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  Everest 2006: Fi and Paul: Off for the summit tomorrow


Location: Everest Base Camp
Altitude: 5350m
Local Time: 17:00, May 16
Weather: Warm in the morning, but cold and snowing in the afternoon. min -2C

Hi Everyone, It's Paul here. This morning Fiona and I checked the weather and the spell of low winds looks set to continue into next week, so we decided to continue with our plan of leaving for our run up to the summit tomorrow.

Weather
The weather forecast looks great, although they say that after May 21 the winds will start increasing. It also says that they think that the jetstream winds are unlikely to return to the Everest region this climbing season, which is great news. Our tentative summit date would be May 21, leaving the South Col (C4) on the night of May 20.

The Plan
Tomorrow we plan to go to C2 in one long stint, and then the next day rest, and rehydrate. This will be the last time we have liquid water on hand, after C2 we will have to melt snow. The following day, May 19, we will climb to C3, then the next day C4. That night we will leave for the summit. This is all highly weather dependant, and as we have plenty of time left, we are not in a hurry and will wait for good weather if need be.

Packing and getting ready
We packed up our food today for camp 3 and camp 4. One night's food for C3 and two for C4 (in case we have to wait out some bad weather for a summit attempt). Most of our summit clothes are at C2, but we are bringing up some more chemical warmers, socks and spare gloves. All the batteries of our boot warmers are charged, as are our camera batterries. We are taking lithium batteries for our head torches, as these work better in the cold. At $20 for four AA batteries they are expensive. Both Fiona and I had showers and I had a shave. This is very important for ensuring that the oxygen mask makes a good seal around your face.

Our Sherpas are back
Dasona and Mingma are back from visiting their families in Pangboche and Phortse. They said everything was well at home.

Mary
Mary has been issued with a radio so that she can keep track of our progress. She is settling in well at base camp. Tomorrow we are getting up at about 3:00am, with breakfast at 4:00am and aiming for a 4:30am sharp departure. Mary says she wants to get up with us and walk to the crampon point in the icefall (where we put on our crampons)!

That’s all for now,
Paul.

PS. Only two more trips through the icefall!

Updates

 

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