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

September 25, 2010

Cho Oyu

Mike Hamill reports that they have had several days of improved weather now, so the team is hopeful that the snow conditions are stabilizing up higher.  We have now extended the expedition past the planned itinerary, and unfortunately some members have been forced to depart due to previous commitments. The remaining climbers are hanging tough and ready to climb.  We have the Sherpa team heading up to C2 today (the 26^th in Tibet) and they plan to fix the Yellow Band the next day (the 27^th ) if they feel comfortable with the slopes above C2.  The IMG climbers are planning to go to C1 on the 27^th , C2 on the 28^th, C3 on the 29^th, and summit on the 30^th .

We’ll keep you posted!

Eric Simonson

September 23, 2010

Mike Hamill checked in late yesterday to report that the team turned back short of C1 and they have how returned back to ABC.  They were hoping the snowfall was going to let up, but it kept coming down harder, and they decided to spin and wait for more improvement before heading up.

Eric Simonson

September 22, 2010

Mike Hamill reported in yesterday evening:

“We’re pulling the trigger. We just finished breakfast and are headed to C1 in a few minutes. It’s snowing a bit this morning as predicted, but it should be a lot drier for the rest of the week. We’re shooting for the 25th as our summit day. The Sherpas are headed to C2 today (22nd), planning to carry to C3 and fix on the 23rd or 24th, conditions depending. All the fixing gear is at C2 and there is a team of at least 7 Sherpa committed to help with the summit fixing, including Da Nuru and Mingma Tenzing from IMG. Ang Passang has done a great job helping to organize the fixing. All is well here, and the team is healthy.”

Eric Simonson

September 20, 2010

IMG Leader Mike Hamill reports from ABC that “the weather has improved and the IMG team is still resting at ABC.  Our plan is to summit on the 25th, so another rest day tomorrow and then we’ll head up. We had a rope fixing meeting with all the other teams at the TMA [Tibet Mountaineering Association] camp yesterday. The TMA fixing team is in shambles.  A few of their seven rope fixers were injured in the avalanche but the rest that are OK are traumatized, including the 4 that weren’t even up there, and they have all left the mountain and won’t help anymore with the fixing.  We have now been able to secure enough fixed rope, gear, and Sherpa power at the meeting amongst the other groups to finish the fixing and Ang Pasang [IMG sirdar] and Pema [Jagged Globe sirdar] are going to be organizing that.  The rope and gear is coming up from base camp today, to C1 tomorrow, and up to C2 the following day.  Summit fixing will hopefully get done on the 23rd but it might not happen until the 24th. The weather is great now and it sounds like it will only get better on the 23rd and 24th ”.

From the IMG standpoint, we are glad to see the various expedition teams again working together to get the fixing done.  This is how it has been accomplished for many seasons on both Cho Oyu and Everest, and we feel strongly that it is in the best interest for teams to work together.  Fixing the route on Cho Oyu is straightforward and requires maybe 3000 meters total rope.  IMG brought 1300 meters of rope and many anchors and since we were the first team we fixed most of the way to C2 and were prepared with Jagged Globe and Adventure Consultants (who both also brought plenty of rope), along with other teams, to finish the job.  Without any advance notice this season the TMA tried to take over the rope fixing for profit, charging an exorbitant amount of money ($100 per climber = over $30,000 if everyone had paid!).  Teams that were reluctant to pay were subjected to harassment, verbal abuse, and physical threats by the Tibetans.  The snow and weather conditions were terrible when the TMA climbers went up to try to fix the Yellow Band and it was obvious to everyone on the mountain that the avalanche conditions were very high up there with all the recent snowfall.    This whole episode has been poorly handled by the TMA and they are very fortunate not to have lost several of their climbers, who owe their lives to the good efforts of other teams that worked hard to rescue them.

Eric Simonson