NEPAL TIME: 
|  Manaslu (8163m) and Dhaulagiri (8167m) |
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Summit Attempt Set For April 21st Friday, April 16, 1999 — 6:40am (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 16th and we've had a blessful, wonderfully sunny, beautiful, day here at Base Camp. Last night it snowed until about 10 o'clock at night, but since then, and all through today, and this evening there's been clear skies and no snow so things are looking good. We plan on spending tomorrow the 17th also in Base Camp and then our plan is to go back up on the mountain on the 18th. We are tentatively now planning to try to go to the summit on April 21st, that would be four days after leaving Base Camp. We would climb to Camp I, spend the night, climb to Camp II, spend the night, carry lightweight tents and sleeping gear to Camp III, spend a brief night, and then on the 21st, make an attempt on the summit assuming the weather remains stable and the snow conditions are good.
We did have a pleasant surprise, something that Veikka and I finally figured out after looking over a series of maps and talking to other expeditions around here that the camps that we placed on the mountain are actually higher than we thought. So Camp II where Veikka and I spent our final two nights on the mountain, rather than being only 21,000 ft., rather than that, it's 22,900 ft. So for us it was a very pleasent surprise knowing that we'd spent two nights at that altitude already. Camp I, rather than being at 17,350 ft., now we discovered is 18,370 ft. So from Camp II we plan on climbing onto the summit plateau and placing a tent at approximately 24,700 ft. and then from there, going to the summit at 26,750 ft. Now that's all in a perfect world, assuming the weather remains stable over the next several days and the snow conditions are good.
So for now that's all, I'll be talking again tomorrow evening. Thanks for listening. Ed Viesturs signing off.
— Ed Viesturs, Mountain Zone Correspondent
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