destroyed most of base camp and sent expeditions scrambling to order new tents and equipment. The Singapore expedition estimates the wind storm has put them a week behind schedule.

The American Expedition arrived at Laklu airfield in two groups, yesterday and today. They have started the trek in to Base Camp. Several of the Alpine Ascents Sherpas are already making Base Camp. It is yet unknown how the winds have affected their expedition.

April 2, 1998. The American Expedition has begun the trek in. They are staying the night in Pakding, a village at somewhat lower elevation (8,500 ft) than last night's stay at Lukla. The weather is unusually warm and sunny. 

April 6, 1998. The American Expedition trekked from Pakding to Namche where they spent an extra day acclimatizing to altitude. The group is now at Thyangboche, the location of an important Buddhist monastery spending another day acclimatizing and making appropriate spiritual preparation for the climb ahead. The weather is cool with new snow from yesterday blanketing the Khumbu.

April 7, 1998. Wally Berg and the American Expedition are in Pheriche now at 14,000ft. They will stay here a day to continue the acclimatization process. The group visited the local Lama at Pengboche and received blessings for the climb. The weather is mostly sunny but with occasional snow showers in the evening. High winds continue to rake the Himalayan summits but it is quiet in the Khumbu. 

The Singapore team has now replaced all their tents damaged in the wind storm at base camp last week. They are preparing to negotiate the icefall to camp I for the first time.
 

April 8, 1998. Today the Alpine Ascents GPS survey team has pressed on to Lobuche at an altitude of 15,900 ft. Light evening snow continues to fall, giving way to brilliant morning sunshine. 

The Singapore team has begun their first acclimatization excursion up the mountain. The entire team successfully climbed the ice fall to Camp I at 19,000 ft. They are enduring another windy night before traversing the Western Cwm to Camp II. 

April 13, 1998. All of this season's expeditions are now at Everest Base Camp (EBC). The Sherpas employed by the teams have gone as high as Camp II (CII) caching supplies. The Singapore climbing team has made one overnight stay at CI for acclimatization. All the teams are resting and organizing gear gear at EBC for the next day or two. They do not plan on going any higher due to expected storms with 60+ mph winds above the Ice Fall. Temperatures at EBC have remained at just above 0 C.

April 16, 1998. The weather is still windy high up, but acceptable to make traverses of the Western Cwm for acclimatization trips and to cache gear. The Singapore Team climbed from CI to CII today and will remain there another day before returning to Base Camp. The Alpine Ascents group Sherpas have been caching gear at CI and CII and will arrive at CI today. They are planning to continue to CII the next day and loiter there for an additional four days before returning to Base Camp early in the next week. This is an unconventional acclimatization technique. It will be interesting to see how successful it is.

April 20, 1998. The Singaporeans have returned to Base Camp following their acclimatization excursion to CII. They are enjoying a rest day by reading the Singapore newspaper brought to them by a support trek. Their excursion was successful but the passage through the Cwm caused some dehydration and sunburn. Mok has developed a nasty cough, something which often nags climbers for the duration of their stay on Everest.
 

Wally Berg has led the AA Team to Camp II at 21,000 ft where they intend to stay for two or three more days. So far everyone is doing OK. The weather is sunny and the extreme solar radiation typically felt in the Cwm is certainly present, despite clouds, snow, and wind in the Khumbu. Sherpas from several teams are now working at fixing ropes up the Lhotse Face. Overnight forays as high as Camp III may happen later this week. 

April 27, 1998. All the climbing teams have retreated to EBC, leaving a few Sherpas at CII. The problem is heavy, wet snow has moved into the Khumbu and all the way up the Cwm and the Lhotse Face. The new snow on top of the ice creates a high risk of avalanche. Climbing will be on hiatus for a few days while the mountain absorbs or sheds the new snow. The expeditions are using this time to rest and absorb precious calories that need to replace those burnt above 20,000 ft in the Cwm. Many climbers have developed a severe cough, in one case spraining a collar bone. 

May 5, 1998 All of the expeditions' climbers have made a stay at Camp III to acclimatize following the 'dust on crust'  conditions from earlier in the week. They are all now resting at EBC in preparation for summit attempts. The Sherpas from all the teams have fixed the route through to the South Col and have began stocking the Col with supplies for the summit. Two of the Singapore team have elected to descend all the way to Pheriche in hopes of curing their bad coughs there which the high elevation of EBC does not facilitate. 

May 7, 1998 The climbers continue to rest at Everest Base Camp in anticipation of summit attempts next week. Most teams have scheduled their summit bids between the 11th and 15th of this month. Weather may delay summit attempts however as the jet stream has moved south onto the mountain and is expected to stay for at least the next 3 days. The jet stream creates 80 mph continuous winds (gusts much higher) and temperatures lower than -35F. These conditions render the upper mountain suicidal.

May 12, 1998 Summit attempts are still being postponed as bad weather has settled in on the mountain. The jet stream is firmly entrenched atop the mountain with winds high enough to be heard as a continuous roar at base camp. Base camp itself has received a great deal of snowfall the last few days. Higher on the mountain, the skeleton crews attempting to keep Camp II in the Cwm functional are enduring low temps, high winds and snowfall and just hanging on. Many unmanned tents at CII have collapsed or been blown away. No one has attempted to visit CIII on the Lhotse Face. The climbers can only hope that their equipment is still there and the tents are still functional. The equipment that has been carried on the South Col, CIV, was merely cached - not set up - so it should weather the storms OK. The climbers are passing the time at EBC reading, practicing with their scientific equipment, and regaining lost calories from the acclimatization trips earlier in the month.  It seems there is a lot of socializing between teams too. Patience is now the name of the game. The benefits of acclimatization will last more than two weeks so the climbers must simply wait for a good three to four day window in the weather to get to the summit. Most teams only have supplies for one summit attempt so the pressure is on to pick the right day. In stormy years first summits have come as late as the 25 of May (as early as 30 April in nicer years) so for now the teams can only wait.

May 14, 1998 After some of the worst storms in recent Everest climbing history the teams are planning a trip up the mountain from base camp for tomorrow. The damage at CII was fairly extensive, some tents being ripped to shreds. Sherpa teams will venture to CIII today to investigate the damage there. It is likely that the spirit of camaraderie on the mountain will result in many teams combining their remaining resources to help one another achieve the summit. The jet stream is still ripping at the upper mountain but it is hopped that it will move north in another three days. There are still no set days for summit pushes. It appears likely that the earliest possible summits could come on the 20th.

May 18, 1998 The high winds on the upper mountain have subsided because the jet stream bifurcated. There is now a branch of the jet stream to the south and north of Everest creating a pocket of calmer air over the mountain and brining clearer weather with less threat of snow for at least a few days. As a result, there is now a mad scramble for the summit taking place. All the expeditions now have teams in place on the South Col for a summit bid with the next 24 hours, or at CIII for an attempt on the summit in about 48 hours.

There is the pressure of time on the expeditions to get at least one summit team on the roof of the world in the next day or two because of the threat of a tropical cyclone brewing in the Indian Ocean. No climber can afford to be caught high on the mountain if the extreme winds and heavy snow of such a storm were to arrive. None of the groups are admitting it yet, but a very heavy snowfall arriving this close to the onset of the Summer Monsoon could end the Spring Season of climbing on Everest this year. This potential 'One Shot Window' at summitting Everest this season could result in the disastrous overcrowding of the Hillary Step seen in 1996. I hope the well qualified and vastly experienced leadership on Everest this year is thinking clearly without the distortions of high altitude and summit fever. 

May 19, 1998 Cool heads prevailed as Lead Climber Eric Simonson turned back the entire multinational summit group of 40 people at the South Summit. Although the climbers were strong, for the most part, the route was choked with snow and required far more fixed rope sections than anticipated. The party ran out of equipment at the cornice traverse from the South Summit to the Hillary Step. The Step, a mere 300 ft. below the summit is a 40 ft. rock climb that was determined to be too dangerous for most of the climbers without a fixed rope. (Hillary and Norgay did just that on the first ascent!) 

All the climbers returned to the South Col by nightfall. Drama occurred high on the mountain during the return when one climber's 02 ran out and he collapsed. Additional 02 was found for him and he was short-roped off the upper mountain, but not before causing he and his Sherpa to fall once, requiring a dangerous rescue from 300ft. below the route. 

Wally Berg, the aptly named leader of the American GPS expedition, waited at the South Col whilst the summit attempt was made, waiting for his bid today. He and three very experienced Sherpas are now making great time up the mountain. They have reached the Balcony at 27,000 ft well ahead of schedule. They are carrying a GPS science experiment plus the required equipment to fix the route the rest of the way to the summit. It remains to be seen if there is still time and resources for yesterday's summit teams to rest and make a second attempt on the summit after the route is fixed. Some have descended to Camp III to wait, whilst others have chosen to stay in the Death Zone at Camp IV and spare themselves the additional climbing a return to the Col would imply. The trade off is that even resting at the Col is difficult and the high altitude there causes the body to quickly deteriorate. 

May 21, 1998 Wally Berg, Apa Sherpa, and two other Sherpas have summited Everest! In good weather, but difficult snow conditions they have made it to the roof of the world. After spending a record 2 hours on the summit installing GPS equipment while watching the climbers of two other parties come and go the American Expedition safely descended to the South Col. 

May 22, 1998 All the climbing members of the Singapore Team have safely summited and returned to the South Col. This was quite a physical and logistical feat because it was their second attempt on the upper mountain in less than a week. It is unusual for climbers to get a second shot at Everest and have the energy to be successful. Whilst on the summit they retrieved data from the GPS system left by Alpine Ascents because its telemetry function was not working. 

May 28, 1998 Most of the climbing teams have broken camp, leaving the hard work for Sherpa porters and their Yak teams. For the classic, south eastern ridge route this year's climb was a success. More difficult than some years due to conditions on the mountain and weather, but in all very good considering only three serious injuries and no deaths occurred while 19 in all summited. Climbing Mt. Everest is still a serious business and not casual sport for amateurs. It is reported that two Americans have died this week while attempting Everest's more technical and demanding North Col Route from Tibet. 

Expedition	Climber	Location	Notes
Alpine Ascents	Wally Berg	Kathmandu	Lead Guide
Alpine Ascents	Charles Corfield	Kathmandu	Climber
Alpine Ascents	Eric Simonson	Kathmandu	Climber
Alpine Ascents	Greg Wilson	Kathmandu	Climber
Alpine Ascents	Dawa Nuru Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sirdar
Alpine Ascents	Ang Dorjee Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Lakpa Rita Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Dawa Temba Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Nima Tashi Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	An Pasang Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Zangmu Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Lakpa Galygen Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Dawa Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Alpine Ascents	Phuashi Sherpa	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Singapore Expedition	David Lim	Kathmandu	Expedition Leader
Singapore Expedition	Man Bahadur Tamang	Kathmandu	Sherpa Sirdar
Singapore Expedition	Ang Dorje	Kathmandu	Climbing Sherpa
Singapore Expedition	Mok Ying Jang	Kathmandu	Climber.
Singapore Expedition	Leong Chee Mun	Kathmandu	Climber
Singapore Expedition	Justin Lean	Kathmandu	Climber
Singapore Expedition	Mohd Rozani	Kathmandu	Climber
Singapore Expedition	Edwin Siew	Kathmandu	Climber
Singapore Expedition	Robert Goh	Kathmandu	Climber. Lost tooth cap 3.29.98
Singapore Expedition	Khoo Chiow	Kathmandu	Climber