Advance Basecamp, Mt. Everest (via satellite phone)
Elevation: 6350m/20,828ft
Clear, blue skies
9:55am

Eric Brown Reports on Changing Plans and Changing Weather

This is Eric Brown reporting for Patagonia Mountain Agency. Today is Tuesday, May 11th, 1999. The weather is nice--blue skies. The low this morning was 9 degrees Fahrenheit and I'm calling from Advanced Base Camp. Well, the weather and other things have changed plans. Jacek and Ryszard spent last night at Camp II, hoping to awake this morning to head to Camp III which is 8,300 meters but the weather and the fact that above Camp III no ropes have been fixed kind of changed their plans so they are heading back down to Advanced Base Camp today to rest. They could fix the ropes above Camp III but that would mean an extra day at Camp III, and that would not be good for their health, instead of being just two days at 8,300 meters. So it's wait and see. I talked to Jacek this morning on the radio and the current plan is to head back up on May 13th with Tadek and Witek -- hopefully -- he can change his plan. So Tadek and Witek were going to head up today but because of the change in plans, they are remaining at ABC. Everyone else besides Talli and I, which, we are here, everyone else is at Base Camp resting. Hopefully, by tomorrow we will receive a re-supply of MREs [Meals Ready-to-Eat] for the higher camps, food for the kitchen, and toilet paper. We are desperately low on all three -- especially on toilet paper -- we have one roll left. And we'll need all of those three, especially with the members from Base Camp coming up by the end of the week.

I keep mentioning our Sherpas, Pasang and Pema. Who are these mystery men? Well, I interviewed them the other day and here's a short profile on our two Sherpas. And, by the way, these guys work the hardest of any of us and plus, because they are used to the altitude, they can cruise up and down between the Camp I, Camp II, and Camp III in half the time that even our best climbers, Jacek and Ryszard, can muster. Anyway, Pema, who's 33, has two sons and has been a Sherpa [guide] since 1983. He has summitted Mount Everest once, from the Nepal side, and also has been on quite a few other Everest expeditions and expeditions throughout Nepal. Pasang is 25 and he has three daughters and he has not summitted Everest but has been on several Everest expeditions but has summitted Shishapangma which is an 8,000 plus meter peak in Nepal. Both Pema and Pasang are from the same town and the town is called Pangboche. So Pasang (I don't know if I mentioned) he has been a Sherpa [guide] since 1996. I asked them both, "What do you do after the expedition ends?" and they both replied, "Sleep...for months!" [laughter]. But besides working on expeditions in the springtime for Mount Everest and other mountains, they return to their hometown of Pangboche and farm the rest of the year, growing vegetables for the family and for sale. So anyway that's a little profile on our two Sherpas who help a lot in transporting oxygen, food, and in the next couple of days will be assisting climbers as they try to summit.

That's it from ABC. More in a couple of days as the summit attempt is tried again on the 13th, maybe the 14th, depending on the weather. So tune in and we will be interviewed ya'll's time tomorrow morning by LBJ students so check out their Web site in several days for news from their point of view.

This is Eric Brown reporting for PMA--talk to ya'll later.