Episode 55: Everest Coverage - Summits begin, will chaos ensue?
With the 2026 Everest season hitting its most critical stretch, Sam and Adrian are back for their third installment of armchair mountaineering coverage.
Before diving into Everest, Adrian recommends HBO's four-part series The Dark Wizard on the life of Dean Potter, which has now released all episodes and has been making the rounds well beyond the climbing community. Adrian reflects on his feeling genuinely moved by how elegantly the filmmakers handled the full arc of Dean's life, his struggles, and ultimately his death. Sam touches on a new GPS-based avalanche transceiver from German company Nivia Safety, claiming to speed up burial searches by up to 30% and set to launch in fall 2026.
From there, Sam and Adrian cover the following from the 2026 Everest season:
Bartek Ziemski on Lhotse: The Polish ski mountaineer made only the second ski descent of the Lhotse Couloir — the first without oxygen, without new fixed ropes above Camp 3, and without ever taking his skis off, including finding a creative line through the icefall. Adrian, who made the first ski descent of Makalu and has a personal connection to Bartek, calls it one of the most groundbreaking Himalayan ski mountaineering achievements he's seen. Since recording this episode, Bartek went on to successfully summit and ski Everest without oxygen as well.
The First Summit Wave: The rope fixing team reached the summit and six clients followed before the weather window closed. Adrian celebrates the fixing effort while pushing back on the practice of clients climbing on rope fixing day — a habit that adds pressure to the team doing the most dangerous work on the mountain.
Summit Windows and Crowd Management: With a record number of climbers on the south side and a compressed season, Adrian breaks down what the next 10 days look like, how teams are positioning themselves across two potential windows, and why he's always preferred a marginal weather day with fewer people over a perfect day with 150 climbers on the route.
Speed Ascents, Kristen Harila, and No-Oxygen Attempts: A look at the notable storylines shaping up for the final push — including Tyler Andrews and Karl Egloff's contrasting acclimatization approaches ahead of their FKT attempts, and Kristen Harila's no-oxygen bid after summiting Nuptse without supplemental oxygen as a warmup.
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