All-Woman Group Almost Makes Summit

A group of five American women tackling Mount Everest was forced to turn back just short of the summit.

Health problems and weather forced the final four climbers to turn around early Saturday, just 285 feet from the 29,035-foot summit. Minutes before they turned back, expedition leader Eric Simonson of International Mountain Guides had reported things were fine, said his wife Erin Simonson, business manager for the trek.

"Everything was going beautifully," she told The News Tribune of Tacoma. "Twenty minutes later, I'm getting this distress call."

Midge Cross, a 58-year-old grandmother from Mazama, was part of the team. But the breast-cancer survivor had turned back Friday and was not among the four women — Alison Levine, Kim Clark, Lynn Prebble and Jody Thompson — who made the final summit push.

The climb was billed as the first by an all-woman team attempting to scale Everest. The women were accompanied by two male guides, a male photographer and eight Nepali sherpas, Erin Simonson said.

Her husband had remained behind in camp at the 21,000-foot level, as has been his routine this climbing season.

The group ran into problems about 6:40 a.m. Nepal time, when Levine collapsed from exhaustion and the effects of altitude, Erin Simonson said.

Clark, Prebble and Thompson started along a thin ridge of snow leading a steep pitch called the Hillary Step. Then Clark radioed that Thompson was having trouble.

At the same time, clouds began forming and the wind increasing so the last three women headed down.

Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Everest in 1953, about 1,100 people — including about a dozen American women — have reached the 29,035-foot summit. More than 170 have died trying.