Yesterday morning Sam and Alex were picked up by helicopter and brought down to Base Camp with Dan Mazur and the rest of the Summit Climb team. Right now they are in Lukla on their way to Kathmandu with Pat Mcknight and James Grieve.
Sorry about the silence yesterday but complete exhaustion overtook us here at ground control once we knew they were safe. It had been a long night for us all. They were up pre-dawn packing and waiting for the helicopter which couldn't get through the clouds and snow. At 2:30am UK time (7:15am in Nepal) I get an email from Pat's wife, Kathy saying that there wasn't enough visibility for the local Fishtail chopper. Could we find a larger one? Several anxious hours followed of ringing and emailing around the globe, but in the end @Global Rescue came true to their name, the weather gods smiled on us and in a small visibility window a heli was able to get through and bring all 17 of them and their gear down to Base Camp, 2 at a time. By about 1pm local time, they were messaging:
" We are in Basecamp. Got down just before the fog. Now searching for our stuff. Its a bomb site. Bits of gear over 100m away."
Dan's tweet paints a more sombre picture:
"Everest B C Return. Walk 30 min from helipad to BC: Nothing Left. 3 dead in neighbor camp. 5 dead on other side, 2 dead across. "
They knew nothing about what had happened in the rest of Nepal and are slowly coming to terms with not only the personal shock of everything they have been through, the death and destruction on Everest for the second year running but now:
"starting to hear about the devastation in the region. Hearts go out to everyone, Pleased we are no longer a distraction."
This morning they left Base Camp and hopefully they will be in Kathmandu within a few hours. I hope they can find that glass of wine!
SC
Sorry about the silence yesterday but complete exhaustion overtook us here at ground control once we knew they were safe. It had been a long night for us all. They were up pre-dawn packing and waiting for the helicopter which couldn't get through the clouds and snow. At 2:30am UK time (7:15am in Nepal) I get an email from Pat's wife, Kathy saying that there wasn't enough visibility for the local Fishtail chopper. Could we find a larger one? Several anxious hours followed of ringing and emailing around the globe, but in the end @Global Rescue came true to their name, the weather gods smiled on us and in a small visibility window a heli was able to get through and bring all 17 of them and their gear down to Base Camp, 2 at a time. By about 1pm local time, they were messaging:
" We are in Basecamp. Got down just before the fog. Now searching for our stuff. Its a bomb site. Bits of gear over 100m away."
Dan's tweet paints a more sombre picture:
"Everest B C Return. Walk 30 min from helipad to BC: Nothing Left. 3 dead in neighbor camp. 5 dead on other side, 2 dead across. "
They knew nothing about what had happened in the rest of Nepal and are slowly coming to terms with not only the personal shock of everything they have been through, the death and destruction on Everest for the second year running but now:
"starting to hear about the devastation in the region. Hearts go out to everyone, Pleased we are no longer a distraction."
This morning they left Base Camp and hopefully they will be in Kathmandu within a few hours. I hope they can find that glass of wine!
SC
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