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Hopes fade for Himalayas climber 4-Feb-2006 At 10:58:38 PM Rupert

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This on News.com.au:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18040830-23109,00.html
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Hopes fade for Himalayas climber
From: AAP
From correspondents in Kathmandu

February 04, 2006

RESCUERS all but gave up hope today of finding a well-known French mountaineer alive after a week's search for him on the world's fifth-highest peak in the Himalayas.
Jean-Christophe Lafaille, 40, was attempting to climb the 8463m Mt. Makalu peak in northern Nepal on his own but lost contact with the base camp on January 28.

"There was no sign of him," said Veikka Gustafsson, a Finnish mountaineer after a helicopter search along Lafaille's climbing route today.

"There is very little hope that he is alive. It is extremely cold up there."

But the search team left a tent, a sleeping bag, a stove and rations for Lafaille at the base camp in case he managed to get back.

The missing climber's tent had been sighted by rescuers at an altitude of 6700m.

If successful, Lafaille would have been the first climber ever to successfully climb the peak.
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