Nth Col looking up

Looking back from N Col.

2, 4 litre oxygen bottles.

ABC 21st - 23rd May 2005.
    
Hi all,
The window seems to have appeared, in a concrete way at last. However, its still a few days away. The winds are clearly forecast to drop to almost zero kph between the 2nd and 4th of June but unlike last year the temperature is unlikely to rise much from the current -30 degrees. Its forecast to maybe improve to -22 degrees. Without a strong wind this is fine and unlikely to be too dangerous.
Over the last two or three days we have all experienced some emotional moments. A "half-window" appeared over the 21st and 22nd, which encouraged a number of groups to simply go for it. However, its a surprising fact that many of the groups here are "show up and see" climbers who have almost no support -i.e. no weather forecasting or even radios. Its staggering really. These groups simply try their luck when the weather seems to be looking good. Our forecasting has been excellent [we pay enough for it!] and has consistently forecast high-speed winds [60-90kph] and freezing temperatures [-30/-40] up high. This combination is a likely killer but will certainly cost you your fingers and toes. However, these groups have recently thrown everything at this window. The tragic consequences of this rush for glory has been the deaths of two climbers - yesterday the 22nd. They were both Armenian climbers, members of a "7 summits group". One was found dead in his tent at camp 4 after his oxygen ran out, and the second guy is still lying next to "Marks Rock", directly on the climbing route, 30 minutes below the summit. Thankfully his body cannot be seen through our telescope, but will definitely be there for me to step over when the time comes. His body, like at least half a dozen more from previous years, are simply lying en-route, unrecoverable owing to the extreme conditions at such altitude. Pretty unpleasant but thats what this mountain means. Its high - above 8000m is known as the "Death Zone" for good reason it appears. We understand that there have been quite a number of successful summits over the last few days, particularly amongst the Chinese and Indian teams, but we have been told that huge numbers of them are suffering from bad, limb-threatening frostbite.
They seem not to have had the right weather-forecasts that we appear to have. Hence our seemingly never-ending wait. Russell has stated many many times over the last few weeks that we will only go for it when he considers the conditions right. So far he has been startlingly right, and everyone here has been forced to bite their tongue and wait.
So we continue to wait. I climbed up to the foot of the Nth Col this morning, once plans to actually climb the Col had been scratched [owing to the number of infirm descending climbers], just for a little more exercise. I was back inside 2 hours before lunch - pretty relaxed. While I was there I took a couple of photos - one looking up the Col, and another looking back towards where I had come from [ABC]. I hope they transfer some of the scale and bleakness of the place. Its beautiful and terrible at the same time - human beings are not too welcome here.
The other photo is of two, 4 litre oxygen bottles weighing 3.8kg each, that I will be carrying on summit day - from camp 4 to the peak. As described previously they are of Russian manufacture and filled with, moisture-free aircraft grade oxygen. The oxygen in each bottle will last approximately 8 hours on a flow rate of 2 litres p/min [average flow].
Well, thats all the news to date, with the good news being that we have a decent window appearing on the 2/3rd June, which means my group probably leaving ABC for our bid on around the 29th May. Still a waiting game, but just a bit more solid.
More later,
DT.