The Fall Season is starting to wind down in the Himalaya, but there are plenty of teams still working hard to achieve their goals and reach the summits on their respective mountains.
Sadly, one of those teams has had to call it quits, as the North Face Trilogy Expedition has decided to go home, thanks to China closing the borders of Tibet until at least the 8th of October. The team had originally planned climb Cho Oyu, with one of its members making a snowboard descent from the summit. Once they were back in BC, they would return to Kathmandu under their own power, with two running the entire way, while to others would mountain bike. According to the final update to their blog however, this will no longer be possible. The closing of Tibet has delayed their arrival on the mountain, and completely thrown off their schedule. Initially, they had thought about climbing a different peak in the region, but now they have elected to end the expedition and go home. Reading the post, you can tell that this was not an easy decision for them to make, but they feel it is the right one.
ExWeb is providing most of the updates from the region these days, as a lot of the professionally guided teams are done and heading home. On Shisha Pangma, ExWeb is reporting that a mixed Chinese-Tibetan team went up to the summit yesterday, but it is unclear if they reached the Main or Central Summit. There is no doubt where the Summit Club team is at today however, as their latest dispatch has them at the Central Summit, with great weather and low winds.
There has been no word from Andrew Lock, who is also climbng on Shisha. On his last report, he and his team were heading up along a difficult route, and with any luck they could be reaching the summit today as well. For Andrew, this will be his 14th, and final, 8000 meter peak. We'll have to stay tuned for the news on his summit bid.
Also on Shisha, an Italian Team is working on a new route on the South Face, and if successful, team member Adriano Greco will attempt a ski descent of the mountain. They have been scouting the mountain for some time, and are now making final preparations for their summit bid as well.
Alpenglow Expeditions updated their blog with a brief note a few days back as well. They report on a slew of successful summits on Manaslu, putting a several climbers, led by Dorji Sherpa on the true summit. The first climbers to stand on that point in a decade.
Finally, the Field Touring Alpine Team may have gone home awhile ago, but they're still updating their blog, this time with photos from Satopanth. The team reached the summit on the 23,212 foot tall peak back on Sept. 21st, and even survived a scary earthquake on their descent.
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