Posted: May 23, 2008 01:40 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) Lena from RussianClimb just spoke to Serguey Bogomolov, currently in C2 on Annapurna in spite of his frostbite. With him is Robert Szymczak, the doctor in Artur Hajzer’s recent Dhaulagiri (summit) expedition.

Simon and Horia were picked up by heli from C2. The third rescue team is now also in place, and more rescuers are going up to C2.

Denis, Don and Alexey Bolotov were last seen at 6500 meters - about 1000 meters below camp 4. Don's home team reports that the climbers, after a few hours rest in C2, would try to reach C4 already today.

RussianClimb reports that Alexey decided to help bring oxygen bottles to C3, in spite of his own, recent ordeal high up on the peak. The going is reportedly very hard, due to tight schedule and very deep snow on the highly difficult wall.

The weather

Javier has provided the following new forecast for 23 May 2008:

A southerly flow is bringing too much moist air masses to the region.The expected clear skies seem to be delayed. It will be mostly clear at C4 with some risk of clouds early in the morning, clearing quickly afterwards.

At base camp it may remain cloudy, with some risk of precipitation. Clearing in the evening. Temperature at 7400 around -18C. Winds at 7400 between 20 and 25 km/h. After the 25th of May the flow changes to westerly with dryer conditions and stronger winds but still moderate below 7400m. Confidence in low winds until the 25th is high (good agreement of model ensembles). Cloud and precipitation confidence is moderate.

Links to teams on Annapurna:

Inaki Ochoa
Horia Colibasanu
Don Bowie
Bogomolov updates on RussianClimb
Ueli Steck

Annapurna weather forecasts

Piotr Morawski's website

Iñaki Ochoa de Olza was born in Pamplona, Spain on May 29, 1967. He had his first experience on an 8000+ meter peak, Kangchenjunga, at age 22. He has since taken part in over 30 Himalayan expeditions and also worked as high altitude cameraman and guide. He climbed 12 of the 14 8000ers, including a new route on Shisha Pangma.

On Annapurna, Iñaki teamed up with regular mate Horia Colibasanu, from Romania, and Canadian Don Bowie, who eventually left the team; in exchange, Russian Alexey Bolotov joined Iñaki and Horia for the definite summit push up the south face.

On May 19 Iñaki turned around short from the summit due to cold affecting his hands and lack of ropes to fix some difficult sections ahead. Together with Horia, he reached back C4 at 7,400m. while resting in the tent, he suffered a stroke which left him semi-unconcios, and unable to move or talk. He has passed away four days later, while a group of leading climbers tried their best to rescue him.

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