Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sept 17 - Satopanth C2 reached!

From Stu in the USA office
September 17, 2009

Chris called in a short while ago to let us know that the team has reached C2 and will be spending the night there at 5965m. At this time the summit team will be Chris, Italo,Veronika and Raj with the remaining 2 HAP'S (Raj #2 and Thapa) carrying loads to support the push and then planning to meet the team as they descend on summit day.

Today they had an awesome day of climbing in deep snow and a combination of fixed lines, roped and unroped climbing. They are on the same schedule as an Indian Army team and apparently have a great time together!

Tomorrow they plan to fix the route to C3 along a knife edge ridge of steep snow and ice and then move up the following day. After a rest day on the 20th when they will prepare the lower part of the summit portion they will go for it on the 21st. The weather has been "bluebird" skies according to chris and the reports are for good weather well through the summit push - keep the fingers crossed!

Chris has stated several times that he thinks this is the most beautiful mountain he has climbed on and that this is his favorite climb ever! These are words that carry a lot of weight as Chris has climbed on Spantik. Ama Dablam, G2, K2, Broad Peak, Tharpu Chuli, Aconcagua and much more!! He is already excited to return to Satopanth next September so if you missed out this year and want to join Chris next year let us know!

Chris will post and audio dispatch tomorrow with the very latest!

stay tuned!

ps
many of you may have noticed our site has been on the fritz the last few days. please don't despair! we have replaced it with a mini version for the moment and we are working round the clock to undo some damage done by robotic hackers. This is apparently very common with sites using wordpress so we hope to have it all sorted out shortly!

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