05/16/2006 - One more day of news at Camp 2

"A very sad day"

At the arrival to Camp 2, Vitor suffered the impact of several bad news.  David Sharp, a British climber with whom they shared a good time, died on the mountain.  Ravi Chandran, from Malaysia, had frostbite in his fingers and was descending to get medical treatment.

Finally, the depot where Rodrigo Raineri and Vitor Negrete stocked equipment and food had been vandalized and was empty.  Vitor and the Sherpa who was with him were happy to get the solidarity of other climbers who lent a tent and food to spend the night.

"All these events hit on me a lot and I seriously thought of quitting and descend.  But Ravi asked me to make it to the summit for them.  The personnel lent equipment and food to spend the night today (05/16).  So I decided to climb to Camp 3 tomorrow (17/05) around lunch time (Nepal time)", said Vitor Negrete.

Vitor explains that Camp 3 at 8,300 meters "is a temporary camp.  Once there, rest and if the weather is good I depart around nine in the evening (around midnight in Brazil) to the summit.  We have another depot at C3 with equipment and food.  I hope everything is in order there.  If the depot up there in the summit has also been vandalized, it will complicate our project a lot".

Rodrigo Raineri is at Base Camp (5,200 meters) recovering from the climb he did last week when he got to Camp 2 and can't take off to the summit because of bad weather.  The plan is that Rodrigo will attempt the summit around May 25.

The Brazilian duo has climbed together for more than 15 years and they were the first ones to get to the summit of Aconcagua (6,962m) by the South Face - considered one of the more technical and difficult in the world - and they are also the first from Brazil to get to the same summit during the winter .

There are on the North Face of Mount Everest (Tibet) and their objective is to reach the 8,850 meters of altitude without using supplementary oxygen cylinders, an unheard of fact among Brazilian climbers.

Last season, with totally adverse weather conditions, Vitor Negrete reached the top of the world on June 2 using O2.  Rodrigo used the oxygen mask only from Camp 3, but he turned around at 50 meters from the summit, for safety measures.

Translated from Portuguese by Jorge Rivera

05/17/2006 - Vitor Negrete starts his summit attack to Mount Everest

"Don't worry, I'll be careful!"

After yesterday's news (05/16) Vitor Negrete climbed to Camp 3 on the North Face of Mount Everest, at 8,300 meters and, now with a better mood, decided to do the summit attack without the support of the Sherpa who is with him.

Talking quickly by satellite phone he asked for calm and support from everybody, "I am climbing totally alone.  Without O2, without Sherpa and without phone, because the battery of the satellite phone is almost dead.  I promise I will be very careful; the weather is improving and the forecasted window should open now".

Following the attack to the summit of his partner, Rodrigo Raineri is in Base Camp and has planned to start his push around the 25th, when another window is forecasted.  He is following the steps of Vitor Negrete by a phone which was provided by Gheorge Diamarescu who has made it to the summit of Chomolungma several times. 

"We were not in synch in our acclimatization.  When Vitor was fine I had trouble.  When I recovered he had a throat ache.  So we decided that each one of us should go to the summit when each of us were ready, independently from each other.  So our chances of having at least one Brazilian on the summit are better". 

The Brazilian duo has climbed together for more than 15 years and they were the first ones to get to the summit of Aconcagua (6,962m) by the South Face - considered one of the more technical and difficult in the world - and they are also the first from Brazil to get to the same summit during the winter (Try On Expedition I).

There are on the North Face of Mount Everest (Tibet) and their objective is to reach the 8,850 meters of altitude without using supplementary oxygen cylinders, an unheard of fact among Brazilian climbers.

Last season, with totally adverse weather conditions, Vitor Negrete reached the top of the world on June 2 using O2.  Rodrigo used the oxygen mask only from Camp 3, but he turned around at 50 meters from the summit, for safety measures.