8000 Meter Peaks

Seven Summits

Dispatch Seven: (May 9th, Manaslu dispatch from Arnold Coster). Today we are writing from Sama Gaon, the village which is three hours below basecamp. Clay Clark and Dan Mazur are down here this morning, with the very strong Lhakpa Sherpa and Galu Sherpa. Scott Darsney is due down here later today. Taylor Gordon, Jeff Justman, Wil Seelye, Bruce Gierszal, Arnold Coster, Elselien te Hennepe, and Shane Edmonds are resting in basecamp, together with the very strong Dorje Tamang, Lhakpa Sherpa, and Shera Sherpa. Bill Stephenson is in camp 1, together with the very strong Tenzing Sherpa. Everyone is doing very well. It is a beautiful and sunny morning here in Sama Gaon village, 1200 meters below basecamp. The flowers are blooming, the grass is green, and the baby yaks and cows are getting bigger everyday. We can see the summit of Manaslu from this beautiful village, and a tiny cloud is just forming on the summit. We came down here yesterday afternoon, leaving basecamp in a blowing snow storm, in order to rest after a challenging three day stint of digging out and repairing our camp 1 tents, which had been buried under 2 meters of snow, and flattened by the weight of the snow pack. Yesterday, the Polish team abandoned their camp 1 , located 200 meters below ours. They had only one tent left, and decided to return to basecamp to rest and let the snow settle. Only Bill and Tenzing went up to camp 1 early in the morning, expressing hopes of being able to move up to camp two, and begin the process of digging out the tents (which are in an unknown condition, after no person from any expedition has been able to get near that camp for more than ten days), also, all of our members have cached their personal equipment and sleeping bags and down/duvet clothing in the snow in the camp 2 area, and we are concerned about the status of that, as well. However, the bulk of team has decided to rest a day or so more, and let the snow settle before proceeding up the mountain. The weather was so stormy a few days ago that a major change happened with the various expeditions on the mountain:

Both the Slovenian and Dutch expeditions have decided to leave. From what we know now, they are both going to make the 5-7 day trek down to Arughat and and take the 5 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu, rather than flying in a helicopter.

It seems that both teams became very disappointed with the last ten days of atrocious weather, and have lost their patience and desire for the summit.

That leaves only the Polish team and our team. The Polish team has no Sherpas, so it will be interesting to see what kind of dynamic develops. Of course, they are very nice people, so we hope to cooperate well.

If the weather holds, we plan to move up the mountain in different groups, spreading the work on the mountain and locating ourselves in different camps, so we don't overload the tents and cooking facilities. Each of our small groups will be a team and contain both foreign and Nepalese climbers.

Of course, the major unanswered question is what is left of camp 2, and how much excavation and repair will be necessary to rescue it, and the equipment contained within.

Oh, we just had a radio contact with the camps. Bill and Tenzing, in Camp 1, have decided to wait until more climbers arrive tomorrow, before they move up the mountain. The team in Base Camp 1 are resting today, and will carry on up the mountain tomorrow. Scott has decided to remain in camp 1. Clay and Dan will wait in Sama today, and proceed up to camp 1 tomorrow.

Thanks for listening and please send us your good wishes with the weather. Thank you very much, from all of us at SummitClimb.com

Dear EverestNews.com, OK, Round Two clearly goes to Manaslu. We just had our butts kicked up there. One blizzard after another and each followed by some monster avalanches down the route. What's about the last thing you want to hear when you first wake up in the morning on the mountain? "Anybody got a camera so we can take pictures of this carnage for insurance"? Camp 1 was completely covered and crushed by snow. Camp Two is anyone's guess -because of the deep snow and avalanches we still can't climb back up to it yet. It took three days just to dig out what was left of the Camp 1 tents so we could recover the gear buried inside. At the moment we are all back safe in Base Camp. When the weather clears we're going to head back up. Hopefully with better luck in the next round. ~Clay Clarke

Thanks a ton for posting our dispatch, Yours Sincerely, from all of us at SummitClimb.com

Here is an other message in Dutch from Arnold, Jeff Justman says hi also.

Van ellende zijn we naar het dichtbijzijnde dorp "Sama" gevlugt en hebben daar twee dagen bij het haardvuur gezeten en bier gedronken. Van de 44 dagen dat we nu in het basiskamp zijn hebben we tot nu toe pas 6 dagen geen sneeuw gehad. Toen we terug in het basiskamp kwamen kregen we te horen van de poolse exp. dat kamp 1 totaal verwoest was. Het bleek inderdaad waar te zijn, er was twee meter sneeuw op de tenten gevallen en ze waren totaal ingesort. We zijn nu lekker bezig met stokken repareren enzo. We hopen nog steeds op een weather window tussen 12 en 18 mei. Dit is meestal de mooi weer periode, maar dit is een raar jaar. Twee expedities pakken hun spullen al en geven het op, dus wij blijven samen met de Polen als laatste over. We zijn als eerste in het basiskamp aangekomen en zullen als laatste weggaan !

Thanks for posting this dispatch. you re great!

Also please read JJ dispatch posted on this team here.

Note EverestNews.com is covering this expedition, along with numerous others 8000 meter expeditions this Spring 2003 exclusively.

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