September 27, 2010
Ice fall above C1.
IMG leader Mike Hamill called on the sat phone to report that the weather is good and the team made it up to C1 in fine shape. Yesterday the fixing sherpas made it up to C2 and today they climbed to C3 to check the snow conditions higher up and fix the Yellow Band and slopes above C3. Unfortunately, the news is not good. IMG sherpas Danuru (9 Cho Oyu ascents) and Mingma Tenzing, along with a number of sherpas from other teams, found the conditions above C3 to still be heavy loaded with snow and unsafe, and they have decided to the plug on the fixing, and are descending. Mike and the climbers are spending the night at C1 but are going to come back down to ABC tomorrow and head for home. There is just too much snow up high. It sounds like a number of the other teams have made the same decision. We’ll keep you posted on their departure plans.
Eric Simonson