News: Searching In The Wind, Day 2
Eric Simonson - Basecamp
Fri, April 27, 2001 1:25AM

Eric Simonson's Expedition Logs:

April 24
Dave, Tap, Andy climb to C6 and search. Panuru and his team carry to C6. Brent and Jake move to Col. Kami and his team move to Col.

April 25
Dave, Tap, Andy continue to search near Camp 6. All Sherpas descend to ABC due to bad weather. Brent and Jake stay at Col.

April 26
Dave, Tap, Andy continue search. Tap to ABC in afternoon. Jake and Brent at Col. 14 Sherpas w/Kami to Col. 5 Sherpas (w/Panuru) to BC.

April 27
Dave, Andy continue search, descend to ABC in afternoon. 8 Sherpas to C6. 4 stay at Col. 2 to BC. Tap to BC in afternoon.


April 25
The Second day of Searching:

Dave, Tap, and Andy spent the night at Camp 6 (8200 meters, or about 26,900 feet) in two small Eureka tents, sleeping on a low flow of oxygen. At 7am we had a radio call. The winds at the North Col and on the North Ridge were whipping 60+ mph and it was snowing. The Sherpas at the Col decided it was too bad to climb up the Ridge and all decided to bail out for ABC. Brent and Jake stayed at the Col to make sure the camp didn't get blown away.

Amazingly, up at Camp 6, where the wind was still cold and blustery, Dave, Tap, and Andy were able to get out and put in a full day of searching. In particular, they took the metal detector back to the 1924 Camp 6 site, but the dirt and rubble in the small gully we thought was the right place (where Andy had found the sock and mitten the day before) was so frozen and deep to prevent doing much without a backhoe or high explosives! Later, Dave climbed down the North Ridge some distance, checking on other potential camp locations (see Jochen's dispatch on the mystery of the 1924 Camp 6).

While Dave was doing this, Tap and Andy were back on the rib checking on some other potential sites in the vicinity of the various Camp 6s. After a full day, they were back at the tent for another night at 8200m. I must say that I was very impressed at the incredible amount of real estate that they covered during the day. It was very impressive to watch them moving around on all different kinds of terrain. Certainly they were the first people to visit some of the areas they went!

Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

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