Dhaulagiri Tragedy. In December, three men disappeared on ...

D haulagiri Tragedy. In D ecem ber, three men disappeared on D haulagiri w ho were attem pting a w inter ascent by the norm al northeast ridge. Four A m ericans and two C anadians, w hose leader T im othy Brill did not even reach Base Cam p, were apparently m ore a collection o f people interested in scaling D haulagiri than a team . The clim bing leader Jim Yoder left after som e days of clim bing. He w ent back to K athm andu, not having been able to acclim atize. The rest pushed on to C am p II at 5800 m eters. T hree descended from there w hile three more presum ably clim bed to Cam p III at 6400 m eters. A fter those that descended had reached Base Cam p, the two C anadians departed for hom e. W hile Joseph C ain stayed there, the two A m ericans still on the peak, G regory B arber and Scott M cG rath, and their only clim bing Sherpa N uru W angchuk rem ained at C am p III at 6400 m eters, determ ined to continue the clim b. T here follow ed a nine-day snow storm . C ain w aited out the snow storm at Base Cam p and then scanned the m ountain for signs o f the m en above. B efore the prolonged snow fall, he thought he had been able to see Cam p III and the cache of equipm ent above it, but now he could see neither the cam p, the cache nor any indication that there was anyone anyw here on the m ountain. They had taken no radios with them and so could not com m unicate. C ain had to return hom e and w hen he left, only a Sherpa cook and helper rem ained there. They dism antled the cam p a few days later and w hen Yoder and one o f the C anadians cam e back from K athm andu, they found absolutely no one. E l iz a b e t h H a w l e y