원정 개요

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

Ozaki, Jaya Bahadur Rai and Tul Bahadur Tamang left C4 for the top at 9pm on 11 May. At 6:30 am on the 12th they had reached 8800m, the top of the Hillary Step, in very windy weather with occasional white-out. Here Tul Bahadur asked Ozaki whether he wanted to go on up to the summit. The answer was to turn back; he was weak and cold and strong wind was blowing.

It took them five hours to descend 150 vertical meters to their cache of oxygen at 8650m near the South Summit. Here Ozaki changed oxygen bottles, but he continued to complain that he was not getting enough oxygen, and he took off his mask. He was now unable to walk or function mentally. Tul Bahadur had to grab him from the back as Ozaki struggled against him as he tried to carry Ozaki down.

Only 50-60 meters lower, they sat down; it was now about 12 o'clock noon. Ozaki could no longer move. There they remained until Ozaki died at 2:45 pm, according to the autopsy report due to hypoxia.

In his struggle with Ozaki, Tul Bahadur lost his goggles, and he was now snowblinded. Ozaki's body was tied to the fixed rope, and Tul Bahadur and Jaya Bahadur Rai descended to C3, where a doctor told Tul Bahadur to stay there and Jaya Bahadur to go down to BC to save his frostbitten toes and to send Pasang up to Tul Bahadur.

Three Sherpas from another expedition led by the Japanese climber Kenji Kondo also went up to bring Ozaki's body down to C4 at the South Col. Other Sherpas brought his body to C2, from where a helicopter carried it to Kathmandu. It was later (on 26 May) cremated at Syambhunath, Kathmandu, with the ashes being taken by his family to Japan and France (his widow is French).

Ozaki was the only person on the team who used oxygen. He was on it up from C3 to 8800m and down ot his collapse.

Hired:
Jaya Bahadur (Prakash) Rai, 2/3/74, Makalu-6 (Makalu-Barun), Makalu 18/5/08
Pasang Tamang, 4/12/68, Deusa, Solu, Everest X3
Tul Bahadur Tamang, 3/10/66, Deusa, Solu, Everest X2, Cho Oyu X2, Manaslu X1