Waiting and weather

Our initial summit window has detoriated into a morass of unstable winds with shifting degrees of accuracy for the forecast. For this reason we are pushing back our summit bid until May 26-27, when it appears there is a consistent drop in winds speeds. It also brings a projected warmer weather. This presents problems in the ice fall but hopefully that can be mitigated by the departure time.

We are working on keeping our acclimatization intact by hiking up to Pumori BC and heading to the Shep for email. We are running out movies to watch at BC and I have depleted my store of books to read.

It was a tough call to make to postpone going for the summit. I had to weigh multiple factors, weather, speed of clients, crowding (there were over 200 people on the lines to Camp 3 this morning), rope fixing (the lines are not into the summit yet, although reported,to have reached the balcony) all of those things have contributed to the decision.

This brings me to the sad fact that a post climb Thailand Trip will not happen for the first time ever for me onager an 8000m attempt...Although my office still firmly believes that I am on a beach there rather then actually climbing a mountain. Or maybe that is just Adam.....

Chris Klinke
Everest BC (really)