Summit plans

We see a window and will go for it!

29 May - to Interim, 5700m

The trek up from BC to Interim and then to ABC is always a good test of how you are feeling, whether you have deteriorated. In my case I set off at 3pm with a huge snow cloud swallowing me and although there was plenty of coughing, it felt good to test the lungs again and I took 2:35 minutes, so I am doing fine. Anything under 3 hours when you are fit is good. The first time up some of our expedition team were taking around five hours, and Marlon and Shehan took around nine hours.

Gavin and Kevin cruised up in under 3 hours (talking slows you down), and separately Duncan, so we had a riotous early evening eating dinner in the kitchen tent. No, we didn't go to ABC in one hit.

Johan and Kirsti had already stayed at Interim the previous night and so made ABC this day.

30 May - to ABC, 6400m

The night had been clear and cold, and so crossing the Interim stream was a small hop, and we pushed it up to Changtse Base Camp (the old British Camp 2) in an hour and a quarter, then took it slightly more slowly up to ABC, but still arrived well before lunch. WE may have lost some weight and some muscle but we can still move well.

Jamie immediately downloaded the latest forecasts and the assessment began. We have to make some decisions. First, is the forecast accurate? Not as much as we would like, we have already experienced that with our 24th May summit plan, and yet the wind picked up. There is a window coming up, a less than ideal window, but if conditions improve even slightly then it will be a good window. The next clear and currently obvious window is far away.

So currently we are aiming for a 3-4-5 June window, and will assess each day whether we need to make changes. The forecast does change (frustratingly to some) frequently.

31 May - ABC waiting

There was some serious wind last night, and this morning. Severe gusts both down and up the valley here, but on Everest it is just a screaming westerly.

In fact this day 48 of our expedition and on two previous Everest expeditions we were in Tibet for 60 days, 65 day expeditions. So while it seems long, we still have time.

31 May - ABC update

We will go to North Col tomorrow, then probably 7650m the next day, and 8210m the day after. Of course we will adapt according to the weather. the general plan is Jamie will climb with the two teams (assuming we stick together) and Duncan will supervise from below, and keep us updated.

Gavin with a magazine pilfered from DCXP and Kevin answering his icefall of emails - Jamie
Sauces and drinks on the table.

Loto, Dorje cooking sausages and Tawa behind cooking the chapatis - Jamie