Chamonix

The “Ski Vikings” as they have become known, succeeded in their summit attempt at noon on Tuesday May 16th having left their camp at 7900m at around 10pm the previous night. Whilst at the top, Olsson called through this message; “Hello, this is Tomas Olsson! I am on the top of Mount Everest, together with Tormod Granheim, Jamabo Sherpa and Sering Fandepote. It has been incredible tough climbing this night. There has been snowstorm all the way. Hopefully, we have sufficient forces to do a ski descent down the North Face of Mount Everest. I will report again later”.

Obviously overjoyed to have made it to the top, tragedy then struck on Wednesday when Olsson fell at approximately 8500m when a rope used for a rappel broke loose in a dangerous area of the Norton Couloir on the north side. Tormod Granheim was there at the time and climbed after him, but was unable to find him. Tormod and Fredrik Schenholm then lead a search towards the foot of the North Face to look for Tomas but he had not been located 36 hours after the fall. Yesterday, Olsson's girlfriend, Viviane Seigneur, put out an appeal to other climbers on the North side of Everest to help in the search for Tomas.

Tomas and Tormod both live in Chamonix and trained for their expedition on a daily basis in the Mont Blanc region. They have made ski descents of steep classics such as Couloir du Diable (50-55°) and the north face of Aiguille du Midi (50-58°) as well as making an uninterrupted ski descent from the summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet, the sixth highest peak in the world. They completed the descent from 8201m to 6400m without the use of supplementary oxygen, ropes or any other climbing gear. We will keep you posted with further news as it develops and our thoughts are with Tomas' friends and family.