August 22, 2000

Just a little frost nip!
E2001 team backin Almaty safe except for alittle frost nip on one of Rozani's fingers. No serious attempt was made on Khan Tengri in the latter stages of the expedition owing to too much snow. We made an attempt on Bayankol Peak Aug 13-15 but a second round of deep snow scratched that climb as well. We got close to Karly Tau's corniced summit and then elected to stop at that point. Putting more weight on a summit which is essentially a huge cornice was not our idea of a smart move.

Altogether. about 1.5 m of snow fell in the last 10 days of our expedition

The seriousness was underlined by the death of a German climber on the route 2 weeks ago. He fell from between C1 and C2 while on the fixed ropes.

Nevertheless we are inspired by the tremendous Russian climbers we have met including members of a successful North face KhanTengri team and of the 1997 Makalu West Face team.

Back in Singapore Aug 25th

Regards,
Dave, Beng Cheong and Roz
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