Featured Expedition: 2003 American Ski Everest Expedition
Dispatch

Copyright©Jim Gile American Ski Everest 2003

Dispatch 23: American Ski Everest Expedition... (Transcribed from a satellite phone voice message) (May 9th 5:00 PM in Tibet.)

Mike, Dispatch 23. We are still at base camp. We sent John, Steve, Dr. Jon G, and Jim Gile down to the 13,000 foot level. It is about 50km down the road from us here at base camp. They just can't seem to get rid of this bug. It is an extreme sore throat and coughing. It is going around base camp, a lot of people have it, and they have had it for about 10 days now.

The rest of us are remaining at base camp. A few teams, have headed back up to ABC, but the weather forecast is predicting a new system moving in. There are heavy heavy [inaudible] clouds, all the way from Nuptse to the Summit of Everest.

So while people have made it up to the North Col, teams at base camp say it is still too windy to progress up to the higher camps on the mountain. So there is no sense for the rest of our team to head up, especially with another storm moving in. So we are just waiting down here with some other teams, seeing if in the next week we can get some windows to start pushing for the summit.

We figure we need 8 days, to put in a summit attempt. We would like to get up to the North Col to check things out, run up to 7500 or 8000 meters, and then back to ABC for a day or two of rest, and then go for it. As reported in the last dispatch, based on Brice's people our gear at the North Col is ok.

So there is no sense in rushing up there, ABC is a pretty cold and windy place, you just have to maintain sanity [inaudible] keep our fingers crossed, and see if a weather window opens. Summit attempts on this side of the mountain typically are from the 15th to the end of the month, there has been ascents earlier than that of course, and in a few cases, the first week of June.

Everyone is still excited, it is typical of the climbing game, hurry up and wait. It is giving us the benefit to get our guys well. We will keep you informed. Mike

[Note the American Ski Everest expedition is working with Russ Brice/Kari Kobler/IGO 8000 to receive the Bracknell/Swiss weather reports. Most teams DO NOT pay for these custom forecasts, and most teams DO NOT receive this forecast. Also note they are receiving the forecast for the North side of the Mountain, NOT the South. Several different forecasts are being used on the mountain as usual this year.]

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