원정 개요

Cleo Weidlich Interview with Elizabeth Hawley - 29 Oct 2012

Weidlich and her Sherpa, Pema Tshering, made steady progress establishing camps up the mountain to 30 September, when they put C3 at the Makalu La at 7400m. From there, the normal route leads up the NW Ridge slightly on the north (Tibetan) side. Weidlich and Pema climbed on the north side and made a temporary C4 at 8000m at the foot of a "big mountain" on 1 October, then descended to BC on the 2nd to rest and to wait for the next window of good weather when the "terrible winds" would abate.

On the 13th Weidlich returned to C2. Next day she met an Australian climber, Anthony (Tony) Dignan, and his Sherpa, Siddhi Bahadur Tamang, and they went together to the Makalu La (7400m). On the 15th she and Dignan and their Sherpas moved onto the Tibetan side to a big serac and put C4 at 7600m. On the 16th, Dignan's Sherpa had frostbitten fingers and he went down while Weidlich and Pema went to the foot of a couloir on the Tibetan side of Makalu and bivouacked at 8000m.

Now the wind started picking up again. On the 17th they stayed in the bivouac, but Weidlich tried to go higher. She got only 30 meters above the bivouac, where she found a small red tent with two bodies inside. This was her highest point.

They spent the nights of the 18th, 19th and 20th still in the bivouac with 150 km/hr wind buffeting their tent. On the 21st they had run out of food and cooking gas with which to melt snow to drink. So on the 21st at 4:30 am they left the bivouac and until 3:00 pm they battled the wind and waist-deep snow to reach their C4 at 7600m. The next day, the 22nd, they got to C3, and on the 23rd at 3:00 am they started down and reached ABC at 11:00 pm.

"I was really in bad shape" now, she said. She had no energy to walk and was mildly frosbitten on her face, slightly more seriously on the tips of her fingers, which were black. Pema also had frostbitten hands and toes plus imminent cerebral edema. On 24 October she and Pema flew by helicopter from ABC to Kathmandu, where she checked in CIWEC clinic.

Sherpa:
Pema Tshering, 16/6/70, Mathilow, Walung, Makalu-Barun, Lhotse X1, Kangch X1


Note: Following her 29 Oct 2012 interview with Elizabeth Hawley, Cleo Weidlich has stated that she did summit Makalu: on her website blog, to Rodolphe Popier a few days later, and again to Elizabeth Hawley in April 2013. But sufficient details of her summit claim are still lacking. Her summit status may be changed in the future upon receipt of further information.