원정 개요

Garcia was the only member who stayed long enough to make a summit attempt. Baia was at BC only three days, developed altitude sickness and left. Fohal reached C2 on 5 April in an acclimatization climb and returned to BC as planned. On 9 April there was a huge avalanche at BC; it didn't hurt them, but it frightened Fohal, and he left the team on 12 April. Perrier decided to leave with him; Perrier's wife was pregnant, and Fohal's departure gave him the stimulus to go too.

Garcia had put his C2 higher than the other team's C2 because he felt that the normal site was too prone to being hit by avalanches. He pitched his camp at 7000m on the 13th and went back to BC on the 14th.

In his summit push he moved up from C1 to C2 on 26 April. He postponed his climb to the top by one day so he could take time to inspect the next 200-300m of fixed rope that was left from the previous autumn. A Sherpa with the Spanish climber Carlos Pauner, some Italians from Mario Merelli's team and Garcia found the old ropes in very good condition.

The next day, the 28th, Garcia, Pauner, Merelli, another Italian, South Korean leader Kim - Jea-Soo, and a Sherpa with Kim were the first to go for the summit that morning. Kim and his Sherpa had left their C2 at 22:00 on the 27th because of the long distance to the summit; Garcia and the others set out at 2:00 am on 28 April.

The wind got strong at about noon and clouds moved in. Garcia had started out with the Italians but soon got ahead of them and reached the top alone at about 11:00 am. He had climbed across a large snowfield with cornices from 7000m to 7200m, blue ice from 7200m to 7500m and again to 8100m, over bare rock from 8100m to perhaps 8140m, and finally onto the snow-covered summit. (Above the large snowfield, there was no useable old ropes, and none had yet been fixed this season.)

Garcia stayed for 20 minutes on the summit taking video pictures. He descended through his C2 to collect his gear, to C1 to have a drink, and to BC, where he returned after dark at 7:00 pm, and where he saw in his pictures that his nose was swollen and discolored. It was initially black but only the top layer of his skin had frozen, and by the time he had reached Kathmandu, it was brown and peeling.

Garcia had fixed 400m of rope early in his climb, but all of it was lost in a big snowstorm of 5 April. It was replaced by other expedition who arrived after him. Three of his tents were destroyed while he was on the mountain, and a big tent collapsed under the weight of the snow covering it.