원정 개요

The Everest and Lhotse teams arrived at BC on 18 April, the day the fatal avalanche struck Sherpas in the Khumbu Icefall. No higher camps were estabished, no Sherpas carried loads for camps above the Icefall.

The time between 18 April and the final decision to cancel the climbs was filled by the members by brief treks in the area and trips a short distance above BC, but below the start of the Icefall. Mazur said he and various members moved up to an altitude of 5410m. He said he went there "every day," but he finally modified this claim by saying that a total of ten members from the two teams went to this turn-around point.

Not a single Sherpa from the pool of 18 Sherpas for the two teams moved past BC. They were told that their arms and legs would be broken and their villages homes would be burned down if they went to work. Who told them this? "The Bhotes" (one of the identified enforcers was Pasang Bhote from Makalu).

At a meeting held at BC on 21 April about what next for the teams, "the Bhotes" spoke forcefuly, and Sumit Joshi, the manager of a trekking agency called Himalayan Ascent, spoke at length in favor of stopping all climbs. Russell Brice spoke against it, but his view did not prevail.

Mazur waited a few days to see what would happen, and when no climbing resumed, he decided on 27 April to cancel is Everest and Lhotse climbs.

A few of his members had already left BC, and on the 28th they left in great numbers. Mazur himself left on 7 May.

One member had left earlier: Zaitchick, a 70-year old Lhotse member, had seemed very strong, but on the 18th of May he became weak, visited the health clinic at BC, was advised to leave and flew out to Kathmandu in a helicopter on the 20th. While in the clinic, he used two bottles of the teams oxygen supply.