May 17, 2010
IMG leader Eric Remza called on the sat phone from Camp 1 with some more information on their Cho Oyu summit climb today. The climbers left Camp 3 at 2am and reached the summit 26899 ft (8201m) at 8am. For our head sherpa, Panuru, it was his 12th ascent of Cho Oyu and he said it was the most difficult Cho Oyu climb he had done. It sounds like there was a lot of exposed rock above the Yellow Band which made for added difficulty.
Remza said the wind was not too bad for their ascent, but it was very cold. He said that shortly after their summit the weather started to close in again and it deteriorated during the day as they descended. On the way down the Sherpas pulled Camp 3 and then after a good rest at Camp 2, they were able to pull Camp 2 and descend to Camp 1 where they are now resting comfortably.  So, all’s well and the team should be back to ABC tomorrow. Congrats to the climbers and Sherpas on a safe and successful summit day!
Eric Simonson
Everest – We had 14 sherpas carry to camp 3 today to finish building that camp and support the move up there by the Hybrid team today, for their overnight. The rest of the team has split into three groups and is also moving up towards C3. Greg moved to C2 today with the lead group, we have more climbers at C1 tonight going to C2 tomorrow, and Justin moves up to C1 tomorrow with the last group. (Full dispatch available on the 
Cho Oyu – IMG leader Eric Remza reports that after several rest days back at ABC after their last rotation, and several days of snow and wind, the weather is now looking better and the plan for the team now is to head back up to Camp 1. From there the plan is to try to go to Camp 2 the next day, and see how the weather looks at that point before making a decision to stay up and make a summit bid or come back down and wait. We’ll keep you posted! (
