Carlos Pauner’s team is back in Kathmandu. And while frustrated after having aborted their attempt on Dhaula, the guys are very happy to be alive and kicking following a terrifying chopper accident this weekend. Image of the chopper before crashing, courtesy of Carlos Pauner.
Simone Moro smiles at the camera some days ago, just before heading up to Lhotse/Everest C2 - loaded with a heavy backpack. He was not so happy on Friday, when he found out the backpack was missing from the high camp. Image courtesy of Simone (click to enlarge).
“Beware of these very dangerous and unprofessional men who failed to perform their jobs and threatened our team with knives,” warned Linda McMillan. “Here is a photo of our maniac Chinese cooks (left and right), posing with Pete Lardy at the start of our expedition in Lhasa.” Image courtesy of Friendship Without Borders.
"We’re ready to launch a summit push,” reported Mario Panzeri and Daniele Bernasconi. “However, having considering conditions on the couloir leading to the Col are pretty tough, we’ve decided to join efforts with the other Italian team currently here, led by Mario Vielmo." Image of climbers nearing Makalu La courtesy of Daniele Nard (click to enlarge).
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Himalaya wrap-up: Chopper crashes, thieves, and maniac cooks
Posted: May 08, 2006 10:10 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) Besides the inherent dangers of high altitude climbing, teams on the Himalayan peaks are facing a few other problems, which can be just as risky.
This weekend Carlos Pauner’s team survived a chopper accident; Simone Moro got all his gear stolen from C2 on the Lhotse/Everest route; and trans-tibial amputee Nawang Sherpa’s dream to climb Cho Oyu came to an end due to disastrous logistics and psychotic Chinese cooks.
The Italians have launched their summit attempt on Makalu. Meanwhile, on Manaslu, news is expected soon from the Kazakh and German teams who were in full summit push last weekend.
Dhaulagiri
Pauner and team: Chopper down!
“Yesterday (Saturday) we had a meeting in our small tent and decided to abort the expedition,” reported Carlos Pauner. “Conditions are not good and we have already taken too many risks. Tough as it is, we decided it was over – or so we thought.”
We arranged a chopper to pick us up this morning, Sunday May 7. We loaded all our gear and eight of us boarded the chopper. No sooner had we taken off that we realized something was wrong. Suddenly the chopper started spinning in mid-air, then we dropped.
“There was no time for panic. In brief seconds, we hit the ground, and started slipping down the glacier, the chopper losing fuselage pieces and spilling fuel on the way. Finally it stopped right on the edge of a very steep slope. We jumped out and ran, expecting it to blow – which luckily didn’t happen.”
“We couldn’t believe what had happened – we had just escaped an air crash at 5000m of altitude. Later that day, another chopper came and safely took us back to Kathmandu, where I am now. I am sure we took the right decision, and happy to have saved my life once again.”
Carlos Soria: About ourselves
“We split up into two groups and left BC between May 2 and May 3 in order to supply higher camps and finish with the acclimatization process. We've got C1 and C2 ready. In addition, we've left two gear caches at 7000m and 7400m. We have all slept one night in C2. So we considered our acclimatization process complete.”
“Weather has been varied: OK in the morning and with snowfall in the evening. On May 5, however, we had a pretty strong storm.”
Makalu
Italians: Joint summit push
“Back in BC after reaching Makalu La, we’re ready to launch a summit push,” reported Mario Panzeri and Daniele Bernasconi.
“However, considering how tough conditions on the couloir leading to the Col are right now, we’ve decided to join efforts with the other Italian team, led by Mario Vielmo. Today is May 6, and we have no time to lose. We’re going up."
"Tomorrow we will reach C1 and on Monday both teams and their Sherpas will force their way up to Makalu La, where we’ve left a cache with tents and everything necessary to attempt the summit. We will set up C2 at 7400m, and get a final rest there before going for the summit.”
Kangchenjunga
Ralf and Gerlinde's team: BC after a night of lightening
A storm kept Ralf and Gerlinde’s team stuck in their tents at 7400m for 36 hours last week. The snow entered through the breathing slits of the tents, covering the sleepless climbers.
"The high humidity, the synthetic fibers, and the friction caused by the movement of the storm - all this together led to the phenomenon of many small flashes of light and discharges zigzagging across the tents," reported a journalist accompanying the team.
"According to Veikka’s remark, it was like a high altitude disco light."
When the storm finally passed Gerlinde, Ralf, Hiro, Veikka and Andrew descended back to BC.
Norbert Joos: Up to 7800m
Last Thursday the Swiss team was also in BC. They planned to go up again by Friday for a final acclimatization trip to their highest camp, at 7800m.
Lhotse
Simone Moro: Thieves strike again
Simone set off from Everest/Lhotse BC on Saturday, but had a nasty surprise awaiting him in C2.
“I’m really angry…. I reached the end of the fixed ropes and had a really bad surprise…. my rucksack was not there, neither were all the things I had kept inside it!! I reached Camp 3 in about 2 ½ hours and I felt perfect."
"But how can I proceed up to 8000m as I planned, when everything is gone? My down jacket, my iceaxes (I don’t have a spare pair in BC), my prototype tent from TNF, my sleeping bag, my batteries for the satellite phone, my walkie-talkies. Everything is gone!!! My morale is shot. My last hope is that a Sherpa moved my rucksack to another place, but I looked for it for more than 40 minutes…. Nothing.”
Cho Oyu
Friendship without Borders: It’s over – expedition aborted due to maniac cooks
FWB team, including disabled climber Nawang Sherpa (a trans-tibial amputee), has called the expedition off due to problems with the cooks they hired. Also George and Pete said they still felt a little sick, and the Sherpas have not been able to climb above Camp 1.
The team had previously reported serious problems with their Chinese cooks as well as their supplies which apparently weighed hard on the climbers’ morale. The local trekking company they had hired to handle logistics came with cheap, broken tents, and “dangerous, maniac-like cooks” according to the team.
The cooking staff reportedly set up their tent inside the dining tent, refused to cook the kind of food the cliimbers requested, completely disregarded the minimum hygenic standards, and even stopped serving lunch, etc. The Sherpas were threatened with knives when they tried to enter the kitchen and prepare their own meals.
Tom and Linda McMillan, Americans working with Friendship Without Borders Organization and other team members headed up to ABC ready to fire the cooking staff, but it was too late. The team was too depressed and called off the attempt. “These cooks, sent to us by Mr. Guo Jin Wei, exemplified the worst possible behavior and lack of human decency,” wrote Linda. “They have shamed him, their families, and all such men from that region. Clearly they are dangerous, wretched people with absolutely no regard for anyone else. We hope they never serve another expedition!”
The climbers have given away all their high-altitude food to the other expeditions. An Austrian team has taken over the team's location at ABC.
DCXP: Acclimatization summit achieved
The team has summited an unnamed peak near Cho Oyu, as an acclimatization climb, despite four members reportedly suffering from health problems.
Manaslu
Kazakhs: Wating for news
Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov reported on their position last Saturday, high up on the new route they're openeing on Manaslu.
"We climbed up to about 7250 m," they wrote in an SMS. "We stopped at a safe place under a serac. We're very tired but fine."
News is expected soon from the pair, as well as from a German team whose members launched a summit bid on the normal route earlier last week.
Annapurna
mBank Lotto Himalaya Trilogy: BC
“We are in BC, but today we have packed our equipment in order to go up,” reported Piotr Pustelnik. “We want to make a deposit tomorrow, as high as we can. It will not be as high as C1, which we plan on 6400 m, because we have to come back to BC later that same day.”
Shisha Pangma
Mondinelli: Waiting for a weather window
“On May 1 we reached C2, carrying with us the latest pieces of gear we will need for the summit bid,” reported Silvio Mondinelli on Friday. “However, in the afternoon it started snowing heavily. The next morning we returned back to ABC.”
“We are still waiting. I’ve read all the books I brought along three times and music doesn’t help us to keep calm anymore. The long period of mandatory stillness is affecting the team’s moral pretty hard.”
“We are looking at forecasts from several sources, but none of them seem to agree. The only choice we have is like that of the old pioneers - to look up to the sky and wonder when it will get better.”
Links to teams on Himalayan 8000ers:
Ralf's Amical (German) | Ralf & Gerlinde's expedition blog | Andrew Lock | Ivan Vallejo | Norbert Joos’ Kangchenjunga dispatches (German) | Joao Kangchenjunga’s blog | Simone Moro | Mario Merelli | Norwegian Lhotse | Chilean Lhotse | Tunc Findic (Turkish) | Italian Makalu team (Italian) | Italian D. Nardi’s Makalu dispatches (Italian) | Czerwinska & Natkanski’s Makalu Entre.Pl Xpedition | Valeri Babanov | Iñaki Ochoa (Spanish) | Manaslu Adventure Train German team (German) | Nives Meroi (Italian) | Carlos Pauner (Spanish) | Palencia team Dhaulgiri | Iranians on Dhaulagiri | Dutch Dhaulagiri expedition | Russian Climb | Friendship Beyond Borders | DCXP | Jagged Globe| Silvio Mondinelli| Jarle Traa (Norwegian) | Latvian Shisha team (Latvian)
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