11:27 pm CDT May 20, 2006
According to reports from BC, Tomas Olsson’s body was discovered yesterday at about 6700 meters around 9:30 pm Bejing time. He was reported to have fallen about 2500 meters. The Sherpa who found him plan to lower the body 300 meters down the face to get him out of an avalanche zone and then chopper him out today.
Tomas website reported earlier today that 2 Sherpas, Fredrik Schenholm, Olof Sundström and Martin Letzer went on a search for the climber yesterday morning.
Tomas is the 8th casualty in the Everest area this year. So far, the north side has claimed 4 climbers, and the south side 3 plus one on the Lhotse face. All deaths have involved sherpas or independent (unguided) climbers:
Brazilian climber Vitor Negrete perished May 18 on descent after a no 02 summit. Vitor died only 2 days after learning that his team mate British David Sharp had vanished on his summit bid. Both climbers were outfitted by Asian trekking, and climbing the north side.
April 21, three Sherpas died in the Everest south side icefall: Ang Phinjo Sherpa was hired by IMG, Lhakpa Tseri and Dawa Temba were employed by Asian Trekking on an expedition listed as led by Douglas Tumminello & Apa Sherpa (Team No Limit) climbing the south side.
April 7 an un-named Sherpa reportedly working for "an American team" on Everest north side got sick in ABC and died of illness in BC. May 5 Czech climber Pavel Kalny fell to his death on the Lhotse wall.
In terms of difficulty, Everest north face, where Tomas Olsson fell on his ski descent attempt, is very different from the north ridge where the normal climbing route goes. The Great (Norton) Couloir has only been summited once; climbers who have been in the area say that the section is so steep that a fall not arrested by a rock is likely to end at the foot of the mountain, in deep soft snow.
The accident took place in the Norton couloir, about two hours after the climbers summited the mountain on May 16: In a call from the top, they had reported a very hard climb up in a 14 hour push through a snow storm. "I hope we will be strong enough to ski down the north face," Tomas said.
Tormod told Norwegian TV2Netavisen that Tomas fell when rappelling down a 150 ft rock cliff at around 8500 meters. The snow anchor broke off and Tomas is believed to have been knocked unconscious in the fall, continuing to slide down the wall.
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