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I just wanted to bring everybody up to speed on what's been going on the last couple days and give you a better idea of what we're up to. I know it's been really busy, and exciting, and hectic. Mountain Zone has been really busy between Pete Athans and his crew's successful summit a couple days ago and everything that's been happening with the Mallory & Irvine Expedition. We've all been really busy and working hard. So I've got to say, our rest days haven't been very restful.

					"We want to specifically address... again, for identification, was whether or not a DNA sample was taken. And the answer to this was 'yes'..."

Nonetheless, the plan is to head on up tomorrow, back up to ABC, with the Sherpas following us the next day—set ourselves up for our second round of searching and our summit bid over the next week. So I sure hope you'll be following us as we move on up the mountain. It's our intention to take the sat phone back up to ABC and hopefully be able to do some phone patches from higher up on the hill while we're climbing.

The other thing I wanted to do right now was to clarify a few odds and ends about what we found at the Mallory site just to set the record straight. I know there's been a lot of speculation and questions about various details, and for the record, let me just go through a couple odds and ends.

There have been questions about what, in fact, was found on George Mallory, and I know Dave, in his earlier dispatch, had indicated that that included a letter from his wife. At the time, we hadn't really had a chance to go through the letters very carefully, and subsequently, we have had a chance to look at them more closely.

For the record, there were several different letters from various family members. The handwriting on some of them is a little tough to read, and it's not entirely clear whether the letter from his wife was in fact from his wife, but we're working on that. There were letters from other family members as well, and they were all addressed to him, but it's a little hard to tell from the signatures on them who actually wrote them.

					"Another question is... whether we had given any thought to bringing the body down... and the answer to that, hopefully, should be obvious..."

There were other things too: some various notes and lists and different things which we will publicize later that are kind of interesting, but unfortunately, none of them are conclusive as far as whether he made the summit or not. In addition, we found a few other odds and ends. I think Dave mentioned the altimeter and the pocketknife. He also had a couple of monogrammed handkerchiefs with his G.L.M. initials on them and a couple other personal items.

Another question that's come up, which we want to specifically address, is, again, for identification, was whether or not a DNA sample was taken. And the answer to this was 'yes.' We took a small piece of skin from his forearm, and this was taken with the knowledge, and support, and permission of his family members. And this sample has already been taken back to England and is being processed in a laboratory. So we want the record clear on that, and that should hopefully take care of any question about who this person really was.

Another question was in regard to George Mallory's face and whether it was recognizable. And for the record, as I think everybody knows from Dave's dispatch, George was face down, looking uphill, and the whole body was exposed with the exception of the face which was not excavated. And the answer to that then is that we did not expose the face.

There's been several speculations about whether this was the body found by the Chinese climber in 1975, and again, the search team is adamant that this body was utterly undisturbed and had never been visited before. And we are confident that in fact this was not the 1975 body.

Furthermore, another question that has been asked was whether we had given any thought to bringing the body down, and the answer to that, hopefully, should be obvious, which is that we've given no thought whatsoever to bringing the body down. It would be neither practical nor appropriate to do so and, as Dave mentioned, it was buried after a short ceremony.

We have had several climbers here at Base Camp ask us for the exact position of the body, and we've not disclosed that because, as Dave mentioned, we don't want it to become a tourist stop. So between being reburied and not disclosed exactly where it is, we feel that it's unlikely that people will visit the site in the future or, at least, they'll have to work pretty darn hard to find it.

					"We have a lot still on our plate and it's our intention to go back up and give it the best shot we can..."

Finally, we would like to let everybody know that at this point, we're really focusing our attentions on the next week or two. Between the summit bid and the second round of searching, we have a lot still on our plate, and it's our intention to go back up and give it the best shot we can.

Everybody's really doing well. The team is really working well together and — absolutely no internal problems whatsoever. Everybody's really happy, and I'm really pleased to say that this is a team I'm really proud of and is working great together.

Finally we wanted to call attention to the fact that our film crew on the mountain has been working hard representing BBC and also PBS/Nova, and they have been shooting a lot of 16mm film, which, in addition to the high altitude footage that Dave and Thom are shooting, will be used to illustrate this trip in a TV documentary. So we're really looking forward to continuing to work with them on this.

Okay, I really want to thank all of our different sponsors as we prepare to go back up for our final round. And for the record, I'd just like to list them again. In addition to Mountain Zone and BBC and PBS/Nova, Lincoln, and Eureka!, Lowe Alpine, Mountain Hardwear, Vasque, Outdoor Research, Slumberjack—we've really worked with some great companies here, and without their help, this trip would not have been possible.

Thanks again. We'll look forward to talking with you again maybe from Advanced Base Camp. This is Eric Simonson at Rongbuk signing off.

—Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

Click for a Statement from George Mallory's Family

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