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Over 700 Climbers Stood on Everest in 2018

Mount Everest 2018

With one of the best weather windows of the past decade on Everest, the season has all but wrapped up.

There were well over 700 summits, which beats the previous record set in 2013 of 667 from both sides by clients and support climbers.

In early May there were high winds that threatened the season, but then a large high-pressure system stopped on the summit and climbers were ready to summit.

For 11 days, from the first summits on May 14 (the rope fixing team) until May 25, there were climbers standing on the top.

It was an overall good season with warm temperatures that allowed teams to spread out and not all charge at the same time.

Canadian Mikey Foreal was one of the earlier climbers to reach the summit in 2018.

Mikey Foreal on the top of Everest 2018

Records

There were many records set in 2018, primarily by Sherpas. At 48, Kami Rita Sherpa set the record for most summits, male or female, with 22 breaking the one he shared with Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa.

Lhakpa Sherpa, 44, broke her own female record with her ninth summit on May 16.

Australian Steve Plain broke the record for reaching the summits of each continent in 117 days. The old record was 126.

Kenton Cool broke his own record for most summits by a Briton at 13. And double amputee 70-year-old Xia Boyu, summited after winning an appeal to the Nepal Supreme Court to overturn a ban against double amputees climbing on Nepal’s mountains.

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