NEWS: 1st Oct 2006
 
Latest Climbing News

6 of the team have successfully made it to Camp 3 at 7530 meters:

Mike Grocott
Hugh Montgomery
Paul Gunning
Maryam Khosravi
Chris Imray
Nikki Kolfschoten

Unfortunately, the altitude has got the better of Nikki and she will not be attempting to reach the summit with the others. This is a valiant attempt though as she has been suffering with the altitude ever since reaching Camp 1 and had to return due to ill-health. She is safe and well and will rest at Camp 3 while using supplementary oxygen and then descend with the others tomorrow.

The plan for the remaining 5 at Camp 3 will be to leave that camp at around 02:00 hours tomorrow morning ? Monday 2nd October, with the aim of being on the summit of Cho Oyu by about 11:00 hrs.

Meanwhile, the new ?Camp 2? (7150 meters) team consisting of Dan Martin, Pat Doyle and Jon Morgan will leave their camp with enough time to reach Camp 3 by 02:00 tonight and join the others. They didn?t want to give away their departure time over the radio in case everyone else decides to leave at the same time! They are spending the rest of the day resting and rehydrating before the ?big push? tonight. When they reach the summit, the 3 of them will be carrying out the blood gas sampling, which involves taking a sample of blood from an artery in the groin area. Ideally, they will meet up with the others and therefore be able to take more samples. One of the accompanying Sherpas is carrying a small tent in order to provide some sort of protection against the elements, while another will race back down the mountain with the samples to Camp 1 where the remaining team of doctors based there will process the samples.

If all goes well, I will be able to report that 8 of the Xtreme Everest team will have reached the summit of Cho Oyu at 8201 meters by midday tomorrow ? keep watching.

While all this climbing is going on, the Xtreme Everest team are coordinating yet another medical evacuation. This time it?s a young Chinese climber who has injured his leg (possibly a break), as well as injuries to one of his wrists and blood coming from his nose, although we don?t believe he has a sever head injury. Reports are sketchy as to what actually happened, but we do know that it was above Camp 2, so in excess of 7200 meters. Denny and Alex who had opted to come back down waited for the Sherpas to bring him back to Camp 2 before they could administer some First Aid to him. He is in a stable position and the rescue party are currently in the area of Camp 1 ?. This is where there are a few tents, but they have decided to push on and get him back to Camp 1 where there are more facilities. The difficulty they are having at the moment is lowering him over the ice-fall as the stretcher is of the more flexible type ? great for sliding across snow, but not so good when lowering over the edge of a wall of ice.

Denny and Alex have been joined by 2 Guides and Denny says ?The Sherpas are doing an excellent job ? many of them have already been to the summit of Cho Oyu today and so they must be knackered!? they plan to reach Camp 1 before nightfall ? only about 2 hours to go.

Kay in the meantime has made is safely back to Advanced Base Camp, accompanied by the head Sherpa (Sirdar), Pema Sherpa. She is well, but exhausted, so sleeping in her tent at the moment.