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 International Broad Peak Expedition 2004: Update | ||||||
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| Update 8: Dear EverestNews.com, My first summit attempt with Roze ended after just 50 meters from camp 3 when we could not see a trace of the trail anymore. We had a complete white out and the snow had hidden the trail. We went back to the tents and tried it again at 2 and 3 AM. Unfortunately we missed the good weather window by a day. The descent of all of us, three Italians, Mike, Roze and me was rather risky with the white out conditions and lots of fresh snow. We all made it safely to base camp. The Swiss in camp 2 descended the following day. It has become very quiet in base camp now. Basically everybody has left except for us. The weather forecast gives a five day window from Wednesday. Three of us (Bob de Kort, Menno Boermans and me) plan to go up tomorrow. Hopefully the snow conditions allow us to do a summit attempt... Thanks for all your great weather forecasts via our Thuraya SMS! Kind regards, Frits The web site update is below... August 1, Another summit attempt. It looks like Menno and Frits are going to try to assault the Broad Peak summit once again. Meteocosult mails us: “From Thursday the 5th on there will be a four-day window in sight for a new attempt for the summit.” Until that time there will be severe winds (10 bft at the summit), but from the fifth the winds will decrease and there won’t fall any more snow. That means that Frits and Menno are preparing depart from base camp on august 3rd or 4th. Bob will join them to camp 2 to support Menno and Frits by carrying supplies. He won’t go any higher because of his unpleasant experience with altitude sickness last week. Maybe Roland, Mike and Deb will join us for a last summit attempt. The other expedition members will for home within three or four days, depending of the arrival of the porters. Rooz will stay in Base camp. The conditions on the mountain are bizarre this year. We are of course pleased with the success of the two Australians of our team, but is especially sad that the six climbers who attempted to summit last week were so unlucky. Paul and Mick were simply lucky to have had good weather on the day of their summit attempt. The others not. Until now only two of the fourteen climbers of our team reached the summit. Only four people reached the summit this year. Neighbor mountain Gasherbrum II, normally the ‘safest’ 8000+ mountain is also very dangerous this year. Last week a climber lost his life when he fell of the summit. It is mainly because of the bad weather this year and that is a factor we cannot control. The “good weather period” lasted only five days (24th till 29th July): As it looks now, this was the only serious opportunity to reach the summit. On EverestNews.com, the website about expedition climbing even stated: “This years climbers on Broad Peak have the worst conditions ever.” But the statement of Meteoconsult about August 5th till 9th gives a little hope. If we don’t succeed then, it really is due to forces beyond our control. Then the summit isn’t allowed for us this year. Every climber can say they have given everything to climb this mountain. Maar de
mededeling van Meteoconsult over 5 tot 9 augustus geeft weer een beetje hoop.
Als het dan niet lukt, is het echt overmacht. Dan is de top ons gewoon niet
gegund. Alle klimmers kunnen stuk voor stuk zeggen dat ze alles gegeven hebben
om de berg te beklimmen. Information translated from www.demmeniesport.com/ by Laurent Zuijdwijk for EverestNews.com
Background: International Broad Peak Expedition 2004 Mr. Roland Hunter Broad Peak 8047m Coming on 15/6/2004
Bios on some of the climbers:
Frits Vrijlandt (36), climbed
everest via the Notrthridge, the Seven Summits and many other peaks around the
world.
Leaders: Roland Hunter (UK) and Paul Walters (Aus) Jeff Lamo (US) Deb Robertson (US) Nick Stopford (UK) Pippa Curtis (UK) Gary Pfisterer (US) Simon Williams (New Zealand) John Dunlop (Aus) Frits Vrijlandt (NL) Roze Vrijlandt (NL) Bob Kort (NL) Menno Boermans (NL) Mick Parker (Aus)
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