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Sherpa Makes Summit Attempt
Base Camp - Saturday, May 6, 2000

DISPATCHES

Prittie

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Good morning Mountain Zone, from Mount Everest Base Camp. There's been a lot of activity here on the mountain in the last couple of days. Vern's dispatch from Camp III, where Vern and Al spent the night, was sent with a partial interruption, is my understanding. They actually passed an okay, but rather restless night sleeping at over 7000 meters for the first time.

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I actually accompanied Al and Vern up to Camp III and then returned back to Camp II afterward. There, Kevin was nursing a sore muscle and Jack was actually having some pretty serious coughing problems, and as a result of concern for their conditions they decided to take another rest day instead of pushing it and yesterday the three of us actually returned to Base Camp.

We made very good time coming down through the Icefall; it was a very very hot day yesterday. Today, as we speak, Vern and Al and most of the Sherpas are headed back down from Camp II to Base Camp also for a rest. We had an all-night snow here last night here at Base Camp and we've heard that it was snowing as far down as Namche Bazaar but curiously enough, the upper mountain was clear. This is a rather interesting weather pattern that was just impacting the foothills and lower mountain areas.

We're expecting our group of trekkers in; we're excited to see some fresh faces here today and they should be joining us for fresh pizza for lunch here at Base Camp. Right now, as I say, it's a beautiful morning, lots of sun out here. The entire upper mountain is clear and, slowly, everything else is clearing out.

As far as movement on the climbing route on the upper mountain, we did have a report from our staff at Camp II that Babu Chirri Sherpa actually did try a summit attempt today and was turned back short of the balcony above Camp IV, above the South Col, due to heavy, deep snow conditions. So that's not very encouraging at this point, and we're still...we seem to be back into this pattern of continual afternoon snowfall after a clear morning.

So we just have to be patient and bide our time a little bit. And one of the recent media clips that we sent in was an interview with Dawa Sherpa, and that was one of the things that he actually stressed, that this mountain taught him, was how to be very patient. So we're just going to have to learn to exercise this patience and continue to keep up our health with some acclimation forays and wait for the appropriate time. We do have, still, a lot of time here on our hands to wait before we have to commit ourselves to a summit bid.

So that's the situation here, from Mount Everest Base Camp, and we'll be sending more today and tomorrow as things transpire. So long for now.

— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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