Expedition Dispatches
Satellite phone updates from the 1998 American Everest Expedition

Corfield

First Ever Direct Weather Forecasts on Everest
Tuesday, May 5, 1998 — Base Camp (17,500')

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Plumes of snow blown off upper Everest viewed from the South Col
[click to zoom]
(photo: Corfield)

Good Morning Mountain Zone, today is Tuesday the 5th of May, 1998. I'm pleased to say that all members are now back in base camp. Wally arrived down from Camp II just a few moments ago and has also completed a re-measurement. All being well when we analyze the data, we will now know the exact GPS positions of base camp, of Camps I, II, III and IV. As I speak, there is a carry going on to the South Col by some of our Sherpas who are transporting one of the weather stations up there from the MIT media lab, and as it so happens, the weather station is already active and generating data which is being collected at MIT Media Lab.

In trial runs last night of the weather stations, they seem to perform to spec and the data is good. So, this is very exciting. We shall actually get some real time meteorological data from the South Col before we make our summit bid, which is always reassuring, since the only clues that we have as to the weather up there are the plume which is blowing off Everest and trying to guess at the wind speed or just listening to the general roar of winds above Camp II. So we'll get real meteorological data which will help us in our planning for our summit bid in the middle of this month. That's it for now. Stay tuned for the next dispatch.

— Charles Corfield, Expedition Science Manager

DISPATCHES