Suspense
on the roof of the world
Today, at around 2.30pm, the hallmark website of Everest expeditions,
everestnews.com, published the following news: "On 26th
May 1999, the Sherpa climber Apa (aka Appa) Sherpa successfully
climbed to the summit of the world's highest peak, Mt. Everest
(8848 m) from North Side at 11:00 a.m. With this climb he has
achieved the record of climbing Mt. Everest 10 times (the same
number as Ang Rita Sherpa). Together with Apa Sherpa, Ghorge
Dijmarescu, an American climber, succeeded in his attempt to
climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. Others who climbed to the
summit are: Naga Dorje Sherpa, Man B. Tamang and another Sherpa
whose name is currently unknown. Two members from the Everest
International Expedition also reached the summit of Mt. Everest
from North Side at 11:00 a.m. on 26th May 1999. 4 Georgian climbers
of the 1st Georgian Everest (North Side) Exhibition also succeeded
in getting to the summit of Mt. Everest at the same time on
the same day."
We still certainly do not have, in black and white, the names
of the people who have reached the summit. But in discovering
that "two men of the Everest International Expedition reached
the summit yesterday 26 May at the same time as four other Georgians",
one is entitled to hope, and even suppose, that it was Alain
and Manram. "Everest International Expedition" is in any case
the official name of the expedition mounted by Pascal Debrouwer.
An initial certainty, therefore: it is indeed members of this
expedition that succeeded in their attempt yesterday. A fantastic
posthumous victory for Pascal, let it be said as an aside. But
who? Given that, apart from Jean-Marc Monterisi and the Brazilian
couple (all three clients of Pascal), the other members of the
group have already gone home (see the earlier bulletins), the
number of possible conquerors is reduced to three. "Let's briefly
analyse them one by one. Monterisi to make the summit? Certainly,
he had announced via Luc Fontyn that he would make a third attempt.
But this nice lad has never set foot at high altitude. Which
prompts us to remove this card from the pack. So we are left
with the two Brazilians (of whom we have never had much news);
in the event of their having succeeded, it seems to me that
everestnews.com would have announced "a couple" had been
at the summit, and not "two members" as they in fact
wrote.
So all that is left is to tell oneself that it really is the
conqueror of the Antarctic who, no doubt stung by the loss of
a companion and by five failures, and white hot as he can be
when he makes up his mind to do something, has just added the
third pole to his trophy cabinet, and that his companion, the
former cook Manram Tamang, has successfully completed the venture
with him. "It is clear that between now and this evening,
or even more so between now and tomorrow, antarctica.org will
do everything in its power to get official confirmation of this
great victory."
Thursday
27th May, 10am
Some
reactions, while waiting for other news…
We have had no news from Everest since last Monday. We are unlikely
to get any either, for, in view of the timing that Alain Hubert
had calculated at the time of his last telephone conversation
with HQ, he and his companion Manram should by now, this Thursday
morning, have been back at the ABC camp for only a few hours
- victory in the bag or not. It is also possible that, being
too tired, they preferred to spend last night on the North Pass
in order to come down again at their ease in the course of today.
For all of you who write to the website to ask for news and
who have been, as we all have been, shocked by the death of
Pascal Debrouwer, - and we suppose that if we go a further 24
hours without giving fresh news from Everest will become even
more anxious - we would like to point out however that the communication
equipment used by Alain Hubert is not working properly. How
many times during the weeks preceding the final tests had not
Hubert told me that he would ring at such and such a time and
that HQ stayed two days without contact, simply because the
telephone was on the blink… So even if at this time Hubert has
rejoined the ABC camp, it could well be that once again he is
faced with communication problems.
The fact that the majority of major expeditions have now left
Tibet does not either facilitate the possibility that he had
until then of going to his neighbour to use the telephone. It
could also be that, having failed in his third attempt, Hubert
(who, as we all know, does not like to lose) has delayed his
announcement to the press for a few hours. Whatever the reason,
being in close touch with MRI on the one hand and with the various
websites such as Everest News on the other, we know that the
weather conditions on Everest have not been bad during these
last few days.
While waiting then, we would like to publish in this box two
e-mails that were sent to HQ during the last twenty-four hours.
