Written report translated from audio report:
“Namaste Everyone It is May 18 and I am now parked at the North Col, it’s a little lower than 23,000 feet. Yesterday we moved up from ABC finally to the North Col. We decided to move yesterday rather than the day before because we wanted to move the same day as the Chinese line fixers so we could know that they’re moving too. It was a long day. I had forgotten how hard it is going up the North Col, extremely hard. Very steep icy, a very tough climb. But Aboul, Doug and I all made it here. Got here about 3;30 in the afternoon. Doug and I are sharing a tent and Aboul is in his own tent.
It is morning here now and we are going to have some breakfast and then head on up to Camp 2 and we will sleep there tonight. That’s a long haul up, a very very long rolling snow field, quite steep. But its not icy and steep like the North Col is, so I am glad we are here. So that’s our plan, and then tomorrow morning we will head on up to Camp 3 and our plan is to summit on May 20. Coincidentally that is also the summit plans for Dawa Steven and David Liano on the south side, they’re moving up now too, so maybe we’ll shake hands on the summit. So that’s the plan right now.
Unfortunately yesterday I had my satellite phone in my backpack and it turned itself on and the battery is dead so I am down to my last battery, there is no way to charge because we don’t have solar panels here so I am going to have to be careful not to lose the battery power on the spare battery. My messages will have to be a little shorter and I can’t make some phone calls to home and friends that I had planned. So that’s where we are and everybody’s is doing well. We had kind of a miserable night sleeping, Doug and I did. The snow under the tent melted out so it was like sleeping in bathtub, but we got some sleep.
I came up the fixed lines on oxygen. I am glad I did that just to conserve energy, Doug and Aboul didn’t, they both did well. My next report will be from Camp 2 and I will probably call tonight or tomorrow morning, Bye.”