Everest | 2021 S Col-SE Ridge

A Romania expedition to Everest in 2021 via S Col-SE Ridge, led by Maria Danila. Summit reached on 23rd May 2021. 12 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 10599
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER21137
Peak ID EVER
Year 2021
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Col-SE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Romania
Leaders Maria Danila
Sponsor Snowy Horizon International Everest Expedition 2021
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 El Salvador, Estonia, India, Japan, Montenegro, UK, USA
Approach Lukla->Namche->Lobuche->Everest BC
Basecamp Date 2021-04-11
Summit Date 2021-05-23
Summit Time 0629
Summit Days 42
Total Days 49
Termination Date 2021-05-30
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 10
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 16
Summit Hired 1
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 -
Campsites BC(11/04,5300m),C1(28/04,6050m),C2(29/04,6500m),C3(12/05,7100m),C4(22/05,7950m),Smt(23/05)
Route Notes Approach: Lukla->Namche->Lobuche->BC (main team); 2 Americans via 3 passes. BC 11/04 5300m C1 28/04 6050m C2 29/04 6500m C3 12/05 7100m C4 22/05 7950m Smt 23/05 by Ferrier-May and Pemba Nuru Sherpa at 6:29 am. On 16 May summit push started from BC; Danila, Merisalu, Valle Arrue, Birukov, and Birukova reached C2 along with their support Sherpas. Ferrier-May left BC on 17 May to C2. On 21 May all went to C3 and on 22 May to C4. Ferrier-May had a rest for three hours in C4 and left for summit at 9:20 pm with Pemba Nuru Sherpa. They got to the top at 6:29 am on 23 May, and stayed on the summit about 30 minutes. They got back to C4 between 11 am-12 pm and left there around 2:30 pm and reached C2 at 9:30 pm. Next day, 24 May they went down to BC. The summit day weather was windy. High points reached by the other members; Maria Danila: on 22 May climbed up to 8200m with Bir Bahadur and gave up due to high wind. Darko Sekularac: on 12 May went up to 6600m (above C2); he used Oxygen from C1. He suffered from altitude sickness vomiting + probably infected by Covid and evacuated by heli from C1 on 14 May. Konstantin Birukov: to 7950m (C4) on 22 May and did not go further up due to the high winds. Umesh Giri Panicker: to 6050m; he stayed in C1 for three days infected by Covid and evacuated by heli on 9 May to Kathmandu. Toshihiro Yokoi: to 6800m on acclimatization rotation and back to BC on 1 May, stayed 2 days in the tent and heli to Kathmandu on 3 May infected by Covid. He was back to BC on 22 and wanted to try for summit on 27 push and went off the Khumbu icefall 200m and gave up due to exhaustion. Vimal Kumar: to 6500m (C2). After his first rotation he went down to Lukla and tested Covid positive. On 22 May he came back to BC. On 27 May he went up to probably to C2 and returned BC on 28 May, probably loss of vision. Anna Birukova: to 7950m, C4 on 22 May. Alfa Karina Valle Arrue: to 7950m, C4 22 May. Aborted due to high winds. Katrin Merisalu: to C4 on 22 May. Heli lift from C2 on 24 May (Covid?) She left Nepal on 29 May. Returned to KTM different dates, but all the climbers left on 30 May. Oxygen: Ferrier-May from C4-summit-7300m, other members from C3 and C1 Sherpas C4-summit-C4 From Simon Ferrier-May Instagram posting: Me and Pemba Nurbu Sherpa (a lama from Pangboche monestry) reached the highest point on Earth at 06:29 on 23rd May. “Here is just some of what we had to battle along the way: • 45km/h winds on summit day. Enough to literally blow you off your feet, producing a wind chill of -35C. • Pemba and I only had 5 bottles of oxygen to share between us on our summit push (you usually need 5 each), and two of the bottles were found on the south col from a 2018 expedition and kept aside for us. • My first sherpa got pneumonia and got heli evacuated at the end of April. • My second sherpa got Covid and got heli evacuated in mid-May. • I climbed between base camp and camp 2, alone, four times when my sherpa were sick. • I fell down a small crevasse in the Khumbu icefall, alone, and climbed myself back out, getting away with only some scrapes and bruises. • I got covid (then climbed from base camp to camp 2, 6500m / 21300ft… one of the more difficult days of my life!). • We had the worst weather on Everest since 2005. We didn’t have a real weather window. We just made do with the only possible chance. • And on the descent we got completely lost in the Khumbu icefall. We left camp 4 for our summit bid at 21:30 on 22nd May. We then went 24 hours(!) from camp 4 to the top of the world and down to camp 2… an ascent of 940m, and a descent of 2300m!! That was all after only 3 hours’ rest at camp 4…. which was after climbing 9 hours from camp 3 to 4 (7100m – 7910m) without oxygen. In total, a 36 hour push! My ascent from camp 4 was with oxygen (I used 3 bottles from 7920m). A no-oxygen attempt was over for me when my second sherpa got sick at camp 2, right before our planned rotation to camps 3 and 4 – the most important thing for a no-ox attempt. After I got covid, any version of success seemed unachievable… so I’m very happy to have got the summit. Of our expedition (the company I had a permit with), there were 10 members and I think 14 sherpa…. Only Pemba and I made the summit. All others either got sick or turned around. Everest, for me, is done. I’m never coming back. But I stood on top of the world, and no one will ever be able to take that away from me.
Accidents Some members infected by covid.
Achievement -
Agency Snowy Horizon Treks
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2464619
Year 2021
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) s col-se ridge

Members

12 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Maria Alexandra Danila F 1987 Romania Leader Bucharest, Romania IT product owner Details Other expeditions
Konstantin Birukov M 1963 USA Climber Fulton, Maryland Physician Details Other expeditions
Anna Birukova F 1966 USA Climber Fulton, Maryland Medical researcher at Univ of Maryland Details Other expeditions
Simon Ferrier-May M 1991 UK Climber London, England - Details Other expeditions
Vimal Kumar M 1982 India Climber Husainpur, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, UP, India Electric engineer (assistant manager, Rites Ltd.) Details Other expeditions
Katrin Merisalu F 1968 Estonia Climber Tallinn, Estonia IT specialist Details Other expeditions
Umesh Giri Surendra Panicker M 1977 India Climber Abu Dhabi, UAE Senior manager for learning and development Details Other expeditions
Darko Sekularac M 1974 Montenegro Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Alfa Karina Valle Arrue F 1976 El Salvador Climber San Salvador, El Salvador Attorney Details Other expeditions
Toshihiro Yokoi M 1973 Japan Climber - - Details Other expeditions
Pemba Nuru Sherpa M 1995 Nepal H-A Worker Pangboche, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Bir Bahadur Tamang M 1993 Nepal H-A Worker Makalu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions

References

8 recorded references.