News: The 4th Day of Searching
Eric Simonson - Basecamp
Sun, April 29, 2001 2:15AM

The morning of Friday April 27 dawned cold and windy again, but slightly improved from the day before. Down at the North Col, Kami and his group of 14 sherpas had split into a couple groups. Mingma and Phunuru were feeling sick and descended to ABC. Four others decided to stay and try for Camp 6 the next day. Despite the wind, Kami and his group of eight decided to give it a shot. They left Camp 4 with only a few gas cartridges... the plan to pick up additional oxygen at Camp 5 and carry it to Camp 6. Seeing the Sherpas leave inspired a doubtful Brent and Jake to head out as well, despite the fact that the wind was still pretty strong and that they had got pretty beat up the day before on their unsuccessful bid to climb to Camp 5. Fortunately, the conditions improved as the day continued. The eight Sherpas made it to Camp 6 (and descended to ABC) and Brent and Jake made it to Camp 5.

Up at Camp 6, Dave and Andy crawled out to yet another cold windy morning. After buffing out the Camp, inventoring and organizing the gear up there, and battening down the hatches, they had decided to head down, via a circuitous route, to check out some further possibilities. This they did, crossing paths with the Sherpas at Camp 5 and later with Brent and Jake in the rocks below 5.

Between Dave, Andy, and Tap, they had put about 8 and one half man days into our prime search area. What had they found? What stories did they have to tell us? We'll just have to wait and see!

Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

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