Tuesday 18th May, 6pm

Fourth Belgian reaches summit of Everest

This morning at 11.20 am, the Belgian climber Pascal Debrouwer reached the roof of the world, making him the fourth Belgian to achieve this great feat - after Rudy Van Snick on 10 May 1990, Ingrid Baeyens on 12 May 1992 and Brigitte Muir Koch (living in Australia for about ten years) on 27 May 1997.

Debrouwer was accompanied by his climbing partner Joao Garcia who became the first Portuguese climber to conquer the giant. Their performance is all the more outstanding because the two men made the whole of their ascent without oxygen. So Debrouwer becomes the first Belgian to reach the summit of Everest without using oxygen. The two men were preceded this morning by three Poles who reached the summit an hour earlier using oxygen.
At the present time, Pascal and Joao (in great shape, it appears) are in the process of making the climb back down: the weather is slightly cloudy and light snow is falling on the mountain. They should make it back to the ABC this evening, returning to base camp tomorrow.
Alain Hubert is resting at the ABC. He has already decided to make a third attempt which, according to the more encouraging weather forecast, will not be before a favourable break in the weather scheduled for 25, 26 and 27 May. The IRM weather centre will tell us more about this sometime tomorrow.

Tuesday 18th May, 11.30am

While Alain Hubert fails, Debrouwer and Garcia are nearby the top
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Hubert fails! Telephone call this morning to the HQ of the Belgian expedition ; it was Alain Hubert bringing news of his attempt from the ABC - and the news could have been more encouraging. He became ill at 7 800 m, yesterday evening, Monday, at 5 pm, "vomiting, unsteady legs, I had to come back down, I think it's because of the terrible heat, I must have got some sort of sunstroke."
So the conqueror of the Antarctic has been unsuccessful in his bid. But there was more encourgaing news from the Debrouwer-Garcia duo, who at the time of the last radio link between themselves and the ABC - at 8 am Brussels time - were 150 metres from the summit, just beneath the Cathedral, where they said it was terribly hot - no wind. What's more, they have not yet used any oxygen, which of course adds great panache to their achievement.
But let's not count our chickens ; we are awaiting news of their success at any moment. Another fine performance, according to Hubert, should be credited to Jean Luc Fontyn and Jean-Marc Monterisi (we have not heard a great deal so far about these two "tourists" in the expedition because the former had had to return, ill, to Katmandu); they have succeeded in climbing up to 8 300 metres with no problem at all to deposit a small tent. More news by mid-afternoon…

Tuesday 18th May

Pascal Debrouwer and his doubts

We received yesterday, via Montagnes du Monde, the travel agency that organised the Belgian expedition, an e-mail that Pascal Debrouwer (the person in charge) sent to members of his family, who have given us permission to publish a few excerpts. The most interesting thing about this e-mail is the insight it provides into the worries being experienced by this climber who is leading a commercial expedition. In fact, they are so vivid, we can almost feel them those concerns for ourselves, as they are so sincerely expressed.

"Two days before going up, I caught a cough, as usual. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't too bad, either. Leaving the ABC with Joao, Alain and Man Ram at the North Col, on the morning of the 4th, we climbed up to the camp at 7 900m: the wind + snow were quite strong towards the end. Alain was unwell again and in any case did not plan to go any higher. So he went back down to 7 600 m and Man Ram took his tent back down because it is full of holes caused by the stones we placed on it to weight it down rubbing against it! Joao and I were in the white tent in the evening: the wind and snow were coming in from everywhere as we had to leave it open a little so we could cook! From time to time, the sun melted the snow on us, which made our clothes and duvet wet, great… We waited a long time before leaving. In the end, the wind died down, but it was too late to do any climbing, set up camp 3 at 8 300 m and make for the summit in the early morning (because the wind often comes back between 8 and 10 o'clock). Plus I had some fairly strong bouts of coughing; the sky was black with clouds and there were breaks in the distance. So we came back down again (and with a single torch that's no picnic, I can tell you) only reaching the North Col by about 9 in the evening.
"So we all slept there, which was a terrible mistake because I had an awful night. A constant sense of being suffocated, get up, sit down, sore throat, dreadful coughing, etc. But the worst thing was to wake up every ten minutes, have to try and find some air and being stressed and worried - not brilliant at all!
The others manage to sleep at the altitude of the North Col, but not me - no idea why not. I was still coughing and often felt like I was suffocating and very quickly got short of breath. I suppose it will pass. The next morning, we went back down to the ABC, then back to BC.
"All in all, I am rather disappointed because, physically, everything was fine. The worst thing is that we have found out that on the south side, some climbers made it to the summit on the same night (in the morning and again in the afternoon!). With the weather report we had in the evening, you wouldn't have believed it possible - gives me the shits, I can tell you. It's really hard to gauge it, you have to take the risk. Will have to go all out whatever happens next time. The weather is still very warm, there'll be no problems with frostbite, in principle (except if the wind is really bad).
"In a word, I'm not in great shape: my morale is only average as a result of this first attempt. I'll have to start feeling better again, then it'll be OK. Unfortunately, I'm thinking more and more about using O2 as soon as I feel the need, even if its only at 8 300 m. I'm moaning rather a lot about this blasted peak. For the time being, anyway..."