High Winds in Camp 2!

5/19

Well its been an exciting day. Beautiful clear weather, just quite windy
this afternoon and tonight. We are planning to leave for Camp 3 tomorrow
morning, so hopefully we'll see less winds tomorrow for our trip up the
Lhotse Face. The weather forecasts have not offered a clear window this
year. Now we are trying to thread a needle (with several hundred other
climbers) between the Jet Stream, which is now very near Everest and an
approaching Cyclone in the Bay of Bengal that is heading our way soon. We
are looking at the 22nd now. Its going to be a windy climb up to the South
Col over the next couple days. We are actually in a very good position to
wait a day in C3 or C4 if conditions are unreasonable. We have lots of
Oxygen for any delays up high and one of the strongest Sherpa Teams on the
hill! Looking forward starting our summit push! Yahoo!

Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 2, Mt. Everest.

Waiting in Camp 2

Seriously high winds on Everest. Some of the strongest winds I have seen. We
can hear the jet stream just above us ripping at the summit right now. We
had plans to move up to C3 today, and onto the South Col on the 21st. So
much for that! The whole upper mountain is being raked by winds of 50 to 100
mph. We went for a short walk this morning with hopes the winds could drop,
but only 1 hour out of camp it became quite clear that we were only going
for a short hike and not to the top of Everest this time. Everything looks
better for the 23rd now so that's our new focus. Our forecasts are looking
like the Cyclone will be bringing moisture to the Everest region around the
24 and 25th now. So another rest day in camp 2 playing cards, listening to
the wind and getting ready for tomorrow. Quite a few people moved to
C3today, we counted over 50. Although the winds have definitely increased
now, so our guess is some if not most will change plans and come down today.
Camp 3 is disappearing in huge waves of blowing snow from the South Col all
the way across the Lhotse Face to Lhotse Summit. Very impressive to see, not
to be in!

Photos from below the Lhotse Face this morning.

Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 2, 21,500ft., Everest.