Daily Dispatches
Satellite phone updates from the 1998 American Everest Expedition
CLICK FOR COMPLETE INDEX OF DISPATCHES



Mencin
Summit Attempt Within 48 Hours
Sunday, May 17, 1998 — Base Camp (17,500')
Hear Dave Mencin's call from Base Camp
Click for [RealAudio] or [NetShow]
Satellite phones for Everest cybercasts provided by MVS/USA

Streaming Video
Camp III, 23,500'
(video: Burleson)
REAL MEDIA
modem speed
(28k) (56k) (T1)
RealPlayer
NetShow
modem speed
(28k) (56k) (T1)
NetShow
Zoners, this is Dave Mencin at Everest base camp with another dispatch. A lot of things happened today. All the Sherpas are still at Camp II. They went over all the GPS equipment. Everything seems to be working well, and it's all packed up. They're ready to move to camp IV tomorrow. Eric, Greig and Charles all moved to camp III successfully today and are warm and cozy and feeling very well, and the plan is for them to move to camp IV tomorrow.

Wally has stayed at camp II and Wally will not be on the first summit attempt. He will be coordinating things at the South Col with the GPS experiment. So tomorrow, Wally will move to camp III. Eric, Greg and Charles will move to the South Col and sleep for a few hours. While they get up at 11:30 at night and move to the summit, Wally will move to camp IV. Everything will be happening very quick in the next 48 hours.

24 hours from now, Eric, Greg and Charles and seven Sherpas should be getting up and beginning their summit attempt. The weather looks good. A couple days ago, there was an ominous forecast that has dissipated and we have a 72 hour excellent weather window, and things look very, very, very good.

Down here at base camp, things are going well. Everybody is preparing for the summit attempt, everybody's been staying up through the night and monitoring everybody, and we should be sending messages back from all the team members patched through the radio. That's all for now. Ciao.

— David Mencin, Expedition Scientist

Latest Data From the South Col (May 17, '98):
 Temperature: -13.4°C
Pressure: 11.27Kpascal
Wind: 29mph (NOTE: the wind meter is sheltered to not blow away, so the wind speed is not accurate at this time.)
This data is from weather probes designed and built by students at the MIT Media Lab and installed by Dave Mencin of the '98 E3 expedition. (http://www.everest.org/Everest/tech.html)

DISPATCHES

COMPLETE INDEX OF DISPATCHES