Finally Back at the ABC

The sun woke me up in the morning and shortly after two load carriers came to help us with all that equipment from the three altitude camps we brought down with Jan the previous day. If I try to sum it up, Jan took 20 kgs yesterday by himself from the deposit camp to the ABC. Today, three of us still carried each some 15 kgs. The total sum we carried with Jan the day before from C1, quite a load then. At a normal pace we reached the ABC by the noon. On the way I met another mountaineers and learned that a Slovak climber was missing. 200 vertical meters under the summit he broke from his fellow who continued up and since then he had been missing. I recalled that also us were thinking what to do and if and how to continue some 200 vertical meters from the summit. Other mountaineers in the ABC told us that our decision was right, even to give up more tries and pack up our altitude camps. For the following seven days the weather forecast showed rain over Shisha Pangma. At the end of the day our cook lifted up my spirit with some warm and non-instant chow. The yaks were to come the other day.