 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Holding Pattern At 25,000'
Sat, May 15, 1999 — ABC (21,300')
Satellite phones for Everest provided by MVS/USA
Hello, Eric Simonson from Advanced Base Camp on May 15th. Boy, it sure has been epic the last couple of days. The wind and snow has really pummeled us. Yesterday, the climbing team up at Camp V reported winds so strong that they couldn't even stand up outside the tent—guestimating speeds 70-80 miles an hour, something like that, at over 25,000'.
The jet stream has now moved back across the Himalayas to the north of us, and the winds now have started to taper off a little bit. Our team remains at Camp V, and they're going to be spending their third night there tonight. We're hoping that tomorrow with some lighter winds we'll be able to finally push up to Camp VI and that's the goal.
So right now we still are in a holding pattern, but things are starting to look a little bit better. Knock on wood, a little bit of luck we'll have our climbing team in at Camp VI tomorrow and will have our search team also positioned to do some more searching on the upper North Face. That's the story from ABC here on May 15th. We'll be talking to you. Bye-bye.
—Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader
|
|
|
|
|
|
