from Stu in the USA office
14th September 2009
Chris has called in to let me know that all is well and the team has established C1! Yesterday Chris, Italo, Veronika and our two HAP's Raj and Thapa made a load carry to C1 and established the camp at approximately 5400m. After a rest day today they plan to move up to C1 tomorrow. They are planning for a first summit bid on the 21st of September if all goes well and the weather holds. After many days of snow they are having perfect days now and the reports are for at least 4-5 days of good weather ahead. we will revisit the weather each day and hope it holds!
Tom has unfortunately not been feeling well and fighting a GI battle for a week and as such had determined he is not strong enough to make a safe attempt and went back down to Bhujbasi yesterday and reached Gangotri today. Tom called in a short while ago to let me know all was well and that he plans to rest up, enjoy some days in Gangotri and then head off on a few great treks until the team comes out. It is always hard to decide when enough is enough and it sounds like Tom has made a very wise choice. We'll hope he has a great adventure trekking and look for him to have a more healthy time from here on in.
Chris has also left a new audio dispatch and he goes into some detail about the teams movement as well as the story of the evacuation of a group of stranded trekkers who were trapped by the heavy snow snowfall over the last week! He said that they were plucked off the hill by some great flying by the indian army. Chris was not sure what kind of choppers they are and they may be the following.
http://www.army-technology.com/projects/dhruv/
Field Touring Alpine Audio Dispatches #34 - 13th Sept - Satopanth BC reached and C1 established
Chris calls in from BC with an update on the climb. Three members (chris, Veronika and Italo) and 2 HAPs (Raj and Thapa) have established C1 already! One member (Tom) was not feeling great and has gone down back to Gangotri to recuperate and will do some trekking til the rest of the team comes down.
Listen to all FTA dispatches at Gabcast
Chris says the mountain and route are stunning and we'll look forward to a great slide show on the site when the expedition is concluded!
more news as we have it!
stu
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