원정 개요

C4 at South Col
High point at bottom of Hillary Step.

Mees and Phurba left C4 at 11 pm on 18 May. It was very windy. They were not sure whether they should do summit push but Adventure Consultants team left for summit, so they decided to leave. They had to break trail through new snow, which was very hard. When Mees arrived at the bottom of the Hillary Step he decided to turn around as he had already used 40% of his third and last oxygen bottle and there were about 20 people there. He turned back at about 11:15 am. They descended to C4, where they arrived at about 4 pm. Mees was very exhausted as his oxygen had run out at 8500m. He lay down in his tent and inhaled oxygen. On 20 May he descended to C2 and then to BC the next day.

Sherpa:
Furba Tundu/Phurba Thundup, Beding, 1975-76, scaled Everest 18 May 2003