This afternoon in the umptieth meeting with the Chinese Mountaineering Association it became definitive: all permits for all mountains in Tibet for 2015 have been revoked. The permits will be valid though for the next three years.
So no more climbing this season. The omnipresent Chinese Army wants all climbers out asap and some pressure is exerted on us to leave. Hence, the current plan is that I leave EBC tomorrow at 6 am when the army will move me (and half a dozen Indians) some 700 km to Lhasa. Apparently there are still two flights per week to Kathmandu. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch a flight in a couple of days. On these flights there is a very limited luggagr capacity so my bulk-luggage (which is still in ABC) will be transported by yaks/sherpa/4w-drive as soon as the roads to Nepal are open agsin (which may be weeks). Once in Kathmandu, I hope to collect the luggage I left there and change my flights with KLM to Amsterdam. At this point in time it is totally unclear how long this entire process will take.