원정 개요

From Alan Arnette's blog:

I spoke live by satellite phone with Adrian Ballinger, founder of Alpenglow, at 6:47 am, Everest time. He was at 8500 meters, near the 2nd Step on the Tibet side when he said they had 10 of 39 oxygen bottle regulators fail and had to turn back. Everyone was safe and below C3 at 8300 meters as of our conversation.

The regulator controls the flow of oxygen between the bottle and the mask. If it fails, there is no oxygen in the mask. Alpenglow was using Summit Oxygen (SO) systems. I reached out them but could not connect with such short notice. I have used SO several times with complete success. Adrian was strong to say he was not criticizing SO but wanted to get the word out that there may be a bad manufacturing batch out there in use. He has used SO for 6 years with no problems.

The guides and Sherpas are now without supplemental oxygen as they gave up their regulators to the members and all are safely descending. Adrian said the regulators spontaneously failed without warning within 3 minutes.

Sherpas (all from Phortse):
Panuru Sherpa (Sirdar)
Nawang Tenjing Sherpa
Fura Chheten Sherpa
Pasang Rinji Sherpa
Lakpa Nuru Sherpa
Kanchha Nuru Sherpa
Pasang Sona Sherpa
Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa
Danuru Sherpa