EVEREST NORTH FACE SKI EXPEDITION 1997

Contents

[Ski Everest Home]
Front page for the Skiing Everest Cybercast

[UPDATES]
Climbers call from Everest on a sat-phone

[The North Side]
Climbing guide Eric Simonson describes the Northeast Ridge Route

[Meet the Team]
The 1997 Everest Ski Expedition members

[EVEREST '97]
Rich multimedia cybercast from Everest

[Sponsors]
Companies that supported this effort


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"Into Thin Air"
by Jon Krakauer

An epic, first-hand account of the 1996 tragedy.


"Everest"
by Walt Unsworth

Thorough compilation of historic climbs, triumph and tragedy.


"Everest Map"
by Brad Washburn

National Geographic centennial map, Washburn's Everest map and more.


"Everest: The West Ridge"
by Tom Hornbein

The pioneering ascent by Unsoeld and Hornbein.

[The Mountain Zone]
More stories from The Mountain Zone

Updates From Everest

Click here to get the FREE Real Audio Player to hear sat-phone calls.
Craig Calonica
Calonica

Swiss and Colombians up on the Mountain
Friday, September 26, 1997
(Everest North Face advance base camp, Tibet)

Audio [Click to hear the sat-phone call.]


Transcript:
Hi, it's Craig Calonica, Friday the 26th, 5:45 pm at Everest North Face advance base camp.

Today, or actually about 2 am yesterday morning, Jean Troillet and Stephan Shaffter and two of the Colombian boys went up and continued climbing through the night into the early morning to camp II. They're in a holding pattern right now due to some high winds and cold temperatures. I'm not sure, I think they're going to try to go again this evening and try to summit. We haven't heard from them yet, but we'll keep you posted on that and let you know.

It's extremely cold right now even without the wind. Last night was the coldest night on record so far: it was -16C, and throw in a wind of about 100 kilometers and it changes drastically.

Anyway, we went out and did some ice bouldering stuff and got a little bit of fine tuning with some of the equipment and some photos and what not. We'll be sending some of those soon. And tomorrow we're going up to the North Col, weather permitting, come back down, go back up the next day, spend the night, go up toward camp II, do some skiing back down to camp I, come down, get a few days of rest, and then go for it. Hopefully the weather will hold.

It's been pretty nice with the exception of the wind and the coldness. Anyway, that's about it for today and I hope everyone is doing well back home. This is Craig Calonica from the advance base camp on Everest. Bye.

— Craig Calonica

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