Mount Everest, Attempts, Ascents, and Tragedies in the Post-Monsoon. This autumn was the first major season (spring or autumn) since the spring of 1987 that no one was on the South Col route. Four Nepalese permits had been granted, two for the Col, one each for the West Ridge and the Southwest Face, but one British Col team hadn't been heard from by its trekking agency for two years, the other had to back out because they could not find enough funds, and the West Ridge party of Yugoslavs also apparently couldn't raise the money they needed. That left another South Korean team all alone on the southwest face, although they shared basecamps and the route to the second high camp with a Spanish-South Korean Lhotse expedition, and they managed to succeed about four hours after two other South Korean teams summitted from the north side.

Elizabeth Hawley