Simonson

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Hello, this is Eric Simonson calling from Advanced Base Camp on Cho Oyu with a dispatch on what's been going on here. I want to, first off, say that everybody's doing fine in our team and that we're all safely back down to ABC. Over the last couple of days we've managed to retreat from the mountain and remove our gear from the higher camps. Our decision stands that we're going to abandon our climb of Cho Oyu in the face of unseasonably heavy snow and avalanche concerns on the upper mountain. We're all of the opinion that this is in our best interest and we're going to go ahead now and head on down.

We've ordered our yaks and they should be here within the next day or so and we'll be loading up and moving back down to Base Camp. Everybody in the team is in good spirits and for most of the team, this is their first 8,000m peak and I think everybody's come away with a real appreciation of what that means. It's been an adventure for all of us. We've had some great climbing, we've made some great friends and we've had a really exciting and interesting time.

However, we're not going to be taking the summit home with us on this trip and I think we all realize that that's just part of the way this game is played. Sometimes you make it and sometimes you don't and we all feel that safety is our number one priority, so rather than push it in marginal conditions, we're going to go ahead and bail.

Again, everybody's doing great and we'll be calling in again from somewhere on the way down the mountain - either Base Camp or somewhere in Tibet once we get on the road. We expect to be back in Kathmandu hopefully within the next few days. So that's the story here from ABC on Cho Oyu. All's well and thanks again to everybody for the interest in this expedition. It would have been really terrific for us to have been able to tell you all about our successful summit day, but that's not what 8,000m climbing is all about, as far as I'm concerned, necessarily. It's about coming home and being able to feel good about what you did and we all feel that way right now. Okay. Good-bye.

— Eric Simonson, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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