This is the
same reason that 99% of all teams choose the
spring as their preferred climbing season on
Everest. In the autumn, the mountains in the upper
Khumbu, were Everest and Pumori are located, are
blanketed by heavy wet monsoon snows which have
fallen in a deluge during the largest
precipitation season of each year: August and
September.
29
September: Richard Claude arrived in Lukla, on
foot, walking from Jiri.
30
September: 3 members arrived in Lukla: Randy
Shantz, Rob Fulton, and Mikel Eder, along with
Jangbu Sherpa. They walked to Phakding and slept
there. With 2 porters and 3 Zopkioks.
1 October:
Group walked to Namche. With 2 porters and 3
Zopkioks.
2 October:
Group rested in Namche.
3 October:
Group walked to Pangboche. With 3 porters and 3
Zopkioks.
4 October:
Group walked to Pheriche. With 3 porters and 3
Zopkioks.
5 October:
Group walked to Lobuche. With 3 porters and 3
Zopkioks.
6 October:
Group rested in Lobuche. With 3 porters and 3
Zopkioks.
7 October:
Group walked to Pumori Basecamp at 5300 metres.
With 3 porters and 3 Zopkioks. They set up
basecamp, and there was no snow in basecamp.
8 October:
Randy and Jangbu walked to ABC at 5600 metres, and
returned to Basecamp to sleep.
9 October:
It snowed and at 3:00 pm, the team witnessed a
massive avalanche on the mountain above basecamp.
They waited in basecamp for more stable
conditions.
10 October:
In improving weather, Randy and Jangbu went to ABC
and slept there.
11 October:
Randy and Jangbu fixed 300 metres of rope to camp
1. They returned and slept in ABC.
12 October:
Randy and Jangbu fixed 50 more metres of rope to
reach camp 1 at 5800 metres. The pair slept in
Camp 1.
13 October:
Randy and Jangbu fixed rope above camp 1 and slept
in camp 1.
14 October:
Randy and Jangbu fixed rope above camp 1. This day
their rope fixing ended, and they had layed a
total of 1170 metres of new rope on the route, up
to a height of 6350 metres, into the camp 2 area.
15 October:
Randy and Jangbu left camp 1 at 5:00 am and headed
for the summit. In the upper summit area, the snow
was a metre deep and very light. At 1:00 pm, while
leading out and breaking trail on the ascent,
Jangbu fell five metres into a crevasse. Randy
helped to pull him out. The pair reached the
summit of 7161 metre Pumori at 3:30 pm. The
weather was calm, with no wind, and sunny. The
snow on the summit was deep and made for difficult
trail-breaking, and there were no crevasses
evident. Randy and Janbu
proceeded down, and reached camp 1 at 7:00 pm by
torchlight.
16 October:
Randy and Jangbu returned to basecamp. Richard,
Rob, and Mikel went up to
camp 1 on the same day.
17 October:
While Randy and Jangbu were resting in basecamp,
Richard, Rob, and Mikel saw a massive avalanche
sweep down and come very close to camp 1.
18 October:
Richard, Rob, and Mikel returned to bascamp,
fearing that autumn avalanche conditions made the
route unsafe.
19-23
October: The team left the Khumbu valley and
returned to Kathmandu.
One
Canadian: Randy Shantz; and one Nepali: Jangbu
Sherpa, reached the summit...
We send our
hearty congratulations to them!!!! Thank you very
much for following the team's progress. Yours
Sincerely, from Daniel Mazur and everyone at
SummitClimb.com |