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Snow and Cloud Plumes
En Route to Pheriche- May 13, 2002

Prittie
Prittie
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Hello everybody there in Mountain Zone territory, this is Willi Prittie reporting from the valleys of the Khumbu region. The Alpine Ascents International 2002 Expedition is actually headed back up today; we're in the first stage of our trip back to Base Camp after our low elevation rest and recovery.

Everybody's doing very well, everybody looks better and more well fed and more well rested after our three nights at just over 12,000 feet. So we're en route to Pheriche here today, just above Pangboche. It's actually a beautiful day for walking here in the lower valleys. Ellie and I are kind of following up the rear while everybody else is making their own pace up to Pheriche where we will meet Al and Vern.

But, looking up above, I suspect there may be people jockeying for position on the lower mountain, perhaps as far as up to Camp II on Mount Everest itself.

"But it's an extremely windy day up high today. There are actually snow and cloud plumes blowing from Everest, and also Lhotse and also Nuptse this morning and those plumes extend for better than half a mile..."

But it's an extremely windy day up high today. There are actually snow and cloud plumes blowing from Everest, and also Lhotse and also Nuptse, this morning and those plumes extend for better than half a mile downwind of all the summits. So I suspect there's really nobody moving anyplace on the upper mountain today. And it looks like we're still going to be waiting for that windless weather window that we're all going to be looking for for a safe climb up there.

So today will be Pheriche and we'll be walking tomorrow to Lobuche and day number three from today is when we'll all actually return to Base Camp and at that point we'll be getting very serious about looking for our weathewr window which we're all going to need for a good, safe climb of Mount Everest here this season.

So that's all from the lower valleys just above the treeline in the Khumbu for today.

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

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