Everest North Side Expedition: Estonian

The First Estonian national Mt. Everest expedition: Everest North Side - Estonian national expedition (page down for the latest News)

Latest News: Everest North Side - Estonian national expedition Alar Sikk (37) became the first Estonian to reach the summit of Mount Everest on 22 May (at 15 local time).

Saulius Vilius (a Lithuanian) was another member of the expedition to reach the top. Ivar Lai was ready for summit bid on 23 May at 8300 m camp, but was not able to ascend due to bad weather conditions. The three men are descending now to the ABC.

Ülo Suursaar on the basis of Raivo Plumer phone calls

Among the first expeditions in the Rongbuk base camp there is a lightweight Estonian expedition. They arrived at BC on 29 March. So far no Estonian (a nation of one million) has scaled Mt. Everest. However, the expedition members have already climbed Cho Oyu 8201 m (1998, 5 summiteers), Broad Peak Rocky Summit in Pakistan (2001, 2 members), Pik Kommunizma, Pik Lenina, Khan Tengri, Acongagua, Mc Kinley, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, etc.

The team members are:

• Toivo Sarmet (expedition leader),
• Raivo Plumer (ascent leader),
• Margus Proos,
• Ivar Lai,
• Boriss Slepikovski,
• Alar Sikk,
• Rein Loik,
• Saulius Vilius (a Lithuanian), and
• Tonis Lepik (a cameraman).

The lightweight expedition has 2 high-altitude porters and a small BC kitchen crew. The climbers reached ABC (advanced base camp, just beneath the North Col, 6450 m) on 3 April, stayed there to acclimatise for 3 nights and are now resting at the base camp. The planned summit days are between 5 and 15 May. The above is based on Raivo Plumer phone calls from Rongbuk.....

Update 09.05.2003: First Estonian Mt. Everest Expedition, North Side: Raivo Plumer phone calls from Rongbuk

Tomorrow (9 May) we start to move up again. The first task is find out, what equipment we have in the camps and what is lost in the storm. We have already completed 3 acclimatization climbs above the Base Camp: to the ABC (6450 m, 3-5 April), North Col (7000 m, 17- 18 April) and up to the 7600 m camp (29-30 April). At 7600 m we (Raivo, Alar and Saulius) pitched two tents, slept there and left some equipment. Due to storm winds we were not able to continue up to establish the 8300 m camp. Incredibly strong jetstream blew and virtually everybody escaped from the mountain. Even in the BC (5200 m) wind velocity of 38 m/s was measured.

The storm destroyed many tents in the BC as well as probably in the ABC. However, reportedly several tents remained intact on the North Col, as the camp was relatively well sheltered. The 12 tents pitched at 7600 m are probably all blown away. Virtually every expedition here is in shortage of tents, sleeping bags and other equipment. It seems, that our final summit push should be done in alpine style...