May
1999
THIRD POLE EXPEDITION
April
- June 1999
Tuesday
4th May 99
Mallory's body found
The American "1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition",
which is camped alongside the Belgians at the Tibetan base camp, has
just announced that on Saturday 1st May, four members of its search
team found the body of the British mountaineer, George H.L. Mallory,
who died on Everest on 8th June 1924!
For more details about this exciting news, visit the Mountain Zone
website : everest.mountainzone.com/99/north/
No news from the Belgians since yesterday ; they are no doubt making
their way towards the North Col.
Monday
3rd May 99
The
break was too short
The break in the weather was too short... This is the main thrust
of the message sent his morning by Alain Hubert.
He added: "We climbed yesterday, Sunday, from the base camp up
to the ABC, taking 7 hours to cover the 24-km distance and a rise
in altitude of 1 200 metres. We took a large bag of additional provisions,
etc. with us. It was quite a long trek and we were pretty tired. My
cold is getting better all the time. In fact, I've been climbing with
a scarf over my mouth to restrict any coughing. This afternoon, we
are climbing up to the North Col with the aim of taking a tent up
to 8 300 metres tomorrow and leaving it there. After that, we'll come
down again and wait for a better weather forecast. What happened was
that the break in the weather we were told about was too short; it's
3rd May today and the wind is blowing fit to bust up there, but maybe
tomorrow the jetstreams will calm down a little. Whatever happens,
we are now fully acclimatised, and that's a plus point in itself.
If needs be, we can do some training up there... Once our "tent 8
300" operation is complete, we will return to the base camp and I'll
send some more news then, particularly about the topic that I call
the new commercial imperialism that abounds here on the slopes of
Everest. It's an unbelievable story of money and ethics..."
