The great weather that teams have experienced on Everest for the past week or so seems like it's nearing an end. Alan Arnette is reporting that winds have already begun to pick up on the North Side, and that teams have already aborted their summit bids and are turning back due to high winds. In the South, things remain good for now, but conditions can change quickly, so teams that are still on the mountain are making their final push as quickly as possible.
Summits continue however as the LUNGevity Team topped out yesterday and everyone is reported to be back in C2 safe and sound. The boys did report high winds at the summit though. Members of the DCXP Team also successfully summited, but reported quite a bit a snow as they approached the top too. Meanwhile, The Mountain Madness Team is at C3 and still going up, and if everything is going to plan The London Business School Team should be making their final run as well.
Both MountEverest.net and The Adventurist have posted more information on the female climber who was left behind by her team at The Balcony a few days back. It seems she was part of the Democratic Nepal Everest Expedition, and we know her name is Usha. It is clear that had the IMG Team not stopped to help, and Dave Hahn administered dexamethazone, Usha wold have died alone at 27,000 feet. After the "dex" injection, the team assisted her down to C3 where she was turned over to the doctors of the Extreme Everest Team.
I'm still amazed that her team simply abandoned her at The Balcony. I'm suret hat once this story hits the mainstream, you'll hear new outcries about the ethics of climbing. Lets just hope that they don't lose site of the fact that some very brave men and women preformed heroic rescues on both sides of Everest this season, and clearly the climate has been one of cooperation and safety first. We'll have to wait to see how a story like this is handled in the press though. Hopefully they'll get it right.
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