About expedition

The tragedy took place while descending to the base camp for the rest. Participants of the expedition Anatoli Boukreev, Simone Moro and a high-altitude cameraman Dmitri Sobolev were walking unroped on easy terrain. Boukreev was 200 meters below Moro, Sobolev was walking down below him. At the height about 6 000 m a big avalanche - almost 800 meters - felt down on the way climbers descended. Simone was tumbled a great distance and when he stood he saw no one, no bodies, nothing... He was battered called for twenty minutes, received no answer.

He walked to base camp in six hours at 7 pm on the 25th. The helicopter came the 27th. They tried to make a pass but clouds prevented them getting to Camp 1 which was located at 5500m. The cook and one porter remain at base camp. Simone was helicoptered out to the hospital in Kathmandu.

Today December 28th the manager of Anatoli - Linda went to Kathmandu. There will be a rescue helicopter. Relatives and friends hope that Anatoli and Dmitri are alive and could go down to the intermediate camp. Simone Moro also is going to take a part in rescue for he is the only one who can find the exact place of tragedy.

Unfortunately we did not yet publish the Anatoli's reports from Annapurna ascent and we are doing it now.

Anatoli Boukreev and Simone Moro. News. Annapurna ascent

12.12.97
On December 2nd we reached the height 4100 m by helicopter from Pokhara. Set a camp near the last lodge.
December 5th set the ABC camp at 5 000 m. There is enormous amount of snow this year. After snowfall the snow is 1,5 m deep. And again trying to reach ABC.
The idea is to climb the right Southwest ridge via summit of Mt.Fang. This route is the first passage. We are the 20th expedition trying this ridge. There was just one successful attempt to reach the top in winter - Kukuczka with partner by Erzog route from the North. From the South where we climb the top was reached by one big Japanese expedition in 1987 by Bonington route. Three climbers were on the top but two of them died during the way down. We'd like to finish in the end of December or in the beginning of January.
Anatoli.

18.12.97
Today we went down at 1760 m to have a rest in the village with hot springs. The unusual for Nepal weather was for two weeks. Snow covered everything up to 3,5 meters. We dig the tents and made a way to ABC. Lost two tents. Tomorrow we will go back to the base camp. We'll try to summit till January 16th, after that I hope to go to Alma-Ata. I have the invitation to Iran since February 5th and then to USA.
Anatoli.

martbsp@online.ru