원정 개요

BC 21 Sep 4800m
C1 28 Sep 5685m
HPt 29 Sep 6100m by Lok Bahadur and Ngim Pasang
29 Sep 5850m by Greene, Hansen, Maturi, Morrison, Khatri Dorje and Tendi.

Team left C1 at 7 am. The Sherpas were fixing the rope from about 5700m and were well ahead of the team. At about 10:15 am, the members came around the corner and were right underneath an ice cliff when the 400m wide slope above them started to move. Morrison thinks it was a class 4 avalanche that came thundering down for about 200 to 300m. Fortunately, the members were protected by the ice cliff, and even though they got buried by the snow, nothing serious happened. Dorje Khatri, Tendi (and Kaji from a Dutch expedition from Kailash Himalaya) were ahead of them when the avalanche hit. They were covered by a about a metre of snow. Lok Bahadur and Ngim Pasang were at 6100m in the middle of the slope. They were both dragged down about 200m. Lok Bahadur managed to jump the crevasse on the bottom of the slope, lost his boots, but was otherwise unharmed. Ngim Pasang must have fallen into the crevasse, his body is still missing.

After the avalanche hit, Morrison ran up the hill towards the debris and the place where Dorje Khatri and Tendi were at the time of the avalanche. He saw a hand sticking out of the snow, dug it and found Khatri Dorje, who was completely covered in snow and did not breathe. Morrison got the snow out of his mouth and Dorje Khatri started breathing again. His arm was slightly bruised, but he was otherwise fine. After he had pulled out Dorje Khatri, Morrison pulled out another hand that was sticking out of the snow and found Tendi. He tried to resuscitate Tendi, but it was too late. Tendi was already dead. By that time the clients had reached Morrison and when they dug out Tendi's body they came across a foot, which belonged to Kaji from the Dutch team. He was also dead. Both Tendi and Kaji were buried under about one metre of snow.

Morrison arranged a helicopter to pick up the bodies, but the helicopter cold not land. Green, Maturi and Lok Bahadur descended to BC. Morrison, Hansen and Khatri Dorje kept on looking for Ngim Pasang, but could not find him. At 4 pm, they packed up as much of C1 as they could and descended to BC. On 30 Sept, the team was picked up by helicopter, which brought two more Sherpas to BC to support carrying down the bodies. They will be picked up by helicopter in the next few days. Khatri Dorje and Lok Bahadur were checked in hospital and are well.

Sherpas:
Khatri, Dorje, Ghunsa, Lelep-9, Taplejung, 19/12/1968
Thapa Magar, Lok Bahadur, Yasam, Okhaldhunga, 30/01/1966
Tendi, Sanam, Gudel, Solukhumbu, 13/10/1968
Ngim Pasang Sherpa, Jubing-3, Solukhumbu, 27/09/1978