Upclose Photos from the Mount Everest…

May 21st Update: Sandhosh will be attempting final leg of the mission and will be attempting the summit from 9pm this evening (21st May). By tomorrow morning he'd have reached the top of Everest and start his return journey. Wishing him all the best.
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Sandhosh Kumar,who is into his 50th day today into his 65 days Mission Mount Everest, has been sending some really interesting and up close photos of the Mount Everest, along with updates. While complete details are available at his blog, sharing some selected photos and updates with my blog readers here…

Day 44 – Ted climbing the wall

Sandhosh also has been sharing detailed updates of his day to day activities. Here’re a few interesting lines from his updates…

Mount Everest, up close

Sandhosh is very close to enter the final leg of his mission- summitting Mount Everest. The date on which they plan to do this is kept as a secret, because exact date of summit is decided by experts of IMG (International Mountaineering Group) considering weather and other parameters. Lots of other climbers are known to follow IMG’s schedule blindly. If the summit date is leaked, there’ll be big traffic jam when the team attempts its final stretch. Hence the dates are kept as a secret till last minute.

Ladder Crossing

View this interesting video below, a 5 yr old one though, wherein a helicopter (Eurocopter B3) is taken till top of Mount Everest. There’re very few helicopters which are capable of flying at this altitude (which has almost zero oxygen). The video also show how little the surface area is, on top of Mount Everest.

Here’s what Sandhosh says about heli tourism: “It used to be that, no matter how rich you are, it is impossible to reach the summit of Everest without the effort of your own two legs. The landing of this helicopter would change the rules on Everest forever. I am sure in the future, people would be able to pay thousands of dollars to be on that helicopter and sadly, summitting Everest may not take the joyous 2 months after all.”

A broken piece of ice

Of late helicopter sight seeing trips are being offered, but are pretty expensive. Otherwise helicopters are often used for rescue operations. Rescue from base camp costs about US$ 8000 and cost would increase with increase in altitude.
There’s not been a single season without accident… including the current one. A Russian climber of a different team had died while attempting to summit Lhotse. From Sandhosh’s team, one person had to return due to personal reasons.

Day 36 – The traffic jam down to base camp

As he is preparing for the final climb, let us wish him all the very best. All photos copyrighted to Sandhosh Kumar. Do not reproduce without permission.