Kuriki Nobukazu on Everest

We've returned an interview from earlier this year to the rotation in the main banner of our site: "'Sharing My Adventures' with the World!" covers the alpinist Kuriki Nobukazu, who uses social media to broadcast his climbs in real time to fans on the Internet.

Kuriki is on Everest right now. He's climbing via the difficult West Ridge route, and to make the challenge still taller he's going solo, without supplemental oxygen. In this video we hear audio from him as he reaches Camp 3, at 7,200 meters elevation on the West Ridge, and finds that his cache of supplies is largely intact, despite some signs that crows have tried to get into it.

You can follow Kuriki's progress in English on Twitter (@kurikiyama_EN) and on his Facebook page, which shows some stunning photos right now. There's also Kurikiyama.jp, his official website, where his staff today posted this update (our translation):

Setting out at 22:15 Japan timeI'm at 7,500 meters now, and at 22:15 Japan time (19:00 local time) I'm setting out and heading for the summit.Climbing the remaining 1,300 meters in a single shot is a daunting challenge, but I'm going to give it my all to make it to the summit.If I make good progress, I should be on top at around 15:00 to 17:00, Japan time, on Thursday, October 18.

UPDATE: Kuriki's Twitter account tells of an abandoned summit bid, as of this morning, Japan time:

from Kuriki's Office: Kuriki was climbing the Everest west ridge for over 10 hours, but started descent because of windstorm in 9:15am JST.

UPDATE 2: More information on why he turned back has been posted to his Facebook page (in Japanese, our translation below):

Kuriki was making progress up the West Ridge route toward the Everest summit, but unfortunately at 06:00 local time (09:15 Japan time) he decided to head back down.The wind was so strong that it lifted his entire body a few times, threatening to blow him off his feet, and there was a forecast of still stronger wind later in the day that would make it impossible to move above 8,000 meters and cause him to slip and fall. He judged that it was too dangerous to go any farther. We will post the highest altitude he reached upon confirmation.