Survivors Prepare To Return Home
The Age
Wednesday May 21, 2003
Kathmandu
The three survivors of the Victorian police Himalayan expedition are preparing to fly home to Melbourne after the body of team leader Paul Carr was recovered yesterday from the slopes of Mount Cho Oyu on the border between Tibet and Nepal.
The body of Inspector Carr - who died during a blizzard near the summit of the world's sixth-highest peak last Wednesday - was being prepared for a flight to Australia after being brought back to Kathmandu by the crew of a Royal Nepalese Army helicopter.
``It's a great relief that it's all over. Now we get back home," Senior Constable Mick Harvey said.
``It's been a tough time for everyone."
A day after Senior Constable Harvey and fellow climbers Senior Detectives Jack Carmody and Nick Farr were rescued from near the advance base camp on the Tibetan slopes of Cho Oyu, the Nepalese helicopter flew back at dawn yesterday.
The Russian-built MI-17 aircraft, flying again at close to its altitude limits, touched down briefly on a ledge beside a glacier at a height of 5700 metres.
A team of Sherpa guides camped overnight at the landing site, about two kilometres from the base camp, after failing to cross the treacherous terrain of the glacier in time to meet Monday's mission that rescued the three surviving team members.
Senior Constable Harvey and Senior Detective Carmody were at the Kathmandu airport yesterday to meet two members of the Victorian police special operations group who arrived to help with arrangements to bring the body of the group's former chief back to Australia.
``We were really kicking ourselves when we failed to get Paul's body across in time for the chopper yesterday but now everything is fine," Senior Constable Harvey said.
He said it could be ``two days or a week" before the party flew back to Melbourne - depending on the time it took for staff at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan Teaching Hospital to prepare the body for travel and to complete bureaucratic formalities.
Senior Detective Carmody said he and his colleagues were anxious to get home to see Inspector Carr's family before talking about details of their ordeal.
``We really want to get back so that we can talk with Paul's widow about everything," he said.
The three spent Monday night at a hotel in Kathmandu after their first showers and proper meal in the month since they began their ill-fated expedition to Cho Oyu - a training run for a planned ascent of Mount Everest next year.
Australia's ambassador to Nepal, Keith Gardner, said: ``Yesterday was a pretty traumatic day for them but they are delighted that their colleague has finally been brought down. They were not going to rest as long as he was up there.
``This is a good outcome for the family of Inspector Carr. It will at least give them some closure on this tragedy."
The ambassador again praised the support of the Chinese and Nepalese governments in granting unprecedented approval for a Nepalese military aircraft to enter Chinese air space on a civil rescue mission.
The Chinese authorities gave approval for the flights after intensive secret diplomatic negotiations. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing telephoned Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile late on Sunday to confirm Beijing's assent to the mission.
Inspector Carr died after being caught for several days with Senior Detective Farr at an advance camp about 800 metres below the summit of the 8200-metre mountain.
He was the first Australian among 33 climbers to be killed since Cho Oyu, regarded as one of the least challenging Himalayan peaks, was first scaled in 1954.
Four Sherpa guides brought Inspector Carr's body back to the base camp late on Sunday after a two-day climb to the advance camp where he died. ``The Sherpas have done a very good job, but that's their role - they are professionals," Mr Gardner said. ``None of this could have been done without them."
© 2003 The Age