원정 개요

C1 at North Col
C2 on North Ridge
C3 on North Face.

16th Siffredi to Pangbo at bottom of North Face to where he could see by telescope his entire route. Spent 16th then and left camp there for his descent. 17th to BC. 21st to interim camp at 5800m before ABC, then on up mountain. All summiters used oxygen slogging through chest deep snow and used 22 bottles from C2's low altitude to keep warm. Sherpas returned to ABC 8 Sept at 10:00 pm. At top summiters waited 1 hour at top in perfect weather and clear on top, but waited for lower clouds to disperse. 3 pm Siffredi started snowboard descent and Sherpas then returned to ABC. Snow perfect for snowboarding. Siffredi's tracks fixed at 8600m and nothing more could be seen there at bottom of face or anyone between.

Besson arrived BC 2nd Sept 8 at ABC; saw Siffredi start down and then out of sight and no more information about Siffredi. Went to C1 on 12th and spent day looking through telescope. 13th to ABC and left BC 15th.


Besson - 17th Nov 02

He arrived at BC 2nd Sept, ABC 7 Sept, C1 at North Col 9 Sept, but went down to ABC same day (had gone up for acclimatization). On 8 Sept from ABC he saw through binoculars Siffredi and Sherpa reach summit at 2:00 pm Chinese Time (11:45 NST) from their C3 at 8300m after an 11-hour climb according to Sherpa summiters who returned to ABC at midnight. From ABC Besson also saw Siffredi start his snowboard descent at 3:00 pm (12:45 NST) after waiting for cloud cover to break up. From ABC Besson saw no more snowboard tracks below 8600m, saw no black snowboard or Siffredi's yellow clothing or any other trace of him.