Early in the morning of 11 May 1996 Stuart Hutchison, a member of Rob Hall's team, came to our tent on the south col, to report that six people were still missing, of whom four were confirmed dead. With Stuart's permission, Ian Woodall radioed this news to base camp manager, Philip Woodall, and he then went to tell the other teams.

The four dead were Doug Hansen, Andy Harris, Yasuko Namba and Beck Weathers, and the two still missing were Scott Fisher and Makalu Gau. At the time it was known that Rob Hall was still alive and roughly where he was. Fisher and Hall subsequently died, Gau got back to camp, as did Beck Weathers, in a miraculous 'return from the dead'.

Ian: "Four people missing, definitely presumed dead. Roger so far?"

Philip: "I copy four missing, presumed dead."

For more on the story of the storm...

Philip Woodall