Everest 2026 Season Summary–Records, Crowds, Trash & Winds

About this episode

Alan Arnette reviews the events and trends of the 2026 Everest climbing season.

Welcome to my annual Everest summary, where I review what happened and who did what. Quirky. That's my word for Everest 2026. Or perhaps, "normal." The 2026 Everest spring season has come to a close. There were delays, strong winds, changing drone and helicopter rules, moments of concern and challenging climbing. Despite the dramatic headlines in the mainstream press, it was actually a fairly normal season, as evidenced in part by roughly 80% of this year's 1,008 summits occurring between May 17th and May 26th, consistent with historical trends. The Himalayan Database will publish what I consider to be the definitive results later this year. #everest2026 If you would like to be notified when my memoir, "Hard or Impossible? Summiting K2 for Ida is available – I'm still looking for an agent. Complete the form at the bottom of this introduction page: https://www.alanarnette.com/memoir

People in this episode

Host: Alan Arnette

Topics covered

• Everest
• climbing
• mountaineering
• 2026 season
• summits
• Himalayan Database

Keywords

• Everest 2026
• climbing season
• summits
• Himalayan Database
• mountaineering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Himalayan Database

Books & works: Hard or Impossible? Summiting K2 for Ida

More episodes of The Podcast on alanarnette.com

• Everest 2026: May 3 Weekend Update Record Season Over & 1 More Death? · May 31, 2026 · 12 min
• Everest 2026: May 24 Weekend Update Nearing the End · May 24, 2026 · 25 min
• Everest 2026: Garrett Madison Podcast from Camp 2, 2 More Deaths · May 22, 2026 · 10 min
• Everest 2026: The Western Team's Turn, My Summit Anniversary · May 22, 2026 · 26 min
• Everest 2026: Weather Alert and More Summits · May 18, 2026 · 13 min
• Everest 2026: May 17 Weekend Update—Summits! · May 17, 2026 · 10 min