원정 개요

Waldemar Kowalewski Report:

Kowalewski and Sonam left C3 at 01:20 hours/CST on 24 May. They got to the top at 10:30 am (8:15 NST) and spent 15 minutes there, then returned C3 at 14:30 hrs, had one hour rest, then descended to C2. There was a strong storm at C2. Next day 25 May they went down to ABC.

Ankowski, Ang Dawa and Phursemba summited on 25 May. As told by Kowalewski, Ankowski was alone at C3 on his descent. Ankowski told Sherpas to go down and he will follow, but he came to ABC on 27 May.

[Ang Dawa also summited on 24 May with Butaye.]

Szewczak left expedition around 6 May. He left at C1. He was exhausted.


Laurent Butaye Report:

BC 17 Apr - 5200m
ABC 21 Apr - 6400m
C1 3 May - 7200m
C2 22 May - 7700m
C3 23 May - 8300m

Butaye did acclimatize up to C1 in April, reaching it only for day trips from ABC. In begining of May, he slept first at C1 then went to C2 to fulfill his acclimatization. Then bad weather forced him to wait, the Chinese officer deciding for a summit window not before 23 May. When he saw the good weather of the 18 May, Butaye worried about the pending wait too long for him, so he went to sleep on his own at C1 for reacclimatizing (on 17 May), then went back to ABC the day after.

Eventually, after putting pressure with other groups on the Chinese liaison officer, the latter organized a meeting on 21 May at ABC to negociate the autorizations to go for the summit. The fixing rope team would finish it on 23 May (at the beginning the liaison officer wanted two days for the summit last part, but hired more staff to make it in one day), then summit window for climbers would be opened from 24 May until 26 May at noon (Butaye: "it’s quite a power to open a summit window"). Everyone had to chose his day and Butaye chose the first one.

That day he went directly at C1 for sleeping, the day after at C2, day after at C3. On 24 May, Butaye with Dawa Sherpa started at 1:30 am (Chinese time for here and after), reached the summit at 10:30 am, back to C1 at 7:30 pm. Butaye reported no wind on top, good tempetatures (-10/-15°C). The day after was back to the BC.

According to Butaye, the liaison officer was happy about the season, with no deaths reported and good success for most of the teams.

[Ang Dawa also summited again from C3 on 23 May with Androwski.]

Sherpa:
Ang Dawa Sherpa, Tashigaon, Makalu, 7/2/78 (2034/10/25)