Advance Basecamp, Mt. Everest (via satellite phone)
Elevation: 6350m/20,828ft
Low -10C High 7C/22F Calm
9:15am

Eric Brown With Activities at Camp 2, Camp 1, ABC, and BC

This is Eric Brown reporting for Patagonia Mountain Agency. I'm calling from Advanced Base Camp (ABC). Today's date is May 2, 1999, currently it's 9:15 in the morning. Yesterday's high was 7 degrees Celcius, or about 22 degrees Fahrenheit. This morning was about negative 10 degrees Celsius.

Well, the weather changed soon after I left the April 30th dispatch. Clouds rolled in and we had snow flurries the whole day. Jacek and Ryszard made it up to North Col. Witek followed them but didn't feel too good so he turned around and came back to ABC. Tadek arrived from Intermediate Camp about lunchtime on the same day. Dendy, our ABC cook, came down with a throat infection and headache, so Talli dosed him up with medicine and we ate MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) for lunch and dinner, which was a nice change.

Yesterday, we awoke to sunny conditions with only a small amount of snow on some of the tents. After breakfast, Tadek and Witek geared up and headed to North Col. At noon, Jacek called from near Camp II -- about a hundred meters below -- (Camp II is at 7800 meters), and the wind was howling. Pasang and Pema had just returned down and met up with them, exclaiming "It is impossible to set up tents--too windy!" In fact, from Jacek's vantage point, he could see two tents already ripped to shreds, blowing in the wind at Camp II. So they all reversed course back to North Col. Jacek decided to come on down to open up space in the tents at North Col since Tadek and Witek were coming up. The wind was gusty at Camp I also and as Jacek was climbing down towards ABC, he saw tent pieces from another expedition drifting down the steep snow face of the North Col. Ryszard, Witek, Tadek, and the Sherpas spent last night at North Col and will try again today to set up tents at Camp II. Masa [Masaru] arrived at ABC yesterday at 4:15, after leaving Base Camp around 7 o'clock in the morning. This morning, we awoke to about 2 inches of snow covering everything. It was really nice. The snow has changed the character of Mt. Everest a bit, giving it a new -- less black and rocky -- look.

As of this morning's 8 o'clock radio call, Pema and Pasang had headed up to Camp II to try again at setting up tent and Ryszard and Tadek will soon follow them. Witek is not feeling too well and is heading back to ABC as I'm talking to you. Talli just left for Base Camp. Jacek and I will soon follow her down to the Beach Club, as we are calling it now. Next dispatch will be from Base Camp so we'll be talking to you soon.

Hasta luego!