CLICK TO HEAR THE CALL:

Hello, Eric Simonson from Advanced Base Camp and today is the 16th. I'm happy to report that the weather has improved, and today we are pulling the trigger on our climb. We have, this morning, leaving out of Camp V, Tap, and Conrad, and Jake, and Dave, all headed for Camp VI to climb, and they are supported today by Andy and Thom, who are going to be returning to Camp V tonight.

Additionally, Dawa Nuru and Ang Pasang left the Col early this morning, and, as I speak right now, which is about 1:30 in the afternoon, everybody is pulling in simultaneously to Camp VI. Today is not over yet though, they still have to set up several tents, which is going to take some work especially since there's not very many good platforms up there. They're going to have to do some chopping and hacking, and then once they get the tents up it will be time to brew and hydrate and get some food down in preparation for the climb tonight. We anticipate that they'll be rolling out probably about 2:00am. So that means they will be up well before midnight starting to get ready.

We're all hoping that tomorrow is a good day, and if it is, hopefully we'll have some good news for you about this time tomorrow. We'll see if we can't get the team on the line a little later, maybe do a voice patch through. Okay, that's the story for now. Talk to you later.

—Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

DISPATCHES