Berg Adventures 2013 Everest Expedition Dispatch
May 8, 2013 – An Update from Base Camp
It is the evening of May 8 at Everest Base Camp. We’ve got the entire team together again. As many of you know, Daniel and Steve took a little vacation down to the thicker air of Pheriche at 14,000ft. The intent of this trip was to allow their bodies recuperate a little bit in the relative thicker air with more oxygen available.
Don't be deceived by the sunshine. Summit
conditions are extremely windy.
Todd and I chose to stay here at Base Camp. Our strategy being to stay where we know we have great facilities with all of our Sherpa support/great food and we rested here. Of course, we were busy coordinating with other teams and watching weather reports. That’s a big activity at Base Camp during the climbing season at this time of year. It is good to be back together. We are going to watch a movie together tonight.
I should report to you something that is pretty exciting. We’ve got pretty marginal weather coming in the days ahead, all most certainly high wind. In fact, as I look towards Lhostse and top of Everest right now, I can see pretty high winds at this time. But, we’ve got a Sherpa team of 14, the best climbing Sherpas, who are going to Camp II today. Tomorrow they will move to the South Col, probably beyond the Balcony, and they will attempt to reach the summit on May 10th. This will be the first summit attempt, and I hope it's the first successful summit team of the year. There were a lot of Sherpas who wanted to go on this mission; the best ones were chosen and we’re going to wish them luck to define the first Everest ascent of the season and get the route in good shape. We will be following their progress. Our own trip up is a few days off yet. We will keep you posted.
