** Update by Support Team in Ireland - 14:43 GMT **

Gavin has just called in from Camp 2 however the line was very bad.  At this time we can confirm that neither Gavin nor Eddie summited the mountain. We are all disappointed for them here but over the moon that they are all alive and well.

Gavin reports that he was going good but in very cold weather, not windy but extreme cold, his mask started freezing up. This reduced if not fully stopped his oxygen intake and quickly brought on the same symptoms of HAPE as he experienced last time in 2007. 

Without Oxygen to warm his blood and fluid building in his lungs he felt a collapse of life quickly approaching as he had experienced in 2007. He had no option but to get off the mountain and was assisted by his already proven guardian angel Sherpa Pasang along with Sherpa Danu. We are not certain at what height this occurred but are guessing it was below the South Summit at about 8500m. Gavin with the assistance of his two friends dropped down and eventually after a dramatic descent reached Camp two where he was checked out by the medics who confirmed his suspicions and administered dexamethasone, with a comment that he is lucky to be alive.

Gavin reports becoming hypothermic and very scared and just knew his body was shutting down.

We are obviously so happy to hear that he is safe at camp two and will hopefully drop to base camp tomorrow. Due to the extreme cold and his physical condition he was unable to send his tweet higher than camp 4.  Had he removed his gloves he would definitely have lost fingers. It simply was not viaible on this occasion.

 We can report, via Gavin, that the heightest tweet would have been :

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“highest tweet in world @team_woolies = Why shout it from roof tops when u can tweet it from #Everest: www.Woolworths.co.uk back this summer!”

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Thanks to @team_woolies for their very generous donation to Moving Mountains.

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Meanwhile Eddy reached the South Summit however due to lots of queues he also had no option but to turn around.  He is now resting at the South Col and will drop down tomorrow.  The reports are that there were a lot of people unable to summit due to the sheer number of climbers aiming for the top.

Gavin Bate Support Team in Ireland

PS - Gavin requests that rather than sending good wishes please simply donate, not matter how small to his charity Moving Mountains.

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** Update by Support Team in Ireland - 9:36am GMT **

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Thanks everyone for following Gavin’s progress on the mountain.

At present the support team back in Ireland are not quite sure of events on the mountain. The tracker is showing a descent presently from camp three to camp two.

It could be that the team had to turn around for some reason or it could be that one or two of them had to descend and are carrying the tracker unit which is not with Gavin but in one of the Sherpa’s packs.

There are hundreds of possible scenarios but nothing at present can be confirmed until we hear from Gavin.

Due to his lack of contact we can only assume that he is either higher up and queuing to summit without the tracker or on his way down and the phone battery has died with the cold weather.  Obviously laptop and hence twitter updates cannot operate without the sat phone link up.

Be assured as soon as we hear anything it’ll be posted here.
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