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News from Thursday, May 22, 2003

Waiting in camp 2

The morale in camp 2 has improved again. The disappointment that a summit bid was not possible, and all the up and down between the camps is gnawing at everybody. This night the weather was better than predicted again - a couple of Indians, French and Irish resisted the storm the last days and stayed in the uppermost camps. They could reach the summit today.

Practically all the other teams descended, some of them down to base camp. According to the newest information about the weather, the disturbance shall move off over the weekend. That means that everything is being prepared for a possible summit day Monday, May 26. This would quite surely be the very last chance.

So our team has to begin the ascent from camp 2 on Saturday in order to go for the summit in the night from Sunday to Monday. We hope that they can gather all their strength, get over all this waiting and hoping and that a summit attempt will be possible on Monday.

Tom, Frank, and Eckhard know this waiting already and hoping from Cho Oyu (8201 m), also there they were lucky with the weather only in the very last days and could go to the summit. So with Everest it will be the same now.

The tension is huge also here at home. Everybody joins us in our excitement.

Foreign teams were lucky

Meanwhile we have some details about the summiters: Despite the bad weather, in the last two days some intrepid mountaineers could summit. Today, three teams reached the summit via the South Ridge: 4 Indians, 3 Nepali and 6 Sherpas, as well as 3 French and 1 Sherpa, and as the third team 1 Irish and 1 Sherpa. Our congratulations to these teams.

Tom, Christian, Eike, and Frank decided to wait in camp 2 after having received the newest weather data. Eckhard and Roland descend to base camp today.

Today it will be decided if there is a way to possibly stay a fews days longer at the mountain and extend the permit and shift the flights.

For a summit success on Monday, the team must begin the ascent from camp 2 on Saturday. After summit day, it will take another three days to remove the high camps - this cannot be done directly on the descent. So after a summit success they would have to go up to camp 3 again. Camp 4 will be removed directly on the descent with the help of the Sherpas.

So far, so good - theoretically everything is clear, the weekend and Monday can come, our team will be ready to start.

And here the weather for the next few days:

Weather situation: Westerly altitude winds and small peripheral troughs

Until the weekend the weather as now rather unstable. Cumulus clouds and snow showers will form. In the beginning of next week a small wedge will push towards the Himalayas, bringing dryer air to the region. The winds will not completely die away, in the summit regions wind speeds of 50 to 70 km/h will remain. But with big probability there will be no precipitation, the main jet is located in Kashmir. The Monsoon will not affect you! As seen from today, Monday and Tuesday will be suitable for a summit climb.

Good luck!!!!