Summits!

Virtually the whole team summits

27 Sept: to C1 6363m

We trekked up from ABC to Depot camp, changed our boots, and climbed to C1.

Jamie, Mike, Greg, Ed, Chris, Simona, Scott and Warwick
The team in the Himalayan Hotel (the tent name!) at Camp 1 - Jamie

28 Sept: C1 rest 6363m

We rested at C1 to acclimatize. In the morning just after sunrise a Czech climber called for a doctor, but his brother was already dead. There was nothing we could do at this stage, other than help make a stretcher. A sobering morning.

Making a stretcher, Chris was the initiator, Warwick an able assistant - Mike Teger

29 Sept: to C1.5 6868m

The long crevasse up the second 'heartbreak hill' had changed and the snow was firmer, so a better, easier trail up.

30 Sept: to C2 7060m

Where we have our C1.5 is a little far from C3 and also more importantly not quite high enough at 6868m, so we moved to a place closer to C3 and at the right altitude.

1 Oct: C2/C3 tough decisions

The wind picked up, what do we do? Will it be too windy to put up other tents at C3? So we decided to split into two, a gamble for both teams. Mike, Ed K, Chris K and Jamie headed up to C3. It was windy when we arrived but we managed to get one more tent up in the shelter of the large Himalayan Hotel.

Dawa and Da'Yula fixed around 500m of rope above Camp 3, only coming back late in the afternoon with cold fingers.

2 Oct: C2 second team

Greg, Warwick, Scott and Bob stayed back at C2 watching the wind, and hydrating and resting. Simona, who was pushing hard, found she had reached her limit this time and returned to Camp 1. This was a real shame for our princess but some people adapt better to altitude than others, and she had been really sick in the beginning. She set a new altitude record for herself, and a new altitude sleeping record.

2 Oct: C3 team summit!

The night was gusty but the wind dropped just before sunrise. We set off at around 5:30am and the temperature was around -20ºC. Scott set off from Camp 2 at 1am, reaching Camp 3 around 4am, "waking us up", he said, but Jamie already had the water on and had been listening to the wind gradually drop.

What surprised most people was the steepness of the ridge climb. Many climbers from other teams swore they would not need our fixed ropes. They mostly ended up pulling more strongly on them than us.

Mike Teger, Chris Klinke, Scott Streett, Ed Kowalski with Da'Yula, Dawa Gelje and Jamie McG topped out on Shishapangma's Central summit around 1pm Nepal time.