Dispatch Forty-nine: October 12th, 2009 |
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2009 Shishapangma Expedition |
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Day Forty-nine: Yaks Requested; Preparations for Trek Down to CBC Today, we sent a yak-man down to our Liaison Officer in Chinese Base Camp with the note requesting the yaks, jeeps, and truck we will need to get ourselves and our equipment down and out of Tibet (what’s left of it anyway). After this, Mario and I had a relaxed breakfast, then headed to our tents to start packing our equipment for the yaks. We received a visit from the Brazilian expedition who had just arrived to Advanced Base Camp from Cho Oyu. We chatted for a bit, explained what had happened to thwart our summit bid (they had seen us going up yesterday), and offered what’s left of our food to them (although most of it would keep till next spring in storage in Kathmandu, the cost of bringing it down with the yaks is higher than flying it from the US to Nepal!). After this, we rested all afternoon, still worn out both physically and mentally from yesterday’s events. We don’t expect the yaks till the 14th, so we will wait till tomorrow to tear down the mess, kitchen, shower, and toilet tents. We are hoping that we can trek down early to Chinese Base Camp, load the gear truck with our equipment, and make the journey to Zhangmu before the border closes, allowing us to potentially get all the way back to Kathmandu in one day from Chinese Base Camp (luck will need to be firmly on our side for this to happen). Also, it turns out, according to our forecast, our summit day (the 14th) would have been too windy for a safe summit; the winds are forecast to be 50km/hr rather than the 40km/hr that they were previously supposed to be. Our thoughts are with Edurne’s expedition on the South Face. Photos: Our dramatic emotional roller coaster yesterday. Left: Kinga and Horea starting up from base camp on our summit bid; Right: Kinga and Horea arriving to the end of the Penitentes (note the dots in center-frame and slightly left of center-frame) on our descent from Camp I yesterday |
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