Dan Mazur's Kangchenjunga Spring 2002

27 May Dispatch: It snowed heavily overnight, making the mountain even more difficult and dangerous. Several tents at the different camps were almost completely buried. Ivan, Julio, and Felix dug themselves out of Camp 6 and headed down to Camp 2, carrying as many tents and stoves as possible. They also carried some of Chris's gear down. At this point, the weather was too bad for any more summit attempts. The new snow was waist-deep and unstable, and the weather showed no sign of improving. They had to crawl on their hands and knees in places to get though the deep snow.

Mike and Paul left Camp 2 for Base Camp. Deep snow, avalanches, and visibilities near zero made the descent a frightening experience. They heard shouts below the Ice Building and met up with two Sherpas (Jangbu and Dorje) attempting to reach Camp 2. They plowed down to Base Camp, arriving about 7:15. Everyone else was in Base Camp.

28 May Dispatch: The weather was sunny and warm, with a little wind at the lower camps. Snow conditions were still very poor. The only climbers left on the mountain (Ivan, Julio, and Felix) departed from Camp 2 at 1:00 pm (!) for Base Camp. However, they deserved a bit of rest after the previous day's exertions. Major avalanches covered the upper ropes of the Ice Building, making the descent more difficult. They threw one bag of gear down the Ice Building and then dragged it across the plateau to Camp 1, leaving it for the Sherpas to carry down. They arrived at Base Camp at 10:30 pm for a short night's sleep.

The rest of the team spent the day drying gear, packing and getting ready to leave. The yaks arrived on schedule in the afternoon.

Malte (with help from Dorje) engraved a stainless steel plate as a memorial to Chris. It was added to the memorial cairn already at basecamp.

PS. We are presently in east Nepal, climbing the world's third highest peak, "Kangchenjunga". The name means "The Five Treasures of the Snow God" and the mountain is indeed a treasure in itself. You may wish to follow the daily progress of our expedition at: http://www.everestnews.com/kang2002.htm  We try to update this website each week, with reports of what happened to each member, on a particular day. 

Thank you very much. Cheers for now. Yours
Sincerely, Daniel Mazur from http://www.SummitClimb.com

Please join us in watching the "live-update" status of 2002 climbing expeditions to Nepal and Tibet on: http://www.everestnews.com/kang2002.htm