A self-portrait by climber Emily Harrington atop Mount Everest. photo: Emily Harrington/National Geographic

The 2012 Everest Climbing Season came to a close over the weekend.  It was a difficult season due to it being an abnormally icy year as well as there only being two climbing windows the entire season.

2012 EVEREST CLIMBING SEASON STATS:

– 6 deaths in only 5 days ending May 19th

– 10 confirmed deaths on the season:

1. 40 year-old Karsang Namgyal Sherpa climbing with Prestige Adventures related to alcohol at base camp
2. Peak Freaks’ Namgyal Tshering Sherpa fell from a ladder into a crevasse near C1
3. Dawa Tenzing with Himex from stroke in the Khumbu Icefall and died in Kathmandu
4. 33 year-old Indian, Ramesh Gulve, climbing with the Pune team suffered a stroke around Camp2 and died back in India.
5. Dr Ebehard Schaaf with Asian Trekking of HACE near South Summit after his summit
6. Shriya Shah-Klorfine, 33, a Nepali-born Canadian climbing with Utmost Adventures died below the Balcony after her summit
7. Won-Bin Song from South Korea climbing with the Korean Everest & Lhotse Expedition died after a fall at the Hillary Step and then at the Balcony after his summit
8. Chinese climber, Ha Wenyi climbing with Mountain Experience died just below the Balcony
9. Juan José Polo Carbayo, 43, climbing with Himalayan Guides, died May 20 after summiting from the north, probably of exhaustion. Dr. Polo had been living in the Canary Islands, Spain.
10. Climbing with Monterosa, a German climber, Ralf D. Arnold,  broke his leg at the 2nd step and has died after his summit
11. ***source for this information:  alan arnette

– Only 2 weather windows (May 18th weekend & May 26th weekend)

– 240 successful summit bids

– 87 people summited on May 26th alone

“A total of 57 Nepali and 30 foreigners reached the summit on Saturday. In all, 240 people (195 Nepali) scaled the peak this season.” – Tilak Ram Pandey, liaison officer, department of mountaineering, at the ministry of tourism and civil aviation.

 – World record  =  oldest woman to summit Everest = Japan’s Tamae Watanabe, 73, who broke her own 10-year-old record as the oldest woman to scale Everest

Normal Everest climbing route

DEADLIEST YEARS ON MT EVEREST:

– 1996 = 15 deaths

– 2006 = 11 deaths

– 1982 = 11 deaths

– 1988 = 10 deaths

– 2012 = 10 Deaths

– 1997 = 9 deaths

– 1922 = 7 deaths (there are many years with 8 deaths but 1922 was the 1st climbing season ever on Everest)

Listen to this NPR Story with an interview with American climbing legend Conrad Ankor who just summited without supplemental oxygen:

At End Of Climbing Season, A Reflection On Everest ‘Traffic Jam’