Burleson

Click to hear Todd Burleson's audio dispatch recorded over sat-phone.
From Burleson's Satellite Call:
Hey guys, it's Todd. I'm back in Base Camp. It's Saturday, about 2:50 or 3 o'clock. Things are good -- everybody is back down. It was a long hard push coming back down today -- ice fall was getting pretty warm towards the end. [It's dangerous to climb in the Ice Fall once the sun has warmed it up because the seracs frozen in place overnight may melt enough to collapse. Most shifting in the Ice Fall occurs during the day.]

Wind on the Hillary Step

Some news around camp. I just -- two minutes ago -- walked over and was visiting with the Indonesians, and they said that they have summited Everest about 15 minutes ago. Three of the members (and they didn't tell me the names,) and I believe three Russians, which would include Anatoli [Boukreev], and a few sherpa. It's about 2:40pm I think they said they summited. It's very late in the afternoon, and so a little frightening. [Common turnaround times on Everest that ensure arrival back at high-camp before dark are 1pm.] Hopefully they're strong. They didn't tell me how the members were feeling or anything. I asked them how the weather was, and they said it was starting to blow up top. We will keep you informed. That's all I know at the moment. It's exciting -- the first group! I don't know what time they left this morning which would have given me a much better clue on what their strength was by how many hours it took. We will follow them closely, and I will give you a call back a little later.

What else is new... we worked a lot with the GPS yesterday and the radar-mapping system. [Click here to read more about the science being done on Everest this year.] It looks good. The radar-mapping system is complicated. It's going to take some time for us to really be able to manage that on the summit.

But life is good for us. We're all back down. We're resting. We're going to be in Base Camp for the next three or four days, and we will talk to you soon.

-- Todd Burleson, Expedition Leader