u/razieel

According to Jason Black the Irish team turned back due to ropes being buried in snow combined with extremely cold temperatures. Alan Arnette quotes meteorologist Chris Tomer that the jet stream will remain partially over the summit through May 24. Imagine Nepal and Bianca Adler reports through their socials that there are massive amounts of people heading up to South Col probably aiming for a summit push on May 20th.

How are situations with ropes being buried usually handled, will a new rope fixing team address it or is it up to the individual teams to fix it?

On May 13, 2026, Everest's first summit day of the 2026 spring season, Seven Summit Treks and Imagine Nepal both publicly claimed credit for fixing the rope to the summit, with each operator's three-person Sherpa team named in dueling Instagram posts [1][2].

SST had been given the season's mandate via its director Chhang Dawa Sherpa, who was designated coordinator of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal (EOA) rope-fixing team, and SST's announcement credited a trio led by Mingtemba Sherpa (with Pasang Nurbu and Dendi Sherpa) for completing the route at 10:25 AM Nepal time, diplomatically framing the accomplishment as the product of "strong teamwork…among all operators."

Imagine Nepal's founder Mingma Gyalje Sherpa countered in a more assertive post, "I firmly assert that our team fixed the Everest summit", crediting his Sherpas (Phura Namgya, Pasang Ngima, and Ila Nuru) for pushing on from the Balcony to the summit "without any support."

A plausible reconciliation is that the EOA-led SST team fixed up to the Balcony (8,400 m) on May 12, while Imagine Nepal's Sherpas independently pressed on to fix the final section through the South Summit. The dueling claims extend a season-shaping tension first documented in ExplorersWeb's May 11 "leadership conflict" piece [3], which reported Mingma G's team had bypassed the official EOA rope-fixing effort, making the post-summit credit-split a natural continuation rather than a new dispute.

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DYRCL0zDLZg/

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/DYRALWbRxAc/

[3] https://explorersweb.com/one-dead-on-everest-as-leadership-conflict-hastens-race-to-the-summit/

Saving SST instagram post here:

>Everest - Sagarmatha Rope Fixing Mission Successfully Completed 🏔️

>13 May 2026 🏔️

>This morning at 10:25 am, the Everest rope-fixing team successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest (South Side), completing the 2026 rope-fixing mission from Base Camp to the top of the world.

>Among the summit team were three Sherpas from Seven Summit Treks: Mingtemba Sherpa, Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, and Dendi Sherpa.

>Led by Mingtemba Sherpa, the fixing teams joined forces overnight after successfully fixing ropes up to the Balcony (8400m) yesterday and completed the final section via the South Summit to the summit.

>This season brought major challenges from the very beginning. Delays in the Khumbu Icefall created immense pressure on route opening and load-ferrying operations. Through strong teamwork, coordination, and determination among all operators, the mission was successfully accomplished.

>📍2026 Everest Rope Fixing Timeline
• Base Camp Established: 05/06 April
• Camp 1 & Camp 2 Established: 28 April
• Camp 3 Established: 05 May
• South Col (Camp 4): 08 May
• Balcony Reached: 12 May
• Summit Reached: 13 May

>Huge congratulations to the entire rope-fixing team, SPCC, EOA, handling agencies, and all supporting ground crews for their professionalism and hard work under an extremely tight schedule.

>The route from Everest Base Camp to the Summit is now officially open for the Spring 2026 climbing season. 🇳🇵

Saving Imagine Nepal instagram post here:

>2026 Everest Summit
**********************
Yesterday, we stepped back because we were promised that the route to the summit would be fixed early. However, there was no movement from South Col until 1 a.m., so we stepped in again. We called back our three main Sherpas, along with two from Elite Exped, down from South Col, as there was enough manpower.

>Although we had fewer people at South Col, if there is the will, even three people are enough to get the job done. Those three went straight to the South Summit fixing rope without any support. From the South Summit onward, some fixing team members joined them, but I believe our only constraint was a lack of rope.

>Now, I firmly assert that our team fixed the Everest summit. The rest of the teams can proceed with their summit climbs. I remain very thankful to the fixing team for their work all the way to South Col.