You are here: Everest Home >>South Col Climb >>Dispatches >>Dispatch

South Col Climbers Turned Back
Base Camp - Monday, May 8, 2000

DISPATCHES

Prittie

Hear Willi's Call LISTEN: [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media] (Requires a FREE media player to listen)

	Click For Dispatch Photos

Hello Mountain Zone, this is Willi Prittie reporting for the Alpine Ascents International Mount Everest Program from Base Camp.

The weather here continues to be a pretty mixed bag and all parties today who have tried to summit from the South Col have actually been turned back due to deep snow on the route below 27,000 feet. So we're continuing to bide our time here at Base Camp, resting and relaxing. There are several parties slowly headed up the mountain right now and also some people at Camp II on the mountain because in three days there is forecast to be a weather window come through.

We still feel it's too early, especially given the deep snow on the peak. So we're actually headed off the mountain for a few days, to go down to between 12 and 14,000 feet to rest and recover well.

Our elevation here, about 17.6. We feel good, we feel well acclimated here, but it does take its toll physically in a very insidious, sometime hidden fashion. So to ensure that we're as absolutely as strong as possible when our summit chances come we actually are going down for a few days to a lower elevation where we know that our bodies will recover faster. We'll be able to eat better, maybe gain a little bit of weight and sleep better. We plan on being back up by Base Camp before the 15th or so of the month, where we can watch the weather very carefully and follow through with our original plan of looking for a summit date just after the 20th.

So we'll hope that the weather cooperates with that, things improve; like to see a little bit of wind on the upper mountain and blow some of this heavy snow accumulation away, that may be wishful thinking though.

So we're going to be heading down where there's greenery and where there's blooming Rhododendron forest and it'll be at least something different to see if nothing else as well.

So that's all from Mount Everest Base Camp at this point and we'll be back to you with more in days ahead.

— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

Email this story to a friend