Hello everybody out there, this is Willi Prittie from STILL Camp II on Mount Everest.
A lot of people have been streaming down from summit attempts the last couple of days here at Camp II. A few people managed to summit. A lot of people turned back. A lot of frostbite. A lot of very scary stories of extremely high winds in the 40- to 50-knot range. So, unfortunately, we are still in a holding pattern here. The weather forecast that we have, unfortunately, seemed to indicate that for the next several days we're still looking at 50- to 55-knot winds high on the mountain. We're not willing to risk those conditions and any potential frostbite that could mean. We're going to be here still for at least another day or two till we see if there is some kind of break in these conditions.
So, congratulations to those of you who have managed to fight through some very difficult conditions to a very hard-fought summit. We're still waiting for our turn here at Camp II.
From Basecamp on Friday May 23:
Yet another day at Camp II. High winds, conflicting weather reports and many climbers on the mountain will force another day of chess and card playing at high altitude. Day three at Camp II. There was mixed summit success over the last two days but we're being conservative and holding on for one more - our earliest summit attempt day is May 27th...so we're all doing well and hangin on.
G. Janow from Ellie Henke
---------For Thursday May 22: 9:00pm Nepal time
Team remained another day at Camp II due to weather reports and high winds. A formal report should come later but all are doing well, albeit, anxious to move on (including the Sherpa staff) hopefully a decrease in winds will occur by morning . Unconfirmed: A number of teams non -commercial summitted yesterday, but it sounds like many were turned back due to very high winds.
G. Janow
— Ellie Henke (BC) & Willi Prittie (CII), Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent