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The whole team returned to ABC today at 21,000'-and-change here on the upper slopes of the Rongbuk Glacier. Everybody's doing well, and we're psyched for the final chapter of our expedition.

					"By the time they started down, the clouds had enveloped the mountain, and it was snowing hard. They had an exceptionally difficult descent in the wind and blowing snow, without oxygen, exhausted and tired..."

We have, however, a developing story to report to you that has transpired over the last two days, and it looks like we are going to become involved. This story pertains to the Ukrainian team that we climbed with early in the expedition. In fact, they were the second expedition to the mountain this year, and they helped us several times fixing ropes, and we became good friends with them. The leader of the Ukrainian team was on the Peace Climb in 1990, and Robert Link and I had met a number of the Ukrainian climbers as well in 1997 on our Cho Oyu climb. So they're good friends of ours, and we've had a good relationship with them on this climb.

The Ukrainians are a very bold team. They are climbing without oxygen. They are very experienced and very strong in the typical Eastern European fashion—very much the hard men of the mountain. And they pushed on up over the last few days into High Camp and reached their High Camp the night of the 7th. Even though the weather hasn't been really very good lately, they were committed to their climb, and since they didn't have oxygen, they couldn't wait at High Camp at 8300m, so they pushed on the next morning—that would have been the 8th—for the summit.

The 8th was not a particularly good day. There was a big plume blowing off the top in the morning. There were clouds building up during the day. They pushed on and reached the summit without oxygen in the early afternoon. However, the group had become split up, and they ended up waiting for quite some time for everybody.

By the time they started down, the clouds had enveloped the mountain, and it was snowing hard. They had an exceptionally difficult descent in the wind and blowing snow, without oxygen, exhausted and tired. The last contact from them was at 7 o'clock in the evening from the First Step, and at that time, they were having a lot of trouble.

As it turned out, one climber ended up making it back to camp, but the other two ended up bivouacking somewhere around the First Step. During the night it snowed more—high winds—just a dreadful night to be out, especially without oxygen in an open and unprotected bivouac above 28,000' up on the upper Northeast Ridge.

The next day, several of their climbers climbed up to help, and ultimately, one of the two who bivouacked was able to, with assistance, make it back down to the high camp. The third climber has yet to be found and is presumed dead.

					"We have a Sked stretcher, and we also have a lot of extra rope...The word is that one of them has frostbite up to his knees, and we don't know about the other one..."

We haven't relayed this story until today because we wanted to talk to the Ukrainians in person and make sure that the word had gotten out to the Ukraine and that we were not breaking the news. And they said that, in fact, the people in the Ukraine had been notified and that it wasn't a secret. So we feel that we can, with clear conscience, go ahead and report this story.

The two climbers spent last night again at 8300m. This would have been their third night at or above 8300m without oxygen. Now they're on their way down. A number of teams have pitched in to help, and rescues such as this—it really does bring out the best and worst in the various expeditions. Some expeditions have donated their oxygen and their Sherpas and other expeditions have refused to help at all. One group of Sherpas demanded $200 per person to help with the rescue. It's really become quite interesting.

But to make a long story short, our team has committed to helping. And we're in fact right now putting together a rescue team to go to the North Col during the night tonight to meet these climbers as they come back down, and we are prepared to do the technical lowering from the North Col. We have a Sked stretcher, and we also have a lot of extra rope. And we'll be doing a technical rescue off the North Col during the dark tonight bringing these two badly, badly frostbitten Ukrainian climbers down.

The word is that one of them has frostbite up to his knees, and we don't know about the other one. But it sounds like it's quite a dreadful story unfolding right here on the north side.

We're on our way to the North Col tonight to involve ourselves in this technical rescue off Col. Hopefully, by tomorrow we'll have some news for you—hopefully good—that these guys have survived and that they'll at least be alive.

As for our plans right now, we've put everything on hold until this rescue concludes. I'm sure there'll be some pretty wasted people when this is all done. We're going to just have to re-evaluate here tomorrow and see how it looks.

So for the time being that's the story from ABC, and we'll hope to talk to you guys tomorrow. Eric Simonson reporting. Goodbye.

—Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

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