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Highest point reached then was 7600m from which he left for summit push at 4:30 am 27 Jan; 7600m north side of NW Ridge - area above badly crevased so very difficult to find way through with no one belaying you to reach French gully - was -35 degrees Centrigrade inside his tent so maybe -45 degrees outside without stove. If Lafaille fell into crevassse which is most likely why he is missing, he would die of hypothermia in 20-30 minutes if he got lodged/wedged inside it with ice against his body. He reported to his wife Katia, who was also his manager, three times a day and his last report was at 4:30 am on 27 Jan.

There is no possibility of search and rescue on mountain itself where there is no one else around why rescue by soloing. He took risks Gustafsson would never take (such as making traverse of Annapurna I's East Ridge in 2002 spring when Gustafsson turned back). Lafaille "world's greatest climber," was amazing on rock and ice and that is what was there was on Makalu this winter, as Gustafsson saw 4 Feb nothing in half hour helicopter flight from Makalu BC to about 7000m (and then winds prevented flying any higher) looking for sign of Lafaille and seeing only his red tent at 6700m. "Is there any hope of his having survived?" to be honest with you, No". But tent with sleeping bag, mattress, stove, gas, food, etc. left for him at BC on 4 Feb when other items packed up and brought to KTM.


Lafaille Dies in Solo Bid on Makalu
By Elizabeth Hawley, February 2006

The well-known French mountaineer, Jean-Christophe Lafaille, 40 years old, vanished on 27 January 2006 while attempting to make an entirely solo ascent of Makalu.
The highest he is known to have reached is 7600m, where he pitched his small red tent on the 26th and from which he set out alone for the top early in the morning of the 27th, as he reported by satellite phone to his wife Katya in France. This was expected to be the first of his reports to her that day. But he never made contact with her or his base camp staff again.
A search of the mountain side on the 4th of February by helicopter by his wife, her brother and Veikka Gustafsson, a Finnish mountaineer who had climbed with Lafaille and knows from his own ascent the climbing route Lafaille was following. They saw only his little tent and no other trace of him.
The search team left at base camp for him a tent with sleeping bag, stove, food, fuel and a few other necessities in case he did manage to get there alive. But Gustafsson knew there was no hope that he survived, and Gustafsson thought he knew exactly what had happened to Lafaille.
Ten years previously, Gustafsson himself had climbed the same standard route that Lafaille was following. He had two climbing partners with him, Ed Viesturs and a New Zealander, Rob Hall, and he led most of the final part to the summit. He found this section had numerous treacherous crevasses. He fell into three of them but was always belayed and emerged unscathed. Lafaille had no one to belay him, and Gustafsson was sure that the Frenchman fell into one and becase fatally wedged against two walls of ice.
Gustafsson considers Lafaille to have been "one of the world's greatest climbers." If he had succeeded, Lafaille would have been the first person to solo Makalu in winter. He had already attempted Makalu unsuccessfully in the spring of 2004 in an earlier solo bid by a different route which approached the mountain from Tibet.
Makalu was one of only three 8000m mountains he had not yet summited.


Mario Vielmo, leader of Italian expedition to Makalu in Spring 2006 - 2 June 2006

The small red tent at 7600m on Makalu is not Lafaille's. It is Polish made and has Polish food inside, but there is a small red tent at about 7800m on the north side of Makalu near the rocks of the icefall. This broken tent was near a big serac, so Vielmo stayed about 10m away from it and therefore did not look inside it.