NEPAL TIME: 
|  Manaslu (8163m) and Dhaulagiri (8167m) |
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High Winds Delay Camp III Wednesday, April 14, 1999 — 6:20am (PST)
 Hear Ed's Call from NepalClick for [RealAudio] [Windows Media](Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media) |
Hi this is Ed Viesturs reporting on The Mountain Zone. It's the evening of April 14th and I haven't reported since April 12th at Camp II at 21,000 feet. It was a very pleasant night, it was calm, it was clear, the two of us crammed tightly into a small two man bivy tent. We woke the next morning on the 13th and felt a little bit of the effects of the altitude. We both had slight headaches but that's typical of going to such high altitude and spending the first night. And so we decided to the spend the day of the 13th simply resting, relaxing as much as we could at that altitude and acclimatizing.
On the evening of April 13th at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, another one of the typical afternoon thunder, lightening, graupel snowstorms occured and it snowed until about 11 o'clock at night and we got about eight inches of snow during the evening. So we woke up this morning, April 14th, the sun hit our tent at about 5:30 in the morning. It was a beautiful sunny day but it was very, very windy up high and our plan had been to carry a load up to Camp III and perhaps sleep up there. But with winds as they were we felt that we couldn't do that today and we also noticed that we gained 200 feet in altitude on our altimeters indicating a low pressure system.
So we decided rather than trying to spend a third night at 21,000 feet, we decided to come back down to Base Camp to get some rest which we were looking forward to. So we packed up, we left Camp II, we left it in place and we left at seven in the morning and by 10 o'clock this morning we were back here at Base Camp rich with oxygen, lots of good food, and hoping to have three or four days of rest before we go back up the mountain.
So that's my update for now, we're going to hang out here at Base Camp for three or four days, and then make a plan to go back up to Camp I, to Camp II and then either to carry to Camp III, move there, and maybe make a summit attempt or perhaps come back down here before doing that. That's all something that we're going to have to think about and plan on. So thanks for listening, Ed Viesturs signing off.
— Ed Viesturs, Mountain Zone Correspondent
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