Posted: Oct 11, 2012 06:41 pm EDT (Newsdesk) In a previous story, Mount Everest and Lhotse: summit pushes and speed attempt brewing, it was reported that beside the Polish kids led by Artur Hajzer on Lhotse, a 10 man Korean team and a single Japanese climber were attempting Mount Everest.
ExWeb's Korea contributor Kyu Dam Lee reports that the Korean climbers are the 2012 Everest Peace Expedition from Gang-Won University Alpine Club. Led by Sung-Wook Hong, members are Bong-Ha Park, Young-Hoon Oh, Jin-Seok Kim, Joo-Hwan Ahn, Seok-Joo Woo Young-Rae Kim, Jin-Young Jeong, Keun-Young Choi, and Il-Jin Im.
Latest from the mountaineers (2 days back or so) put them in BC, waiting for an improvement in weather expected "in the next four days."
A cool Japanese Everest attempt
Meanwhile, a reader (thanks Eric) tracked down the Japanese climber.
Kuriki Nobukazu apparently wants to climb Everest via the West Ridge/Hornbein Couloir route, first climbed in 1963 by Tom Hornbein and Willy Unsoeld (USA) via the Western Cwm to the West Shoulder, and then traversed across the North Face to the Hornbein Couloir. With a 180% fatality rate it's the deadliest line on Everest.
The line, click route number 3 has been tried by single climbers before, without success, and latest this summer by a National Geographic team, also unsuccessfully.
Kuriki climbs solo and without bottled oxygen. He posted a video clip at C3 (7200m) on September 27, the highest point he had made until then, showing the mountaineer in a pretty wild climb to the spot which usually marks the last acclimatization round before final summit push.
Summit push encore on Lhotse
The Polish decided for another summit push this weekend, October 12-15. The climbers report -27C on the upper slopes, -42C with windchill, and only 3 ft of snow.
Artur says that by his experience the weather won't settle until late October/November and the change will be set off by deep cold. "Patience and perseverance" says the dispatch, stating the climbers will head up Friday, October 12, at dawn.
It's likely that the Everest teams (sharing BC and normal route to C3) have come to a similar conclusion and are on the move as well.
