Hello from Everest Base Camp,
Let the fingernail biting begin! The team got up to Camp II yesterday and will be taking a rest day today (May 21). In the meantime, Ang Tsering (the cook at Camp II) told us yesterday that about 300 people were up at the South Col, many with intentions of going to the summit last night. However, we were told by a neighbor here in Base Camp this morning that all were turned back by wind, so no one has reached the summit yet. Plus a new contingent may be trying to move up from Camp III today. So it looks like things are starting to stack up a bit up at the Col. It could shake out fairly quickly depending on the oxygen situation for all these people (we know there are at least two large French teams who are not exactly O2 rich). Hopefully no one feels inclined to "borrow" the Alpine Ascents O2 that is cached at the Col.
Today is strangely cloudy and looking like we could have snow at any time - flurries, not anything serious. Our weather reports so far all predict reasonably good weather - low winds and any precipitation is supposed to come lower on the mountain. However we've learned that weather reports this year are not necessarily to be trusted - things seem to be extremely fluky and conditions have been very difficult to predict. The good news is that the monsoon is still far away out in the Bay of Bengal, so at least we don't have that dragon breathing down our necks. We are all hoping that conditions cooperate enough to allow someone to get to the top as soon as tomorrow morning.
As a side note, Ang Gelu, a young Sherpa from Karikhola, set off last night at about 6:00 to try to break Babu Chiri's speed ascent record of 15 hours, 56 minutes from Base Camp to summit, but as far as we know Ang Gelu was turned around by the high wind. His departure from Base Camp was eerily reminiscent of Babu Chiri's departure - people cheering and giving him a good send-off throughout Base Camp under lowering clouds and spitting snow. In 2000 Babu Chiri actually delayed his departure for an hour while deciding if conditions were good enough. Seems he picked it right as his record still stands.
We have also been watching Willie and Damien Benegas, two Argentinian brothers now living in Salt Lake City, do a new route straight up Nuptse. Seen through our binoculars it looks like they pulled it off, and everyone watched their headlamps coming down well after dark last night. Congratulations to them both - and hopefully more details to follow.
So even though the Sherpas start pulling down the fixed lines and taking out the Icefall ladders whenever they hear me say it, this is Ellie Henke for Alpine Ascents International Everest Base Camp.
— Ellie Henke, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent