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Jon accepts a place on Rob Hall's Everest expedition
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Jon arrives in Kathmandu
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members of the Adventure Consultants (Rob Hall) expedition leave Kathmandu
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team resumes trek towards Base Camp
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Jon, Lou, and Doug visit Tengboche
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team reaches lower end of Khumba Glacier (16 000 ft); Jon begins to feel effects of the altitude (light-headed, constantly fighting for breath)
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Rob & Mike head to Base Camp to coordinate Tenzing's rescue; John, Lou, and Andy have some kind of intestinal ailment; Helen has an altitude-induced headache; Jon has a bad cough
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team leaves Lobuje at 9:00am
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team reaches Phantom Alley by mid-afternoon
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team reaches Base Camp (17 600 ft)
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Jon has vertigo, insomnia, feels like he is suffocating, has no appetite, and cuts & bruises aren't healing; Andy, Mike, Caroline, Lou, Stuart, and John have gastrointestinal distress; Helen and Doug have severe headaches
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Jon turns 42; team prepares their climbing equipment
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team heads towards Camp One; Jon reaches the top of the Khumba Icefall around 8:30am; team turns around to go back to Base Camp at 10:00 am; Rob, Frank, John, Doug, and Jon are the only ones who made it to Camp One
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Jon comes across two dead bodies; Jon suffers severe headache and has no appetite
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Ngawang comes down with HAPE in Camp Two; Schoening & Madsen start bringing him down while Neal and some Sherpas head up from Base Camp; Neal brings Ngawang back to Base Camp
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Ngawang evacuated by helicopter to Kathmandu
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team leaves Base Camp for Camp Two; 1-2 members of each expedition were to put up ropes on the Lhotse Face (not completed)
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team leaves Camp Two for Camp Three; Rob orders team to return to Camp Two because of a storm
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team leaves for Camp Three again (after the storm); Jon arrives at Camp Three in the late morning
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Jon has lost 20 lbs; he has little subcutaneous fat and a torn thoractic cartilage from his cough
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Scott Fischer (Mountain Madness) appears anxious and extremely tired
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both teams leave Camp Two; boulder falls & smashes into Andy's chest; teams arrive at Camp Three; Lou & Frank were very slow; teams are given oxygen
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Chen Yu-Nan falls down the Lhotse Face; rest of the Taiwanese team leave him in a tent while they depart for the South Col; Chen is escorted to Camp Two; Breashears contacts Makalu on the radio to tell him that Chen has died
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teams head for Camp Four; Bruce Harrod (South African team) is in trouble (extremely hypothermic)
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Adventure Consultants & Mountain Madness teams leave for the summit
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Frank decides something doesn't feel right and turns back to Camp Four; Doug tries to turn back but Rob Hall persuades him to continue climbing
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Mike tells Ang Dorje and Jon that they are too far ahead of the others and have to wait; able to resume moving at 4:15am
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Rob orders Jon to stay there until the whole group has gathered at that point
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Lopsang had been carrying Sandy Pittman's satellite phone (80lbs) and then he was short-roping Sandy
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no ropes have been fixed ahead of time so a bottleneck occurs at 28 000 ft; Neal helps to fix the ropes; Yasuko almost kills Neal (by accident through eagerness and inexperience; Mike intervenes just in time
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members of Hall's team have to constantly wait for the Taiwanese team because they are travelling very slowly
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Jon finds an even worse bottleneck
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it is too far to the summit for them to reach it by teh designated turn-around time (1:00-2:00pm); Jon reaches the Hllary Step (he figures his oxygen will run out around 2:00pm)
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Jon takes photos of Andy then they begin to descend; they pass Neal and Martin just below the summit; Jon notices wispy clouds in the valley to the south; they have to wait at the Hillary Step
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Anatoli also reached the summit already
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Andy accidently opens Jon's oxygen valve completely & Jon's oxygen runs out; Jon starts becoming hypoxic
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Jon spends more than an hour at 28 900 ft without supplemental oxygen; Jon asks Andy to bring him a fresh canister after noticing Andy sorting through a pile of oxygen bottles at the South Summit; Andy says they are all empty; Mike ends up giving Jon his oxygen bottle
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there were at least 6 full bottles of oxygen at the South Summit; Andy refused to believe it though; Andy's regulator may have been clogged with ice which would explain his "lack of lucidity"
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Jon & Mike look at each other after Andy is telling them there is no oxygen available; they grab a couple full bottles and begin heading down the mountain
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clouds worsen, snow begins to fall, conditions worsen - Jon & Mike wait for Yasuko at the bottom of the rock steps on the Southeast Ridge; Mike is looking after Yasuko; Rob & Andy are looking after Doug; Scott & Lopsang start descending the mountain
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Jon encounters Beck; Beck is shivering uncontrollably and can't see; he had promised Rob he would wait there for Rob to return; Jon asks Beck to come down with him but Beck refuses
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Rob refuses to leave Doug
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Rob & Doug urgently need oxygen; Andy has incorrectly told Rob that the bottles at the South Summit are empty; Mike tries to correct this but his radio is malfunctioning
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Mike & Yasuko arrive at the Balcony; Martin is disoriented and badly off-route; Mike finds Beck and starts belaying Beck down; Mike is finally able to tell Rob that there is oxygen at the South Summit; Sandy collapes & Charlotte gives her a shot of Dex; Neal orders Lene to exchange oxygen bottles with Sandy; Jon has trouble figuring out the correct route down because the wind has erased all the tracks; large crashes of thunder
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Andy pleades with Lopsang to help him take oxygen up to Rob and Doug; Lopsang refuses; this is the last time Rob & Doug are seen (they were at the top of the Hillary Step)
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Lopsang sees Andy heading toward Rob & Doug; Scott is struggling on the Southeast Ridge; Tim notices how tired Scott appeared
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Rob refuses to leave Doug
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Jon runs out of oxygen; Lopsang catches up with Scott; Scott complains about being really sick; Makalu and his two Sherpas overtake Scott and Lopsang
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tents are only intermittently visible; Jon thinks he sees Andy who turns away and moves over the ice slope; Jon thinks he then sees Andy within 60 ft of the tents
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Jon is exhausted and collapses into his tent
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Neal leads the group to the South Col; only 3-4 people have working headlamps now; Charlotte is relying on Tim for help; Yasuko & Beck are unable to walk without support; they are unable to find the tents
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Scott can no longer walk and tells Lopsang to continue on; Lopsang initially refuses and stays with them for an hour; finally Lopsang heads down; Lopsang gets off-course and has to correct himself
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Neal's group has unwittingly strayed to the easternmost edge of the Col (by an 7000 ft drop down the Kangshung Face); group huddles to keep warm; Sandy is hysterical
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Anatoli has no luck and turns around at 9:00pm because of the weather
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Stuart tries to wake Jon to ask Jon to go outside with him to bang on pots and shine lights in the hope of guiding lost climbers; Jon is too weak and incoherent
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Klev thinks he knows where the group is in relation to Camp Four; Neal, Klev, Lene, Mike, and two Sherpas stumble off to get help; Tim volunteers to stay with the 4 incapacitated people
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Yasuko refuses to take off her mask so it is gradually suffocating her; Beck can no longer walk on his own; Neal catches up with them and sees Mike struggling with Yasuko and Beck; Mike deals with Beck and Neal deals with Yasuko
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Anatoli goes out looking for the rest of the group; Tim is unconscious; Charlotte and Beck are utterly helpless; Yasuko appears dead; Anatoli helps Charlotte back to Camp Four then returns for Sandy and Tim; Yasuko is dead and Beck was considered a lost cause
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Rob is heard saying something like, "Keep moving! Keep going!"
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Rob is at the South Summit; Doug nor Andy are with him anymore; Rob says his legs no longer work
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Rob and Jan are able to talk for the last time
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Cotter asks Rob if the sun has reached him yet; Rob says almost; Stuart manages to wake Jon and tells Jon that Andy is not in his tent; Jon tries to retrace Andy's steps and discovers tracks that indicate Andy may have fallen down the Lhotse Face
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Rob had spent 16+ hours abover 28 700 ft without supplemental oxygen; Rob says he is about to descend
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Jon spends an hour looking for Andy Harris
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Lou was delirious and snow-blind; Frank was in a state of shock; John & Mike appeared unconscious; Jon is unable to find any full or partially full oxygen canisters
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Stuart does his best to rise to the occasion; he organizes a team of four Sherpas to find the bodies of Beck and Yasuko
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both bodies were partially buried; only their hands and feet are sticking out; Stuart chips a 3" chunk of ice from over the face of the first body and finds Yasuko; Yasuko is still breathing; Beck is discovered to still be alive too; Sherpas told Stuart to leave Beck and Yasuko as they would die before anyone could get them to Base Camp
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Neal wanted the group to leave immediately; he felt staying at 26 000 ft any longer than necessary was asking for trouble
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Breashears thinks the members of Mountain Madness look like they were in a 5-month war when he sees them enter Camp Three; they all appeared to be in severe shock
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jsut before dark, a rock hits a Sherpa on the head and knocks him unconscious; the Sherpa started sliding down the rope; Klev manages to stop the Sherpa's fall; a 2nd rock hits the Sherpa; Neal is able to lower him to the bottom of the Lhotse Face; Sherpa's carry him to Camp Two
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Breashears orders suspension of filming in order to direct all of the expedition's resources towards a rescue effort; radios Jon about spare batteries in the IMAX tents on the Col; offered 50 canisters of oxygen at the Col meant for their team; put his $5.5 million film project in jeopardy without hesitation
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Burleson (who had come up to Camp Four with Athans to distribute oxygen bottles) noticed someone coming into camp; bare right hand and grotesquely frostbitten outstretched like a mummy in a low-budget horror film; person turned out to be Beck
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Sherpas had to leave Scott on a ledge at 27 200 ft but brought back Makalu
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Anatoli heads up alone to try to save Scott; he finds him at 7:00pm; Scott's oxygen is empty; his hands are completely bare; his down suit is unzipped and pulled off his shoulder; one arm was outside the clothing; Anatoli leaves Scott on the ledge
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Rob is calling for help; Jon is told that Beck and Yasuko are dead and that Scott is missing; IMAX team asks Ian Woodall (South African expedition) if they can use their higher powered radio so a rescue could be coordinated; Woodall refuses; Jon later finds out that he saw Martin Adams not Andy Harris
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Jon gives Stuart his oxygen; Jon notices one unoccupied tent has blown completely off the Col; Ang Dorje is crying inconsolably over the loss of Rob
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believing Rob, Andy, Doug, Scott, Yasuko & Beck dead, Mike assembles Stuart, John, Lou, Frank, and Jon to descend; Jon volunteers to bring up the rear (due to the absence of another guide); Jon discovers Beck still alive in his tent; Jon, on the orders of Caroline, leaves Beck in the care of Pete and Todd
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Jon arrives in Camp Two; the team's mess tent had been transformed into a makeshift field hospital
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Jon is drinking tea when six Sherpas bring Makalu into a tent; doctors begin working on him
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Breashears and his companions were bringing Beck down alive; Jon starts climbing up to meet the rescue party; Beck is moving under his own power (although assisted with a short-rope)
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Cotter requests Jon to go to the tip of the Icefall to try to find a level area that could serve as a helicopter landing pad
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group arrives back at Base Camp; Cotter and Caroline meet Jon and the others at the edge of the glacier; Cotter hands Jon a beer, and Caroline gives Jon a hug; Jon breaks down and starts crying like a little boy
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Neal presides over the memorial service at the Mountain Madness encampment
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Charlotte and Mike are flown out by helicopter due to their badly frostbitten feet
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group is then flown to Kathmandu; they are faced with a throng of reporters
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Jon has two duffels of Doug's belongings to return to teh people who loved him; Jon is met at the airport in Seattle by Doug's children, his girlfriend and other friends and family