Himalaya update: Anna summit push team in C3, quake not felt on Everest

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Edurne & Co have reached C3 on Annapurna – followed by Jorge Egocheaga and Martin Ramos. Climbing in great weather and conditions, the chance to eventually top-out may be to good to miss for other climbers on the spot, such as Joao Garcia - who might be considering to join the Spaniards for the summit attempt Saturday.

Meanwhile, teams on Everest report they felt nothing of the 6.9 quake that hit Qinghai region yesterday, causing over 600 deaths.

Al Filo: all systems go in C3

Edurne Pasaban, Asier Izaguirre, Alex Chicon, Nacho Orviz and the team sherpas reached C3 in great weather around 2:30pm, local time today. They were not alone: Jorge Egocheaga and Martin Ramos have joined Al Filo team on today’s climb to C3, although they later returned to C2 for the night.

Weather forecasts announce sun and mild wind for the next three days, thus encouraging the Spaniards on their summit plans.

Joao joining the summit push?

“Happy Nepalese new year,” Polish Kinga Baranowska reported yesterday. “We’re just back from C2 and ready to go up again to C3. Edurne has gone up aiming for the top – we are not ready yet to go that far though. In our group, only Joao is considering to join the Spaniards on a shot to the summit.”

Garcia - who reached BC just a week ago with Anna the last peak on his 14x8000ers quest - told media in Portugal that C2 is supplied with summit gear, which can be taken to C4. “The summit push could take place this weekend,” he said.

Catalan Xavi Arias confirmed yesterday he was setting off towards C2 today. “I am teaming up with Lluis Rafolls, and will climb together with Carlos Pauner and Javier Perez, and Juanito Oiarzabal+Tolo Calafat,” Xavi stated. “Hopefully we will reach C3 to spend Friday night there.”

While Carlos Pauner has specifically stated that after the night in C3 he will return back to BC, neither Oiarzabal nor Arias have confirmed their plans beyond Friday. A Sherpa working with Juanito was seen from BC earlier today, on his way to C3.

Everest notes: no tremor in BC

Teams on both sides of Everest say they didn’t feel the quake hitting Qinghai. “We heard there was an earthquake about 250 kilometres to the northwest of us, over on the Qinghai/Tibet border,” dispatched Dan Mazur from Interim Camp on East Rongbuk glacier yesterday. “We did not feel the effects here; everyone on our team is okay.”

“As for the recent quake on the Tibetan plateau, climbers in (south side) BC felt nothing,” Peak Freaks home team reported.