원정 개요

BC 19/04 5350m
C1 28/04 6000m
C2 29/04 6440m
C3 14/05 7100m
C4 15/05 7900m
Smt 16/05 by Khumalo, Hanna, Copeland, Lawless, Temba Bhote, Dandu Bhote
and one more at 8:30 am.

Summit team left C4 at 8:45 pm on 15/05. It was reasonably quiet on the route, calm to start, but windy a bit later. Straightforward climb. They spent about 15 minutes on the summit. Just below the Hillary Step, Khumalo told Hanna that she was feeling weak and suddenly collapsed and rolled her eyes. Hanna took her Sherpa's oxygen, put it on Khumalo and she came to again. They found that her oxygen mask was frozen, which must have been the problem. They cleaned the mask and the team descended to the Balcony together. They changed oxygen bottles and as Lawless was feeling a bit altitude sick, but was still faster, he continued dowh with Tempa Bhote ahead of the group.

Noel Hanna's account:

Hanna was behind the girls coming down to C4, where they arrived at about 4 pm (Lawless must have arrived an hour earlier). When Hanna went to the tent he was sharing with Lawless on the way up, but it was occupied by someone else, who then left. Hanna thought that Lawless had gone to another tent. But then Temba came and told Hanna that Lawless had been missing after having gone to the toilet. Hanna told Copeland who like Lawless had an inReach. Lawless had must have sent a message to his wife to tell her to get in touch with Copeland, which she did. As the wife had forwarded the message, Hanna had the coordinates to where he was. It was about 5 pm and the weather was getting worse, but they still followed the GPS coordinates and could not find him.

On 17/05 the team descended to C2, a Sherpa had found Lawless's rucksack. The harness was in the rucksack. On 18/05 down to BC.

The family wanted Hanna to find the body (the Irish government guaranteed SST that the money would be paid for the search). On 22/05 they started the search in the evening on the bottom of the Lhotse face as they had found the rucksack there. Checked all the crevasses and could not find anything. At 11 pm on 22/05, Hanna and seven Sherpas ascended to C4 and searched for the body at C4, where they arrived at 7 am in the morning (Hanna a bit later). They started the search immediately. They found broken crampons and a broken oxygen mask. They searched until about 1 pm and descended to C2, where they arrived at C2. The traffic coming down was a nightmare. On 24/05 Hanna was picked up by heli at C2 and they flew to about 7200m and looked, but could not find him. They gave up at about 5 pm and flew to BC.

Saray Khumalo’s account:

The rest of the group arrived at C4 in the early afternoon. When they reached there they noticed that Lawless was not there. Temba, his Sherpa, said that he had gone to the toilet at C4 away. Temba must have gone into his tent when Lawless went to the toilet and did not notice that he did not come back. At the time of the interview, Hanna was still on the mountain looking for the body.

On 17/05 they descended to C2; on 18/05 BC. The whole team stayed at BC until 22/05 to support Noel in the search and recovery of Lawless; however, so far they still have not found his body.

Sherpas:
Temba Bhote, Pawakhola-7, Makalu-Berun, 19/03/1982
Dandu Bhote, Pawakhola-7, Makalu-Barun (Temba’s brother)

Oxygen: Taken and used from C3 to top to C3 all members and Sherpas.