An extraordinary journey to the top
Johann Peries successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest last week. In this our last blog entry which has documented his journey through the weeks, his Colombo team shares details of Johann’s last few days before he reached the summit
Since the last update Johann completed the third rotation from Base Camp up through Camps 1 and 2 up to Camp 3. This involved climbing up the treacherous Khumbu Ice fall along the way to Camp 1, and then the equally challenging Lhotse Face, a vertical climb along the ascent from Camp 2 to Camp 3. This was a particularly challenging climb, and Johann and his fellow climbers were quite depleted at the end of it.
Upon their return to Base Camp they waited patiently for their turn to begin the climb to the summit. Johann is in Team 3 of the IMG
May 27, 2018
(International Mountain Guides) group. There are only three climbers left on his team, and one more has joined them from Team 2, so there were four of them, each with their own Sherpa, departing for the summit.
The weather has generally been very bad during this expedition. The climbers have been inundated with snow-storms and blizzards, the camp sites are littered with large stones and boulders which have rolled down during the numerous avalanches. The last couple of days have seen the weather starting to clear. Other teams have already departed for the sum- mit as the weather has finally started clearing on the summit. Team 3 departed for the summit later than the other teams.
After some more relaxed climbs along the few rest days they were ready for their final departure to the summit. They spent a night at Camp 1, another at camp 2, a further night at Camp 3, and then they proceeded to Camp 4 for a short rest there before they made their bid for the summit on Monday night. After Camp 3 they oxygen tanks were on full time as the saturation of oxy-