Posted: Oct 12, 2009 11:22 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) High winds (and in one case other team's Sherpas) have forced all expeditions on Everest, Dhaulagiri, and Cho Oyu to be called off.

Edurne's and Roby Piantoni’s teams might try again on Shisha though.

Shisha Pangma’s north side

“The winds were a bit calmer than Saturady’s, so we left Base Camp optimistic about our summit push,” Nick Rice reported yesterday. “Upon arriving to Camp I, we were horrified to discover that someone had taken down our tent and all our equipment (probably the Sherpas of either the Chinese or French Expedition, both of which have left base camp)."

"We were forced to abandon our summit bid and head down to base camp. I will add, despite high winds the previous days, we are sure that the tents were intentionally removed from Camp I as the shovel that was cached inside the tent was placed neatly in the snow next to the snow bars that previously had secured the tent to the glacier. We are also now suspicious that the Camp II and Camp III tents were also taken down and weren’t blown away.”

“Disheartened that someone could destroy nearly two months’ of work, steal close to US$10,000 worth of equipment, and obliterate our chances of summitting, we sent the message to our Liaison Officer requesting yaks and a jeep to take us back to Nepal,” Nick added. “It appears that the Central Summit will be as high as any of us will be getting this season.”

Shisha Pangma’s south side

Edurne and her team left BC towards Scott Bivouac on Sunday – only to find their tents blown off by the wind, and most of their gear lost. The climbers are currently in ABC trying to get spare supplies from BC, in order to continue their summit push.

Roby Piantoni’s Italian team are waiting for the wind to decrease, before trying their luck up a new route on Shisha’s South face. Meanwhile, Adriano and Veronique took yet another acclimatization trip up the Yugoslavian route on crampons and skis.

“Yuri, Marco and I will launch our summit push tomorrow,” Roby reported earlier today.

Everest

Alberto Iñurretegi, Mikel Zabalza and Juan Vallejo finally decided to call the expedition off.

Dhaulagiri

“Weather conditions are still bad, and an essential part of my personal climbing gear has been buried under an avalanche,” Rdrigo Fica reported. “We presume our higher camps may be flattened and hard to find since our marked route has been erased by constant snowfalls.”

“We will prepare our backpacks, and Tuesday 13th we will go up for just one last time. Then, we will try to go to camp 2, and so on. Should everything go well, we might even attempt to reach the summit. However, it’s still too soon to tell.”

“We climbed up to C2 on skis – but we couldn’t just find our tents!” Cala and ivo reported. “There is nothing we can do in the current conditions, but to call it quits.”

Cho Oyu

”We woke up on Sunday morning full of enthusiasm for our summit push, but the mountain had other ideas” Adventure Consultants team reported yesterday. “The Sherpas left early for Camp 1, and on arrival informed us that it was impossible to erect a tent in 40-50 knots wind.”

“It was our 'D' day, we needed to go to Camp 1 to reach the summit in the small weather window of October 14th - it is with sad hearts that we are admitting defeat. We cannot summit this mountain in the current conditions. So we are heading home.”

Links to Himalayan fall 2009 expeditions:

Everest:
Basque team Hornbein expedition

Makalu:
Ueli Steck

Annapurna:
Oh Eun-sun

Shisha Pangma:
Edurne Pasaban
Ferran Latorre
Andrew Lock
Kinga Baranowska
Juanito Oiarzabal
Carlos Pauner
Nick Rice's dispatches
Romanian Expedition
Piantoni's Italian expedition
SummitClimb

Dhaulagiri
Chilean expedition
Italians Cala and Ivo

Manaslu:
Mexicans Badia & Mauricio
Altitude Junkies
Chilean Ski expedition
Guillaume Hintzy
Dream Guides team

Cho Oyu
Simone Moro - Cho Oyu SW face
Cho Oyu SW face Czech team
Mario Merelli
Argentinean team
Malta's Challenge8000
Alpine Ascents
Hvitserk
Adventure Consultants
IMG
Jagged-Globe
Reto Everest

Himalayan 7000ers:

FTA - Satopanth
Fabrizio Zangrilli - Pumori
Peak Freaks - Pumori

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