원정 개요

Chapman, McDougall, Pasang and Lhakpa left C3 at 6:30 am on 22 Oct for summit. It was windy. After an hour of climbing McDougall started feeling cold and turned back to C3 with Pasang. Pasang got back from C3 and joined Chapman and Lhakpa on summit slope. Then Lhakpa went ahead where as Pasang and Chapman slowly proceeded towards the summit. Due to strong wind, Pasang thought that the climbing progress was too slow for himself and Chapman and Lhakpa was far ahead of them. The expected summit time was around 11 am, but they could manage to reach only 7000m at 1:30 pm. The summit looked very close but the pace they were able to move forward on the mountain could take them more than two hours. The wind was very strong, often they had to stop for wind to stop. Then they decided to turn around. Lhakpa went to the summit at 1:30 pm. He stayed on summit for about 15 minutes. He caught up to Pasang and Chapman on their way down to C3. All of the team spent night at C3. Next day all descended to BC.


Email from Mick Chapman - 25 Feb 2010

On summit day we were due to leave around 5 am, but due to strong winds and cold we delayed our departure till after 7:00 am. After half an hour Katrina, who was cold and moving very slowly decided to return to camp. Pasang escorted her back whilst Lhakpa and myself continued on. We moved quite quickly and at this stage the weather was cold but only light winds. Lhakpa and I began the ascent of the long summit slopes and it was around 6500m that the wind began to pick up. Our weather report for this day suggested temperatures of minus 25. The climbing surface was excellent. At around 7000m (12.00 pm) we took a break as Pasang had caught us up. It was extremely cold at this time.

Then followed a rather bizarre situation. When I got up from the rest I swung my rucksack on and put my back out. I was in extreme pain and I decided that I could not carry on. Pasang and I turned back to camp. Lhakpa carried on to the summit. However, I was only able to move very slowly and I did not get back to Camp 3 until 8:30 pm. Much thanks to Pasang and Lhakpa (who caught us up on his return) who assisted me back.

It was a bit of an effort to get back to base camp and trek out to Besisahar. It took a few weeks for the situation to clear up.

I'm now officially semi-retired having left Peregrine last year. I still in Reading, UK. Katrina lives in Queensland.

Sherpas:
Pasang Sherpa, Garima-8, Solu, 9/3/74 (26/11/2030), Everest 19/5/06
Lhakpa Tenzi Sherpa, Lokhim-4, Solu, 4/4/75 (22/12/2031), no 8000ers