The height of the mountain is irrelevant, it's the amount of oxygen available. David calls in from above Camp I, on their way to Camp II, and his voice breaks up in the powerful winds that are scouring the Western Cwm. We're a half hour from Camp II and when we get there we'll be shooting some establishing shots. And the moment of regret gets swept away by the work that we all have to do. For some reason, the morning hours have a depressing air to them.
Thoughts wander to the number of bodies that are lying on the route on the higher mountain.
It doesn't appear that they took the effort to remove the body, so that task will probably fall to us, if we get up there. We thought we were through with that last year, so once was enough, but we also have requests from the families to do what we can. Especially from Andy Harris' family, who would love to know, for their own peace of mind, where Andy's body is. And last year, I think we were all too affected by the tragedy to be acting coherently up there. But looking at the slides of Rob that we took later on, only for his family's use and our analysis, there's some kind of arm or elbow of some kind protruding a few feet from him.