NEPAL TIME: 
|  Manaslu (8163m) and Dhaulagiri (8167m) |
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Dhaulagiri Summit Attempt Underway Monday, May 3, 1999 — 6:47am (PST)
 Hear Ed's Call from NepalClick for [RealAudio] [Windows Media](Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media) |
Hi, it's Ed Viesturs reporting on The Mountain Zone. It's April 3rd, 7:30pm. Veikka and I are right now at 24,150 ft. We're at our final summit camp. We had a long day today, we climbed for eight hours. We left at 7:30 in the morning and we got here at 3:30 in the afternoon. It was a long day, we gained a lot of altitude and the last hour or two was quite windy, we were in the shade. By the time we got here at 3:30, it was quite cold and it took us about an hour to hack out our tent platform, put up the tent, get all our gear in and, by 4:30, we were inside the tent. We were mostly on the ridge today, the Northeast Ridge. For the most part, the snow conditions were really, really good and for at least three-quarters of the way, there was fixed rope left behind from last year, which we used. It made the climb a lot safer, more convenient, and going down is going to be a lot safer also.
So we spent the last three hours now melting snow, having some dinner, drinking some drinks, trying to rehydrate and we're going to hit the sack now and try to rest 'til midnight. Then, we'll get up in two hours, getting ready, melting snow, drinking, getting all of our gear in. It's quite tight in this tent. It's quite comical to see both of us bouncing around, trying to get our clothing on and fit all of our gear in and then we plan to start the climb at two in the morning and, hopefully, in six to eight hours, with good conditions, good weather... [satellite transmission fails].
— Ed Viesturs, Mountain Zone Correspondent
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