“There’s so much to tell but I am running low on battery,” Tomas Petrecek reported yesterday from Muchu Chhish. Petrecek and Radoslav Groh were in Camp 3, meaning that they had retreated from 7,400m on the peak’s summit ridge, their high point the previous day.
They had hoped to reach the summit yesterday, but the word “summit” was not even mentioned in Petrecek’s texts. After three nights above 7,000m, he admitted that he was exhausted, with just 70% blood oxygen saturation and a heart rate over 100 while resting in his sleeping bag. According to previous reports, the altitude and the effort had affected Groh too.
The team reported bad weather for the last three days. Thick fog is making navigation impossible. Yesterday, they woke up to 15cm of fresh snow.
Retreating?
A third member of the team, Pavel Korinek, was on his way to join Petrecek and Groh after descending with a fourth sick partner. However, by Monday, he had been unable to meet up with the other two.
“He would have made it if he had not lost his way in the fog,” the team reported. By Monday night, Korinek had pitched his tent some 150m below his friends.
All the information suggests that they may be retreating, but we will wait for news to confirm the team’s location and plans. This is their third attempt to summit Muchu Chhish.
