Everest | 2014 S Col-SE Ridge

A China expedition to Everest in 2014 via S Col-SE Ridge, led by Wang Jing. Summit reached on 23rd May 2014. 6 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 8480
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER14161
Peak ID EVER
Year 2014
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Col-SE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality China
Leaders Wang Jing
Sponsor 9 + 2 Project to Everest
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2014-05-07
Summit Date 2014-05-23
Summit Time 1830
Summit Days 16
Total Days 18
Termination Date 2014-05-25
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 1
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 5
Summit Hired 3
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep True
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits Climbed Lobuche East
Campsites BC(07/05,5350m),C2(10/05,6450m),C3(16/05,7400m),C4(22/05,7950m),Smt(23/05)
Route Notes C2 at 6450m by helicopter from BC non-stop to C2 and C2 to BC C4 at South Col. It was an helicopter-assisted ascent and descent. Email from Jing Wang - July 7, 2014 When the avalanche occurred, I was with Russell's [Himex] team on Lobuche doing conditioning training. Even though I wasn't on Everest, but when I heard about the avalanche, it was still quite devastating, I felt many people felt the same way. I love mountaineering so of course I also love the Sherpa people. Since I've started climbing in Nepal in 2009, I've been coming back here ever since. Those mountaineers who were planning on climbing Everest did not want to give up, and most Sherpas in the expeditions did not want to go on strike, they wanted to continue climbing just like other clients, but because of the threats they faced, they had to give up on climbing. In fact, the Nepal government issued an open letter on April 24th stating that Everest was still open to the mountaineers, and encouraged everyone to climb. I'm sure you know this background more than me. The mountaineers didn't just give up climbing; in fact it was quite the opposite. When my teammates heard of the news, everyone was quite down, but at the same time wanted to figure out how do we keep on climbing? Everyone was trying to figure out the possibility of continuing the climb; there were also people who tried to see if going up on the north side would be a possibility. But the authorities for the north side cited safety as its reason and refused everyone who asked to climb on the north. This included me. As you know, to prepare to climb Everest takes tremendous amount of preparation work - this includes mentally, materially, time-wise, and monetarily; no one wants to give up on something like this so easily. I was the same as everyone else. I wanted to continue to climb. Besides that, I also had another reason. At the beginning of this year in January, I embarked on a 9+2 project, which involves climbing the tallest peak of each continent, as well as trekking to the tip of both poles, as well as completing two controversial peaks (Mt. Blanc and Kosciusko). At the time of the avalanche, I had already completed 5 highest peaks out of the continents as well as the two poles; I only had to finish Everest then one last peak at McKinley to complete my goal. I really didn't want to just give it up so close to finish, so I tried one more time on the south side. I found friends in Nepal and asked him to help me plan it out. Before this I still contacted my previous expedition team organizer, Himex founder Russell Brice, and asked him in person if it was possible to go back to base camp and continue to climb and was told no, its not possible to go back to base camp and organize a climb anymore. I didn't want to bring him any problems, so after that I didn't tell him of my plans to go up. My Sherpas and I considered the question of safety in full magnitude, one side is safety of the climb, and the other is the safety of everyone on the climb. The organizer and the Sherpas assured me they would make sure there's no conflict between the Sherpas, and I won't need to worry about this. My English is not that good, so pretty much everything off the mountain was taken care of by my Nepalese friends. I trust them completely. Arrived at EBC on 7th May, on May 10th flew via helicopter to C2 (at 6450m). (By May 8th the American mountaineer Cleo Weidlich already flew to C2). After we arrived in C2 on May 10th, we set up camp and stayed there that night. The Sherpas and I went in and out of the mountain at the same time. May 16th arrived at C3 high camp at 7400m, slept there that night, then descended. May 21st we arrived at C3 again and stayed one night. May 22nd approx at 3:30 pm, I arrived at South Col at 7950m, began to set up camp, started resting around 9:00 pm, but did not fall into deep sleep. May 22nd at midnight, 4 Sherpas went out to fix the route ahead, another Sherpa (Lakpa: 22 yrs old) and I began going up at around 6:00 am May 23rd this time. I was in charge of analyzing the weather, organizing the team and out schedule. On the morning of my summit day, I was still able to use my satellite phone to call and asked for the weather forecast for the next few days, confirming once again that the 23rd was a good day and that 24th morning also good. We descended from summit as soon as we finished taking pictures and videos. It was approximately 25 minutes. We descended to South Col and used one Toread tent and one North Face tent. [So at about 6:00 am that day, she and her fifth Sherpa set out for the top. Twelve and a half hours later, according to her account, Mrs. Jing Wang from Beijing and three Sherpas from Nepal stood at the summit of Everest.] Three Sherpas reached the summit with me Pasang [Nuru], Lhakpa [Gyalzen] and Riten Jangbu (aka Tashi), all have about 2-5 times of Everest experience, all excellent Sherpas. We used the ropes from Lhotse to South Col, then from South Col to an area around the South Peak, exactly how many meters I don't know. I have used old ropes from previous years in a few sections (for example, exposed ropes on top of rocks). This time the ascent was drastically different from the previous 2 experiences. Because there were no footprints left from previous climbers, this increased the difficulty exponentially. There were more exposed boulders along the way, especially from C2, you can see a big difference, many parts of the path you can actually see whereas in previous years it was completely covered in snow, but on Lhotse it was nearly all ice, very different for climbing. This climb was incredibly difficult, so even the Sherpas were using oxygen when they were fixing the route. The more specific location was probably near C3, because everyone's body condition is different, they all started using oxygen at a different point, including me. Same thing for the descent. Everyone's condition and oxygen usage differed, but generally we stopped using oxygen by the end of Lhotse side. May 23rd 11 pm we got back to South Col, we started descending early morning on the 24th, by noon everyone had descended down to C2. By 26th morning everyone as well as our stuff was back at base camp. May 25th returned to Kathmandu in the afternoon, that evening flew to the US for the last stop McKinley. The five climbing Sherpas were all provided by Phurba Gyalzen from Himalayan Sherpa Adventure. I paid directly to the expedition company, the company then paid the Sherpa's fee they agreed, so I don't know the specific amount that was paid to the Sherpas. From BC to C2 I only flew once, same thing for the descent. There was only one plane that transported back and forth (each return trip would be about 7-8 minutes). It was not Simrik Air, I actually don't remember the name of the helicopter company. Cleo Weidlich came to our cooking tent once, I heard from my Sherpas after that it was because she wanted my Sherpas to help her fix the ropes to Lhotse Peak. When we were at C3, I saw her camp, at that time, it was already ragged from wind blowing and wearing down. We though there was no one inside, but later on the Sherpas checked in the tents, and her Sherpas and her were inside; we were quite concerned that her tent would be blown away by the wind. The next morning she departed first, when we passed by her later on, we exchanged few words, be safe kind of thing, not a lot of commnication. Email from Himalayan Experience (Russell Brice) - 12 May 12 2014 It has been a very stressful and crazy year on Everest. I will eventually get around to writing more about this season, however in the meanwhile I need to clarify what is currently happening on Everest. Many of you know that I have been dealing with the logistics for Jing Wang to climb the 7 Summits and 2 poles in record time. Of course this project came to an abrupt end when I was forced to cancel my Everest and Lhotse trips. I suggested to Jing that she go to the north side of Everest and obtain a climbing permit from the CMA or CTMA, but this was not forthcoming. Although Jing asked if I could arrange for her trip to continue on the south side, I refused and so did all my Sherpa staff. In the event it appears that Jing has arranged to continue to climb with another agency and has without permission flown by helicopter to C2, despite me warning her not to. This has caused me considerable problems with the Ministry, who say that I am still responsible for Jing, despite me knot knowing who the operator actually is. Well in fact I do know who this operator is, but he continues to tell me lies, saying that he has not organised the 7 Sherpas that are currently with Jing, although they all come from his company. Even after repeated phone calls he still does not come to the Ministry to take on the responsibility of the Sherpa's insurance and other such matters. In the meanwhile the Ministry says that they will punish my company, quite a large fine and probably banned from coming to Nepal for 5 years. It is only in the past few hours that I have now been cleared of the responsibility for Jing and her phantom operator. So for members who might think that I have carried on with my expedition, please know that this is the exact opposite, these actions of others has caused me considerable pain and hard work to clear my company name in the past few days. Article in the Himalayan Times Kathmandu: A high-level committee formed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has recommended the government to come up with a strict rule to ban rampant use of helicopters above Mt. Everest Base Camp, urging the authorities to permit such flights only for rescue missions. The committee that studied the flights made by different companies from April 18 to May 31 above the Base Camp also suggested that CAAN's permission should be made mandatory to conduct flights for other purposes in the region. A three-member committee led by senior pilot Gunj Man Lama was formed on May 28 after Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation ordered CAAN to probe rampant use of choppers in the Everest region as revealed by this daily. The panel found that Fishtail Air conducted number of flights above the Base Camp on May 8,10,14,18,25, while Simrik Air operated 9N-AKF on April 26 for sorties to the higher camps. "These routine flights were conducted as per the Air Operator Certificate issued by CAAN," the report said. An AOC authorises an operator to carry out specified commercial air transport operations. "CAAN forwarded its probe report to the ministry for further action two days ago," Director General Ratish Chandra Lal Suman told THT. Contrary to Suman's claims, ministry's aviation industry division chief Suresh Acharya said his office had not received the study report till this evening. "Ministry will take necessary action after getting CAAN's report" The chopper used kicked up a row after Chinese climber Wang Jing flew to C2 from the Base Camp along with seven Sherpas, during her ascent to Mt. Everest this spring. Wang had chartered more than a dozen flights. Most of them with call sign 9N-AJI were piloted by Italian national Maurizio Folini starting May 10, bypassing the most treacherous icefall route during her summit. American climber Cleo Weidlich also flew to C1 from Gorak Shep on May 8 but later abandoned her bid to scale Mt. Lhotse. Wang is planning to visit Nepal by the end of this month to collect her certificate. Mountaineering fraternity, including expedition operators, stand united against Wang, saying she flouted climbing norms and ethics to degrade Everest popularity. But MoTCA Joint Secretary Madhusadan Burakoti said she had the right to obtain summit certificate. Wang, who initially tried to hide information on helicopter ride, later owned up to it, claiming she was left with no other option to reach C2. CAAN's aviation safety department officials, however, hinted that action against helicopter companies was unlikely due to lack of specific laws. The report recommended that to ensure action there had to be a rule to allow only rescue flights above the Base Camp. Notes from E. Hawley: One of two ladies who decided to ignore a ban called by Sherpas on all climbing on Everest and Lhotse after a disastrous avalanche that killed 26 Sherpas in the Icefall, was Mrs. Jing Wang, a 39-year-old successful businesswoman from Beijing and a member of the Himalayan Experience South Col expedition led by Russell Brice. He cancelled the climbing program because of the Sherpas threats of bodily harm. But Mrs. Wang was nearing the conclusion of her "9+2 Project" with the goal of scaling the highest points on the world's seven continents plus the two also rans, Kosciusko and Mont Blanc, plus "trekking to the tips of both Poles." She had just two mountains to climb, Everest and Denali/McKinley. She was determined to climb Everest now. She applied for permission to climb from the Tibetan side, but the Chinese authorities turned her down, "in order to guarantee the safety of climbers, they are not going to permit any individual to climb Everest from the northern slope this year," she was told. But, she explained, "I really didn't want to just give it up so close to finish, so I tried one more time on the south side." When Russell Brice said it was not possible to go back to base camp and continue to climb, she "found friends in Nepal and asked him to help me plan it out... My Sherpas and I considered the question of safety in full magnitude... The organizer and the Sherpas assured me they would make sure there's no conflict between the Sherpas, and I won't need to worry about this. My English is not that good, so pretty much everything off the mountain was taken care of by my Nepalese friends. I trust them completely." Her newfound friend, the organizer, was Phurba Gyalzen, the boss of a minor trekking agency, Himalayan Adventure Trekking, whose directorship on the official Nepal Tourism Board no doubt helped to keep her ascent free of any trouble. That ascent, in her telling, went without a hitch. She arrived at a base camp on 7 May after an acclimatization climb with Brice's team on a nearby mountain. On 10 May she flew to her Camp 2 in the Western Cwm. On the 16th she slept in her Camp 3 one night and then descended to the lower camp; she returned to C3 on the 21st for a one night stay before climbing up to her highest camp, C4 on the South Col. Here she rested until midnight while four of her Sherpas went ahead to fix the route. On the morning of her summit day, 23 May, she used her satellite phone to check the weather forecast, which was that "the 23rd was a good day and the morning of the 24th also has good weather." So at about 6:00 am that day, she and her fifth Sherpa set out for the top. Twelve and a half hours later, according to her account, Mrs Jing Wang from Beijing and three Sherpas from Nepal stood at the summit of Everest. In dramatic contrast with normal times, they were all alone. Where they should have been hundreds of climbers up and down the mountain, not a soul was to be found between base camp and the summit except for the other defiant lady, Cleo Weidlich from California with her one Sherpa aiming for the summit of Lhotse. Mrs. Wang had needed only thirteen days to go from base camp to the summit. She had the help of five experienced Sherpas; they used ropes fixed by the others in an earlier season from the west face of Lhotse to the South Col and to "the area around" the South Summit, where her men put in new rope. Their being all alone she found "drastically different from the previous two experiences" when she had climbed in Nepal. "Because there were no footprints left from previous climbers, this increased the difficulty exponentially. There were more exposed boulders along the way; especially from C2 (in the Cwm) you can see a big difference; many parts of the path you can actually see stones whereas in previous years it was completely covered in snow; on (the west face of) Lhotse (on the route to Everest) it was nearly all ice, very difficult for climbing. Since "the climb was incredibly difficult," she and her Sherpas went on oxygen around C3 at 7400m on the Lhotse face and continued to use it in their descent to somewhere near the bottom of the face. Mrs. Wang wasted no time in her departure from Everest. She descended from the summit to her South Col camp at 11:00 pm on 23 May. By noon on the 24th, the entire team was down in camp 2 in the Cwm, and by the morning of the 25th all of the team and their baggage were in base camp. Mrs. Wang flew back to Kathmandu in the afternoon of the 26th and left Nepal for Alaska and her last mountain that same evening. After summiting Denali in Alaska she returned to Kathmandu briefly to attend a special congratulatory ceremony at Hotel Annapurna, Kathmandu, on 30 June, at which Mrs. Wang was honored as International Mountaineer of the Year 2014 by Gontabya Nepal Publications, Kamaladi. This despite the fact that the year was only half over. A statuette and framed letter of appreciation were presented to her by a leader of the UCPN (Maoist) party, Posta Bahadur Bogati. The letter of appreciation read: "Gontabya Nepal takes a great pride in honouring you with this title as 'International Mountaineer of the Year 2014' for your grand success in summiting Mt. Everest alone [ignoring the Sherpas who summited with her] in the spring 2014 and also for completing successful ascent of all seven Himalayan peaks of seven continents in the shortest possible time frame. Your grand achievement of historic climbing of Mt. Everest played an essential and remarkable role in the promoting of Nepalese mountaineering tourism industry a round the globe. This organization highly values your phenomenal contribution and so felcitates you for your entire noble and awe-inspiring endeavour." Mrs. Wang was also felicitated at another function on the same day in Kathmandu at the Yak and Yeti Hotel organized by Mahendra Jyoti Students Forum (Mahendra Jyoti is a school in Chaurikharka, Solu) and Pharak Sherpas' Club (Pharak is a village in Solu) at which the speaker of the Constituent Assembly presented her with a framed laudatory letter. Contrary to news items published after her summit success, she did not receive any special award from the Nepalese government. Her Sherpas received on her behalf the standard official certificate provided to all summiters, by which the tourism ministry accepted the legitimacy of her successful climb. However the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal was reported to be investigating her chartered helicopter flights to carry her, her Sherpas and her baggage from BC up to C2, and later back from C2 to BC, whereas it is understood that choppers are supposed to fly above BC only on rescue missions. There were claims that more than a dozen flights were operated for her; she acknowledged a total of two for herself. Sherpa summiters: Lhakpa Geljen Sherpa, 24/1/92, Pangkoma, Jubing-9, Solu Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 25/5/84, Tate, Chaurikharka-7, Solu Riten Jangbu Sherpa (aka Tashi), 6/5/83, Ghorthali-2, Sindupalchowk
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Himalayan Sherpa Adventure
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2463270
Year 2014
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) s col-se ridge

Members

6 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Jing Wang F 1975 China Leader Beijing, China Owner of outdoor gear manufacturing company Details Other expeditions
Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa M 1992 Nepal H-A Worker Pangom, Jubing-8, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions
Pasang Dawa Sherpa M 1987 Nepal H-A Worker Sengma, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Riten Jangbu (Tashi) Sherpa M 1983 Nepal H-A Worker Ghorthali-2, Sindhupalchok - Details Other expeditions
Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa M 1978 Nepal H-A Worker Tate, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Dawa Gyalzen/Gyaljen Sherpa M 1987 Nepal H-A Worker Chheplung, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

4 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
EVER14161 - - https://www.thebmc.co.uk/expedition-succeeds-on-everest-from-nepal - - -
EVER14161 - - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140805-mount-everest-sherpa-mountain-climbing-jing-wang-avalanche/ - - -
EVER14161 - - http://www.imagenepal.com.np/slider-news/controversy-at-the-top-313 - - -
EVER14161 - - http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Wang+Jing+first+to+summit+Mount+Everest+this+year&NewsID=415843 - - -