This is the same reason that 99% of all teams choose the spring as their preferred climbing season on Everest. In the autumn, the mountains in the upper Khumbu, were Everest and Pumori are located, are blanketed by heavy wet monsoon snows which have fallen in a deluge during the largest precipitation season of each year: August and September.

29 September: Richard Claude arrived in Lukla, on foot, walking from Jiri.

30 September: 3 members arrived in Lukla: Randy Shantz, Rob Fulton, and Mikel Eder, along with Jangbu Sherpa. They walked to Phakding and slept there.  With 2 porters and 3 Zopkioks.

1 October: Group walked to Namche. With 2 porters and 3 Zopkioks.

2 October: Group rested in Namche.

3 October: Group walked to Pangboche. With 3 porters and 3 Zopkioks.

4 October: Group walked to Pheriche. With 3 porters and 3 Zopkioks.

5 October: Group walked to Lobuche. With 3 porters and 3 Zopkioks.

6 October: Group rested in Lobuche. With 3 porters and 3 Zopkioks.

7 October:  Group walked to Pumori Basecamp at 5300 metres.  With 3 porters and 3 Zopkioks. They set up basecamp, and there was no snow in basecamp.

8 October: Randy and Jangbu walked to ABC at 5600 metres, and returned to Basecamp to sleep.

9 October: It snowed and at 3:00 pm, the team witnessed a massive avalanche on the mountain above basecamp. They waited in basecamp for more stable conditions.

10 October: In improving weather, Randy and Jangbu went to ABC and slept there.

11 October: Randy and Jangbu fixed 300 metres of rope to camp 1. They returned and slept in ABC.

12 October: Randy and Jangbu fixed 50 more metres of rope to reach camp 1 at 5800 metres. The pair slept in Camp 1.

13 October: Randy and Jangbu fixed rope above camp 1 and slept in camp 1.

14 October: Randy and Jangbu fixed rope above camp 1. This day their rope fixing ended, and they had layed a total of 1170 metres of new rope on the route, up to a height of 6350 metres, into the camp 2 area.

15 October: Randy and Jangbu left camp 1 at 5:00 am and headed for the summit. In the upper summit area, the snow was a metre deep and very light. At 1:00 pm, while leading out and breaking trail on the ascent, Jangbu fell five metres into a crevasse. Randy helped to pull him out. The pair reached the summit of 7161 metre Pumori at 3:30 pm. The weather was calm, with no wind, and sunny. The snow on the summit was deep and made for difficult trail-breaking, and there were no crevasses evident. Randy and Janbu proceeded down, and reached camp 1 at 7:00 pm by torchlight.

16 October: Randy and Jangbu returned to basecamp. Richard, Rob, and Mikel went up to camp 1 on the same day.

17 October: While Randy and Jangbu were resting in basecamp, Richard, Rob, and Mikel saw a massive avalanche sweep down and come very close to camp 1.

18 October: Richard, Rob, and Mikel returned to bascamp, fearing that autumn avalanche conditions made the route unsafe.

19-23 October: The team left the Khumbu valley and returned to Kathmandu.

One Canadian: Randy Shantz; and one Nepali: Jangbu Sherpa, reached the summit...

We send our hearty congratulations to them!!!! Thank you very much for following the team's progress. Yours Sincerely, from Daniel Mazur and everyone at SummitClimb.com