Up in Camp 2 again!

Came up to Camp 2 yesterday in some very nice weather. Although it has been getting quite

cloudy in the afternoons. This is our second rotation up to Camp 2. We are planning 4 or 5

more nights here, with a climb up to Camp 3 at 24,000 ft. the day after tomorrow. Our

sherpas did an amazing carry from here up to the South Col today, carrying most of our

Oxygen up. SO everything is starting to be in place for our summit go in a couple weeks. A

lot of teams are pushing hard for an earlier summit this year. We plan to let them go and

wait a little for what is consistantly the best, warmest, longest periods of good weather

after the middle of May. Its been a good stay here running into lots of good friends.

Definitly starting to miss home, its been over a month now. Photos from the icefall yesterdy morning. Thanks for following our

reports! Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 2, Mt. Everest.

Enjoying Base Camp Life!

Perfect weather again today. Getting everything ready to go back up to Camp
2 tomorrow morning early. We plan 4 nights up again, with one trip up to
Camp 3 at 24,000 ft. After this next rotation up high we should be ready for
the summit! Our sherpa team is setting our Cap 3 today, and tomorrow will
take most of our Oxygen up to Camp 4 at the south col. That's truly the hard
work. Forecast for some snow starting tomorrow afternoon for 3 days.
Hopefully that will not be to serious. Wind is far more of a concern. All
our team is looking strong. Johnny is very focused on what its going to
take. SO last day for showers and to wash some clothes here. Will try to
post a report from Camp 2, but its always a challenge powering computers and
all there. Scott Woolums reporting from Everest Base Camp.

Enjoying Base Camp Life!

Yahoo! Were all down in Base Camp. So nice to be down in the thicker air
here at 18,000 ft. Photos from the icefall yesterday. Glad to have one more
trip through there behind us. The cook here at Base Camp, Serki, is
outstanding Fried Chicken and Pizza last night. So we are finished with our
first rotation up high, 2 more to go. Our weather forecasts are coming in
now and it looks good over the next few days with diminishing winds. That's
great news as our whole sherpa team launched to start the huge job of
getting our Oxygen up to Camp 4, our high camp at 26,000 ft. They are the
true stars that make most all Everest Expeditions really successful.
Outstanding team this year, I am hoping we can all summit together as a
team! So we have a few days here to relax, recover from being up high, eat
well, take showers, check weather and plan our go for the summit! Very
enjoyable here compared to Camp 2. Yesterday we saw at least 4 tents that
had blown off Camp 2 from the winds last night of other teams. Right now
most tents in Camp 2 are collapsed so they are not destroyed. We did loose
our large dinning tent the day before yesterday in the winds, completely
shredded. Fortunaty we have extras of most all things. It does look like the
worst of the winds are over now. So we are wishing for good weather for our
sherpas to get the higher camps ready. Scott Woolums reporting from Everest
Base Camp!

Big Wind Storm in Calmp 2!

A rowdy night as we lost our dinning tent up here. Almost the whole camp 2 Was blown o0r

taken doown right now with most climbers descending to Base Camp this morning. Our large

Mountain hardware Space Station tent shredded as did 7 or 8 other teams larger tents. We

actually saw part of another teams dinning tent about 100 ft up blow past us. Serious winds

last night! We decided to stay on one more day as we can use the acclimitization. This

afternoon its changed to very nice weather with no wind and lots of sun. We plan to go down

to Base Camp tomorrow for a 3 or 4 day rest. Climbed up to about 22,000 ft. this morning and

the base of the fixed lines on Lhotse Face, our next big obsticle. Scott Woolums reporting

from Camp 2 Everest.

Up to Camp 2 at 21,000 ft.!

Yesterday we moved up here to Camp 2. Beautiful weather. Brian and Johnny are doing super well, 3 hours yesterday. Since our last dispatch, we have been in Camp 1 for a couple nights at about 20,000 ft. acclimitizing. The climb up through the icefall did not disappoint us aswe had a small collapse several hundred meters away, very scary. The icefall goes very close to some laarge icecliffs on the west shoulder which in my opinion makes the route a little more dangerous than normal. The route into Camp 3 was fixed the day before yesterday and today they are working on fixing through the Yellow Band at about 7600 meters. We have our Camp 3 set and mosst oxygen here at Camp 2 so we are well ahead of schedule now. Lots of support with 6 sherpas and out small team of 3, Johnny and Brian Strange and myself. We plan to stay here for a couple morre nights then back to Base Camp for another rest. We have put together a schedule that allows minimum trips back and forth throught the icefall this season. Everyone is agreeing that it is warmer than normal, we'll see what happens. We are looking towards after the middle of May for our summit window now. It does look like a lot of people are pushing for earlier this season. I have never liked the colder and shorter summit windows of earlier May so we'll let the early teams have a go, then wait for a bit later this year. Life here is pretty good with a large Mt. Hardware dome tent, 2 cooks. Very comfortable as far as that can be at this altitude on the side of Everest! Thanks for staying updated. More soon as we just got our email/solar system working this morning. Will always publish updates when we can. Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 2 Mt. Everest.