Avalanche Update and Icefall Incident (updated)

UPDATE: In a statement by climber David Klein on www.expeditions.hu, cheap he and his partner Laszlo Várkonyiii were involved in the avalanche and Laszlo is still missing. This is the direct link in Hungarian: http://www.expeditions.hu/ Then use Google for a rough translation http://translate.google.com/#

I received an email overnight from Duncan Chessell of Chessell Adventures. He is leading an expedition along with Adventure Dynamics on the north. Jamie McGuinness of Project Himalaya, passed through Duncan a first hand account of yesterday’s accident on the North Col.

As of now one climber is still missing. Here is his account as he sent it in full:

Hi Alan,

I have just spoken to Jamie McGuinness who actually saw the accident from a distance of 100m, he was just below the two Hungarian climbers when at 12:20 pm 26th April 2010, Nepal time a small serac in the middle section of the North col route collapsed sending down ice debri across about a 30m front.

Those who know the route will remember the section as about half height on a slight rising left to right traverse section which is fairly easy going and one of the flattest sections of the route.

The debri was ICE, not rock, not slab avalanche. It was not extensive but with so many climbers on the route even a small block can be deadly.
Unfortunately two climbers where struck, the fixed ropes for 30m-50m pulled out and one was swept down slope into a crevasse which was then filled in with ice debri. The other climber was injured (torn backpack and harness!) and was evacuated to ABC but was in good enough condition to call family on the satellite phone – no other update on his condition. A third Hungarian team mate in the Asian Trekking party had already returned home via Kathmandu for reasons unknown.

The ONE missing climber is presumed dead but until now their is not final confirmation.

Increasing snow falls and disturbed weather and another smaller chunk of ice falling has deterred others from using the route until now except for the people already above who walk quickly down through this section. The Chinese/Tibetan mountaineering school tasked with fixing the ropes will assess the situation and make necessary repairs or re-route the ropes from later today.

None of our climbing team or Sherpas have been injured. ALL western members (Chessell Adventures and Adventure Dynamics) are either at ABC or BC. ALL our Sherpas are carrying loads to 7,900m as we speak and have been staying at the north col for the last couple of nights ferrying loads to the high camps in mixed conditions ahead of a snow event of unknown quantity expected to hit late on the 28th April. We are expecting our Sherpa team to descend on the 28th April to ABC and BC for a rest for 3-4 days whilst the weather settles some what and we can take stock of the North Col situation and any other issues that might arise with a possible 3 day snow storm in terms of potential avalanche conditions. We have plenty of time and will tread carefully on our way to the summit.

Duncan Chessell

From Rogbuk BC  5,200m
Expedition leader Chessell Adventures/ Arun Treks 2010 Everest

Over on the south, the Icefall continues to be tricky with a small incident that did not hurt any climbers but created a period of anxiety. Bili Bierling with Himex made this post:

Sunday was a full-on day for the Himex team with the day starting off with a serac collapse in the Khumbu Icefall, which fortunately did not cause any injuries or affected anybody directly, even though dozens of Sherpas were on their way to Camp 2. At around 4.30am, both Russell and ‘Narly’, one of the Himex guides who was ‘on call’ that day, noticed an increase in the radio traffic. It became clear pretty quickly that something had happened in the icefall and when Russell and Ang Jangbu from IMG tried to establish radio contact with other teams, however, no other teams responded.

After about 45 minutes of back and forth, the two teams established that nobody was hurt and that the Sherpas, who were moving through the icefall, where either above or below the place where the ice blocks had collapsed. “It was very frustrating that we could not talk to anyone else on the radio as we really needed more information on who was in the icefall. It is amazing to see that there is thousands of dollars worth of communications equipment talking to the outside world, but there is very little effort put into establishing reliable local communication for safety,” Russell, who always has his radio on 24 hours a day, said.

The Sherpas, who were below the collapse, re-established the route pretty quickly as they wanted to continue to get their loads to Camp 2.

As sad as the north col incident is, it is not unusual and part of climbing the high mountain climbing. My sincere condolences again to the missing climber’s family, teammates and friends.

Climb On!

Alan

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13 thoughts on “Avalanche Update and Icefall Incident (updated)

  1. Dear Alan,

    is there any fresher news?We are still hoping that Konyi will be found.
    Julianna

  2. The victim was László Várkonyii, Hungarian climber.
    He was born in 1956, he was one of the most experienced Hungarian climbers,.
    He climbed the Cho Oyu, the Sisha Pagma and he keeps the Hungarian height record without oxygen, with height of 8770 m on Everest.

  3. I wasn’t able to read the comment from Hungary but I did read your update, Alan, and I am hoping that Konyi is found and survives. We shared BC and ABC with David and Konyi in 2007. They are very strong and experienced climbers. My thoughts are with them and their families.

  4. David Klein and Laszlo Varkonyi the name of Hungarian climbers. David Klein is well, but Laszlo….

  5. Communication is a key element in any high risk senario,isn’t there a intergrated class,online or somthing to help teams to become more informative and respond quickly to other teams?This could support a closer to real time assesment of accidents,therefor making it quicker to make a rescue more likely as well as any recovery efforts.Time is essential on everest in all aspects.How ironic that the last post was about the clear and present danger always existing on everest.

  6. Dear Sirs, my brother Marco Chiantore (Italian), is with Asian Trekking North Eco Everest team, we have no news about his whereabouts after the icefall incident. If somebody gets in touch with him please contact me: chiantor@yahoo.com (+39 339 3588778).

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