The remaining commercial teams on Shisha Pangma reported 100% summit success today. It includes an unprecedented list of national and age records on the 14×8,000ers list, especially in the women’s category.
There are so many records that they are hard to track. Luckily, the outfitters have posted their summit lists. Seven Summit Treks also includes each individual record for their members, below.
Seven Summit Treks’ list of climbers who summited Shisha Pangma on October 9.
The Climbalaya team also had record holders, including two women. He Jing of China climbed all the 14×8,000’ers without supplementary oxygen. She becomes the first Chinese and the third woman to do them this way after Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner of Austria and Nives Meroi of Italy.
He Jing of China in a file image when she summited the Gasherbrums. Photo: Seven Summit Treks
More firsts
In the oxygen-assisted category, Dawa Yangzum Sherpa is the first Nepali woman to complete the feat. Dawa Yangzum is from Rolwaling, as is Mingma G, who last week became the first Nepalese to summit the 14×8,000’ers without supplementary oxygen. Dawa Yangzum climbed with Mingma Tenzing Sherpa, an IFMGA guide who also completed his 14 peaks list on Shisha Pangma.
Climbalaya’s Shisha Pangma expedition team in Base Camp some days ago. Photo: Climbalaya Treks & Expeditions
Their summit list also includes Bharath Thammineni of India, Da Chhere Sherpa, Ngima Nurbu Sherpa and, interestingly, Anna Pfaff of the U.S. Pfaff has returned to high altitude after losing six toes to frostbite on Mt. Huntington in Alaska. Last year, Pfaff made her first return to altitude on Kyajo Ri.
Strategy and oxygen
The Seven Summit Treks team — and likely everyone else — left from what Uta Ibrahimi calls Camp 2.5 on her InReach texts, located at some 7,000m. The strategy was to skip a third camp to speed up the push, which began Monday. The forecast does announce increasing winds and snowfall beginning tomorrow.
Nearly everyone who summited today made it back to Advanced Base Camp. Personal sherpas supported all the climbers. They followed the Inaki Ochoa de Olza variation to the summit, following the trail and the ropes fixed by the previous summiters, led by Imagine Nepal.
Adriana Brownlee’s Instagram story today.
Two of the climbers proceeded without supplementary oxygen. Adriana Brownlee confirmed that she climbed without bottled gas, as did Mario Vielmo. He is one of the few who has stopped for the night in Camp 2 and will reach Base Camp tomorrow.
It does seem odd that everyone has ignored the rules against no-O2 climbing established by the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association at the beginning of the season. We have no information about whether the regulations have changed, but Seven Summit Treks specifically noted in their summit report: “We also thank the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association for their support and coordination.”
‘A day when history was made’?
Meanwhile, Adriana Brownlee became the first UK woman to climb the 14×8,000’ers, Dorota Samocko became the first Polish woman, Alina Pekova the first Russian woman, and Naoko Watanabe the first Japanese woman. (Tracee Metcalfe became the first U.S. woman some days ago.)
Angela Benavides graduated university in journalism and specializes in high-altitude mountaineering and expedition news. She has been writing about climbing and mountaineering, adventure and outdoor sports for 20+ years.
Prior to that, Angela Benavides spent time at/worked at a number of local and international media. She is also experienced in outdoor-sport consultancy for sponsoring corporations, press manager and communication executive, and a published author.
