Mt. Everest 2005: Did the British Summit Everest on May 30th?

Photo Tom West ©EverestNews.com

Update May 30th, 2005: many climbers think the British might have summited last night. So far no news... Except one British climber was seen coming down last night that attempted without oxygen. We are unsure if he was even on this team! More soon.. The Indian Air Force and the Russians summited on the 30th..

Update 5/28/2005: Team at camp one (North col), moving to Camp 2 right now...

Update 5/27/2005: The Brits are on the move up...

Update 5/25/2005: We are expecting to leave ABC on the 27th with a view to maximizing our chances with the weather window supposed to come in for the 29th/30th/31st.

Getting relatively close to our departure from the mountain, we are looking at any way of easing our end of expedition final packing up and getting down. So when a Tibetan turned up with 3 yaks offering to carry some loads down the 22km to BC, we jumped at the chance. The only trouble was we could only muster 2 1/2 loads. The yak man suggested our bog barrel (our toilet is a blue plastic barrel to enable us to remove our human waste for proper disposal away from the mountain) but it was only 2/3 full so we said no thanks.

Anyway...first thing the following morning a somewhat distressed Phenden Sherpa appeared outside Tom's tent (legs crossed) saying someone had stolen the toilet! We informed the mountain police but they had nothing to go on!!! What on earth a Tibetan is going to do with a blue plastic barrel 2/3 full of human waste is anyone's guess. Maybe he has a large vegetable garden?!!!

The weather remains very windy but there is a lull expected around the 29th onwards into June. Our intention is to al move up to the North Col on the 27th, continuing up the mountain in stages with possible summit days on the 30th or 31st depending on conditions.

A few of us wandered across the glacier the other day to the Raphu La which overlooks the Kangshung Valley. From the pass you get fantastic views across the Kangshung Face of Everest, you can almost reach out and touch Makalu and over to the east you have Kangchenjunga and Jannu, quite spectacular.

All the best, Patrick

The team are made up of:

Non climbing members:

Dr. John Semple

Robbie the Chef

Climbing Sherpas:

Phanden Sherpa

Mingma Sherpa

Pasang Sherpa

Jangbu Sherpa

Climbers:

Tom Richardson

Ian Wade

Matt Sharman

Dan Short

Mick Bromley

Tim Mosedale

Ross Ash-Cregan

Stuart Holmes

All the British climbers are from or have strong links with Keswick in

the Lake District, Northern England. They are a private, non commercial, group of friends. They do not have much in the way of

technology so updates are by satellite phone and the occasional email courtesy of the Norwegians.

Updates

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