chaut02dis11

IMG Cho Oyu Expedition Autumn 2002

Update #11 September 27, 2002: Ben Marshall reported in from ABC with bad news and good news. The bad news is that they have suffered 4-5 days of terrible weather, lots of snowfall and heavy winds. He and Mike Hamill made a recon climb up to Camp 1 today to survey the damage, which was pretty bad. Almost all tents in that camp for all teams were flattened, some with poles "smashed to smithereens", and personal gear strewn all across the mountain. Apparently Camp 2 fared better and wasn't destroyed. Ben and Mike were able to gather up all the personal gear for our team (had to fix some line to lower down the face to get a couple of folks' duffels, but retrieved everything) and we've got extra tents at ABC that can be used to restore Camp 1, so it's not "game over" yet.

The good news is that the weather has now cleared and is looking pretty good for the next few days, so the IMG team and a few others will move up to Camp 1 tomorrow (the 28th) with a view toward continuing to Camp 2 on the 29th and restoring that camp as well as sending some people up to put Camp 3 in place, with possible summit bids mounted from Camp 2 (skipping the sleepover at Camp 3) on the 30th. All are wary of the heavy snow load up high. Apparently one team mounted a summit bid early in the week and encountered heavy, slabby, waist-deep snow above Camp 2, which forced their retreat. So to this point, the mountain has shut everyone out, and the climbing bids planned for the next few days might be everyone's last shot with the season coming to a close very soon.

Ben says the IMG team is excited about the prospect of giving it one more good try, so we'll look forward to hearing from them in a few days with the story about how it all turned out. We may not hear from him until early next week, so until then, let's keep our fingers crossed for them!

Regards,

Eric Simonson

International Mountain Guides

If you missed it check out: The Sequel to Ghosts of Everest