Mike and Don: Broad Peak 2005: No summits and Everyone's Alive

Update: No summits and Everyone's Alive

What a wild 48 hours. Being in Camp 2 during the main summit push was both a blessing and a curse. People were dead, then they weren't. People were missing, then they weren't. There were summits, then there weren't.

Summary: several reached the 'rocky summit' (8000+ m), a point along the ridge well short of the main summit. Nobody has traversed the summit ridge yet. The earliest arrival at the rocky summit was 3:30pm--far too late. And best of all, everyone's alive.

The Poles brought down their injured climber from 7600m in three days. Arthur was taken out by chopper today (July 25). Max (ITA) was finally tracked down by his partner after being listed as 'missing' for almost a day. Max clearly had HACE and is a very, very lucky boy.

Most climbers are leaving BC. A handful of us are staying, hoping for the weather window we need to make a serious attempt on the true summit. We'll know in the next couple of days.

I'll post some more analysis when the attempts end. Right now, I'm

focusing upwards. Mike

Updates

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