SA hovering at the peak
2003-05-22 12:18
Johannesburg - The South African team trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, were still to decide on Thursday whether they would make another attempt.
The team was forced down the mountain by high winds on Wednesday when they were within 300m of the top, said their publicity team said.
Rosemary Renton said the last communication with the team had been at 07:00 on Thursday. Not all the members were yet back at base camp (5 300m).
"At base camp, you don't have to use oxygen and you can eat better. When they are all there, they will reassess the situation," she said.
When the team gave up, the 300m still to be traversed to the top of the 8 850m mountain would have taken them five hours in life-threatening conditions.
TV broadcast from the top
The team, approaching the summit from Nepal, are climbing its southern side.
A joint Chinese-South Korean team, climbing the northern face from Tibet, reached the summit on Wednesday and made a live television broadcast from there.
SA team leader Alex Harris, Sean Disney and Robin Walshaw had reached their highest point, at a location called "the balcony", when they met Sherpas descending because of bad weather. They decided to turn around.
The other members are Sean Wisedale, David Ker and Deshun Deysel. Deysel hopes to be the first black woman to reach the top of the Himalayan mountain.
According to reports, more than 60 teams, comprising 207 climbers, were hoping to conquer the peak this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa's first ascent of Everest on May 29 1953.
More than 1 200 climbers have reached the summit since then, and nearly 200 have died on its slopes.
To mark the golden jubilee of the peak's conquest, veteran mountaineers involved in some of the earlier attempts are gathering in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, next week.
Among them are Hillary and Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the summit - in 1975. Tenzing Norgay died in 1986.
- SAPA