Everest Summit Reaction – Anja Blacha
Nobody can be blamed for thinking that Anja Blacha should just give up her climb when everything seemed to be going against her in the final few weeks of the expedition.
She battled on though and on 31st May she stood on the top of Everest. Here she gives some of the incredible details.
15.-25.05. – expedition operator cancelled, weather window missed, waiting out cyclone Tauktae, second expedition operator cancelled, third expedition operator identified at last minute for the final weather window
26.05. – climbing from basecamp to camp 2 at 6400m
26.-29.05. – sitting out cyclone Yaas in camp 2. Another negative Covid test
29.05. – woken up and pressed down by an avalanche in camp 2. Broken tents but no one got hurt
30.05. – climbing through deep fresh snow from camp 2 to camp 4 at 7900, skipping camp 3 due to avalanche risk
31.05.
– starting the climb from camp 4 to the summit
– unwaveringly high winds, no detailed weather information. Bottled oxygen it is just below the balcony at 8400m
– the winds stop some 30min later. Of course…
– watching the retrieval of my former colleague’s dead body down the South East Ridge
– standing with Dawa Sherpa on the entirely empty summit of Mount Everest. Yay…
– no attempt of Lhotse because of too much snow. Instead, down to camp 2 it is
01.06. back in basecamp
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