Dispatch Thirty-five: April 28th, 2010 |
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Annapurna Expedition 2010 |
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Day Thirty-five: High Altitude Rescue (B3) attempt for Tolo Calafat Check Back For Updates Throughout the Day:
April 28th, 2010, 6:00pm: The Koreans are safely down in Camp I this evening, as is Kinga Baranowska (Poland). Piotr (Poland) and Peter (Slovakia) are in Camp II for the night as are the Russians and all should be in base camp tomorrow. Horia (Romania) remains in Camp IV, as does Juanito (Basque), Carlos Pauner (Spain) and their Sherpas. Tolo (Spain) is still above Camp IV (around 7600m) waiting for rescue and refusing to descend on his own.
April 28th, 2010, 1:00pm: The helicopter cannot attempt the high altitude rescue of Tolo today because of poor visibility and changing weather conditions. Horia has decided to remain in Camp IV awaiting Jorge’s arrival tomorrow. Juanito and Carlos will remain in Camp IV tonight and rest and attempt to descend tomorrow, possibly with the help of Jorge, who plans to start back up from Base Camp tomorrow. The exhausted Korean Sherpas climbed up 300 meters from Camp IV this afternoon to attempt to reach Tolo, but saw nothing and decided that he was too far to reach (7,600 meters) and were forced by exhaustion to return to Camp IV. Miss Oh and her Sherpas will descend this afternoon. One of Carlos’s Sherpas is going to attempt to climb up to Tolo with oxygen, medicine, a sleeping bag, some food, and a tent. Also, an avalanche last night appears to have made the descent from Camp III to Camp II very difficult. The wind blast from this avalanche was felt in Camp II by Jorge and Martin last night, where it lifted the tent off of it’s platform (with the two inside) with it’s force. Piotr and Peter are in Camp II now awaiting the arrival of Kinga and the Russians.
April 28th, 2010, 11:00am: Jorge and Martin arrive to Base Camp from their summit bid. Tolo remains at 7600 meters and the wait for the B3 helicopter continues. Juanito and Carlos are in Camp IV with frostbite and some blindness. Piotr, Peter, and Kinga are heading down from Camp IV towards Camp III. Horia remains in Camp IV in wait of the helicopter in hopes that it will at the very least deliver some oxygen cylinders and medicine to Camp IV, which he and the two Spanish Sherpas will use to possibly reach Tolo higher up.
April 28th, 2010, 8:30am: This morning, we received confirmation that Juanito, Carlos Pauner and Dawa Sherpa are safe in Camp IV, arriving very late last night, exhausted and suffering from frostbite. The Korean team is all present and accounted for this morning in Camp IV. Sonam, Tolo’s Sherpa slept in the snow with Tolo Calafat at 7600m elevation last night, but made his way down to Camp IV this morning. We are now organizing a high altitude helicopter rescue using a B3 Helicopter to hopefully evacuate Tolo from significantly above Camp IV, as he is refusing to come down on his own, and is suffering from cerebral edema (he is around 6 hours from Camp IV). Jorge will be arriving soon from Camp I, and, having sufficient acclimatization, will be going up in the B3 to attempt to evacuate Tolo back down to base camp where the Spanish doctors will work on reviving him and restoring him to relative health. I will post additional details as they become available today.
Photos: Left: Panorama of the Annapurna Massif |
