Mt. Everest 2005: The Finns Update

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Update: The team has left Kathmandu on 29.5. and are on their way to Finland waiting for a flight at the Bangkok airport. Soon we'll continue to Frankfurt and from there to Helsinki. The team is doing fine and we are all more than ready to go home.

Update: The Finns are headed back to KTM... read their news below..

Update: This is the Finnish team's latest dispatch translated in its entirety:

"We've had discussions with other expedition leaders and according to those discussions the situation is this: On 14th of May three of the Norwegian team sherpas went to put the fixed ropes in place above 8300m. Because of the bad weather the attempt was unsuccessful and one sherpa got three frostbitten fingers. The sherpas returned to ABC (6400m). Meanwhile our expedition had already ascended to Camp 1 (7100m) for the summit attempt on the 15th. We didn't receive any information to Camp 1 or ABC that there were no fixed ropes so we were under the impression that all ropes are in place above 8300 meters and we don't need take ropes with us. On 20th of May during Tomi and Arri's summit attempt we discovered that there were no fixed lines. Why didn't anyone inform us about it? We have asked this from several expedition leaders and no-one seems to be responsible for it. After one sherpa of the Norwegian team was frostbitten other expedition leaders weren't too eager to send sherpas above 8300m for understandable reasons. The sherpas of Russel Brice and the Himalayan Experience concentrated on supplying their clients with oxygen and taking equipment to higher camps instead of doing the job they had agreed to do, which was to fix the ropes along the route.

On 18th of May the Norwegians and Indians were fed up with waiting for the ropes to be fixed and called for a meeting between expedition leaders. Well at least between the leaders of the nearby teams, because where our tents are located we were able to find by quickly asking around 5 teams (including us) who didn't know about this meeting or the fact that there were no fixed ropes yet above 8300 meters. In that meeting the leader of the Indian team asked who would like to do the job because it didn't seem to be getting ready with Russel in charge. Four people said yes: the Indian airforce team, the Norwegian team, the Russian team and the Indian army team. If this information had reached us on the 18th day, our summit team could have returned to Camp 1 or ABC to rest. But no-one pays any attention to small expeditions here, it's the money that does the talking...Originally we were going to fix the ropes on the difficult sections ourselves but based on the agreement we made with other teams in CBC (basecamp), we left all the ropes reserved for that purpose to CBC. We have 60 meters of rope in ABC, which would have been enough to tackle the most difficult sections, but we left that behind too because we were told on the 14th that it won't be needed since all the fixed ropes will be in place no later than on the 17th, which would have been ok for our summit attempt.

Tomi and Arri were the first ones to leave for the summit on 20th of May and so then there were no fixed lines above 8300 meters. They took some rope from the northeast ridge ja fixed a rope on the First step. Getting the rope took so much time that they had to turn back on the summit ridge at 12.30 and return to Camp 2. Today on Saturday 21st of May we found out that all the fixed ropes were put in place before noon. Today a couple of people also finally reached the summit from the north side of the mountain. It looks like that for many reasons, our summit attempt took place one day too early. So we didn't reach the summit. Anyway, until Friday the 20th we were the team who had reached the highest altitude and we did that without any sherpa assistance. We opened the trail. The team proud of its achievements."

According to another dispatch by the Finnish team, the highest altitude Tomi and Arri reached during their summit attempt was the Second step (8630m).

Previous Update

Update: "Unfortunately Tomi and Arri of the Finnish team had to turn back before the summit. The Finnish team were told by the Himalayan Experience that all fixed ropes are in place but in fact for some reason there were no fixed lines high up. The two are now back in camp 2 and will continue their way down to abc tomorrow."

Previous Update

Note: This is UNCONFIRMED, but from a reliable source: Again this is totally unconfirmed! (very hard to confirm news right now!!)

Update: Tomi and Arri are  on their way back down near camp 2 after their summit attempt, but there is no news yet if the attempt was successful.

Update May 20th, 2005: 6.30 p.m. (Nepalese time) Two members of the Finnish team (Tomi and Arri) are at camp 3 (8300m). Tonight they will pack their packs and leave for the summit attempt at midnight.

The team who tries to reach the summit of Everest:

Arri Leino         32y Espoo/Finland          

Veli-Pekka Mölsä   42y Espoo/Finland    

Teijo Lehtinen     44y Varese, Italy

Arto Suolanen      33y Anjalankoski/Finland   

Tomi Myllys        32y Vantaa/Finland         

Tero Järvinen      31y Tuusula/Finland        

Heikki Karinen     40y Tampere/Finland        

Finland Everest 2005

Members:

They are all very experienced climbers, their route is from Tibet side on the north side. A lot of research work around high altitude illness will be done.

More coming soon!

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