Wanaka company Adventure Consultants is celebrating another milestone climbing year in Nepal, with eight clients successfully summitting Mt Everest, along with 20 guides and Sherpas.

General manager Suze Kelly says the outstanding season can be attributed to both optimal weather conditions and the dedication of the Adventure Consultants guides who led the two-month-long expeditions.

“We had excellent weather and a great team who supported each other,” she says. “For a summit day we need good weather at the right time in mid-May and this past season there were 11 ideal weather days in a row.

“Our guides Rob Smith and Lydia Bradey did a fantastic job guiding everyone to the summit and back safely and providing leadership, as did our all-star Sherpa team.”

Suze says the climbing season, which is springtime in Nepal, ended with a tremendous personal achievement for Adventure Consultants owner and renowned mountaineer Guy Cotter, who summitted Mt Everest for the fth time this year while leading theTriple Crown, a challenging expedition climbing the three highest peaks in the Everest cirque – Nuptse (7864m), Mt Everest (8850m) and Lhotse (8516m).

“No-one has actually summitted all three in one season. It was an ambitious project – Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world and one of the 148,000m peaks,” says Suze. “Guy had a private Singaporean client for the expedition and they

just missed out on the summit of Nuptse due to adverse weather, before climbing Mt Everest and Lhotse back-to-back two weeks later.”

She says the Lhotse summit is accessible from the same high camp that is used for climbing Mt Everest.

“It’s now a modern challenge to tick off the two 8000m peaks one after the other since you are handily situated next to one and suitably acclimatised.”

Suze says Adventure Consultants’ African and European expeditions have also exceeded expectations this year, with multiple groups climbing Tanzania’s Mt Kilimanjaro (5895m) as well as Mont Blanc (4810m) on the French-Italian border.

“Our European Alps climbing school and guided ascents programmes have been particularly busy as well.”