Spanish climber's winter Everest summit bid in question

A Spanish climber has abandoned an attempt to make the first winter ascent of Mount Everest for 25 years, the expedition organiser said Tuesday, after "lethal weather" forced him to retreat. It was the second time in as many years that the unpredictable Himalayan weather had stymied Alex Txikon's attempt to scale the world's highest peak in winter without the use of tanked oxygen.
The last successful winter summit was in 1993 by a Japanese team. But only one climber has previously reached the peak in winter without using supplemental oxygen: a Nepali mountaineer in December 1987. "Alex has ended his expedition. He reached up to Camp Four but the weather did not favour him," Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, which managed the logistics of Txikon's Everest bid, told AFP.
Txikon, 36, and his team reached 7,950 metres (26,083 feet) at the weekend, roughly 900 metres below the summit. Weather forecasts had indicated that strong winds would calm early Sunday, allowing them to press on to the summit.
But winds up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour forced the team, which included experienced Pakistani climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara, to return to base camp. "We are back at base camp from C4 (Camp Four). Very strong winds and lethal weather made it almost impossible to go for the summit," Sadpara posted on Facebook.
Txikon remains at Everest base camp and in a Facebook post on Tuesday afternoon said he was "considering different possibilities" - suggesting he may make another bid for the summit. "Everything indicates that the weather forecast will not be favourable until mid-March," he added.
For Txikon's Everest climb to be classed as a winter summit, he must reach the peak before the spring equinox on March 20. But his climbing permit issued by the Nepal government expires on February 28 and he would have to buy a new one - at a cost of $11,000 - if he wants to continue.
Sadpara has already returned to Kathmandu, Txikon confirmed. The temperatures near the summit of Everest in winter regularly plunge below minus 40 celsius (-40 Fahrenheit), while the wind chill makes it feel even colder. In those conditions exposed skin freezes in less than five minutes, putting climbers at serious risk of frostbite.
Limited oxygen at high altitudes also increases the risk of frostbite. Txikon was climbing without supplemental oxygen used by many climbers to reduce the effects of Everest's extreme altitudes. The five Nepali Sherpa guides climbing with the Spaniard were used tanked oxygen. It is not clear if Sadpara was too.
In 2016 Txikon and Sadpara became the first climbers to summit Pakistan's Nanga Parbat (8,125 metres) - nicknamed the "Killer Mountain" - in winter, a feat they achieved without using additional oxygen.