Team member Andy Selters has spent the last three days gathering facts about the incident.  He has recorded over 40 hours of interviews with more than 30 climbers using a digital audio recorder.  The team hopes to send some more photos in the next day or two, but the expedition that helped them send the last batch of photos is departing in the next day or two.  The satellite phone drops the signal before they can transmit data, so it has been very useful for audio communications, but not data communications.

 

The Italian climber, Marco Confortola, was very grateful for the help he received from the Sunny Mountain Chogori Expedition, George Dijmarescu, Rinjen Sherpa, and Mingma Sherpa in the decent from Camp 2 to base camp.  

 

We have some clarification of the activities the team was involved with early in the rescue operation.  Dave Watson was working with the Dutch and American teams to fix ropes to aid the injured Dutch climbers’ decent from Camp 1.  Chuck Boyd and Andy did shifts manning the radios at base camp.

 

The Korean tents have been taken down and the garbage was burned.  The evacuation continues and the team continues to evaluate what they will do next.  It was a beautiful morning, but the weather is unsettled and the team is still resting.

 

 

 

Base camp is becoming a ghost town. We are collecting food and equipment from expeditions that are leaving. Once everybody is gone, the remaining teams are going to get together and decide on a plan for which route we are going to climb. Today the sky was full of helicopters as the Korean team evacuated from Broad Peak Base Camp leaving all their tents set up at K2.

 

 

 

The last injured climber came off the mountain and walked back to base camp today.  Andy and Chuck hiked up to advanced base camp to meet the group coming off the mountain and to walk back to base camp with them.  The weather was cold and damp with a mix of snow and rain coming down.  Base camp is busy with porters and horses arriving, and many people packing to head for home.  

 

The cold weather led the K2 Tall Mountain Expedition to combine their cook tent and their dining tent so they can benefit from the heat generated from cooking.