The North Face of Nuptse: Willie and Damian Benegas

Dispatch 11

Dispatch 11 May 18th, 2003: Here's a bit of a report from Willie. I have been talking with him on the radio. They are in Camp 2 right now after getting up past the crux of the climbing on "the Crystal Snake". Early this morning I got a call from Willie saying they had a cold bivi out last night hanging in slings after finishing most of the difficult climbing on the initial steep 10 pitch (or more section). Around 2 am this morning Willie and Damian tried to brew up and discovered their stove had broken! So this morning they rapped the route leaving everything they could up top and they plan to go back up tomorrow to their high point and continue with a working stove. Willie described the climbing above as easier, but still with 2 difficult rock bands to go through, one perhaps 4 pitches long.

They plan to leave early tomorrow, reclimb the route to their high point, then continue Alpine style to the top with plans to descend the Doug Scott route. Willie is estimating 3 or 4 days of climbing beyond the top of the buttress. We'll all be watching their progress over the next few days. We are moving up to Camp 2 in the morning on our Everest Summit go. Scott

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