NEWS: 30th Sep 2006
 
Latest Climbing News

I radioed up to Camp 1 to find out how they were doing. I spoke to Chris Van Tulleken who is manning Camp 1 and he reported that 12 of the team had set off before 08:00 and quite a few of them as early as 07:00 in order to beat the rush of bodies that they saw heading up the mountain yesterday. At least 150 people had been spotted making their way up to the ice-fall where a bottle neck had occurred and they were forced to stand around and wait before climbing up.

Chris reported that it was extremely cold at Camp 1 and Mike and Sundeep had spent time warming their hands before venturing outside. All the team had slept well and were raring to go.

Jon Morgan set off from ABC with one of the cooks who was tasked with taking more cooking gas up to Camp 1 and bringing back the rubbish. He hopes to sleep at Camp 1 tonight and then Camp 2 tomorrow.

Dan and Pat have had to return to Camp 1 due to the extreme cold and high winds, which are exasperating the situation. A few minutes ago it was reported that Kay has also had to return, guided by Pema Sherpa, the Sirdar (Head Sherpa). All the team are safe and well as I write this report.