Our plans

The wait is almost over.

15 May - afternoon

The morning saw summits on Everest, and better conditions higher up on the mountain than at Base Camp. I went for an afternoon walk and had snow in my face on the way back, yet the sherpas reported it was hot in the tents at C3 (8300m). Our sherpa team carried loads to 7700m, our Camp 2, without incident.

15 May - DCXP party

We invited ourselves around to the DCXP camp for dinner and Duncan graciously turned it into a real get together, with splendid snacks, a bar and a good Thai meal. We reconnected with some of his team. We had a party at Duncan's Kathmandu apartment at the start of the expedition, but that seems such a long time ago now.

It was good to see that everyone at dinner was in excellent condition. Our form is another matter though. Basically I put up photos as little of our meal conversations and general talk is printable, even if sometimes rather memorable. We lasted half way thru dinner at Duncan's when suddenly the tone descended. At least most people laughed. Nobody stumbled home though, not that it would have mattered as our tents are only a stones throw away.

Duncan, Katie (DCXP Adelaide staff) and Jamie at the party - Jamie with Kirsti's camera

16 May - BC 5150m - more summits

This morning we woke to snow on the ground and Everest was coated in new snow, looking quite wintry. Several of us had had walkie-talkies on wile snuggled in sleeping bags and were listening to the progress. Conditions sounded better than they looked. We watched the wind swing around over breakfast and soon after it stabilized to what looked like very good conditions.

The good news was one of the South Africans with Arun Treks summitted with Nima, and then we heard that some of the Koreans did too, with a few sherpas. There was little other news we could pick up, perhaps we will have to look up the internet too!

The weather has turned better than the initial forecasts predicted, and so the decision by many teams to summit was a good one. We are happy now as there will be far fewer climbers on the mountain when we do finally climb. The weather still hasn't been particularly clean, but at least it has not been a factor in any of the troubles anyone has had summitting.

The afternoon at BC is squally as usual, and Everest is covered in ominous cloud, although perhaps conditions are better than they look. They usually are.

The sherpas

Today was a big day for them, the first and final carry of oxygen and tents to 8300m in preparation for our summit push. They are planning to descend to ABC today to recover.

Our plans

After checking the latest weather forecast we will stick with our plans. Tomorrow (17th) we plan to trek to Interim camp, then on the 18th up to ABC. We will have the 19th free in ABC and will reformulate our summit plans according to conditions and forecasts. So far the forecast has turned more and more in our favour.

Perhaps we get a dispatch out tomorrow, perhaps only on the 19th.

The title of the book is no reflection on Kevin - honest! - Jamie