Graham Hoyland and the BBC returns to Everest in Spring 2000 in search of the camera and Irvine. EverestNews.com discussed Graham's plan with him yesterday by phone again.

Graham tells EverestNews.com, "Mark Whetu (who has reached the Summit of Everest twice) will film for us. " On the Expedition, "I am a 'member' of the  Expedition as you correctly stated in the news yesterday. Mark and I will do the search for Irvine and the camera." For anyone who does not know Graham's role is a little different than many climbers, in that, he is an employee of the BBC. Graham is a producer for the BBC.

Graham's officially announced the Expedition in his Lecture  Unraveling the Mystery of George Mallory in Washington D.C.  

• Latest Updates Direct from Everest from the BBC !

Base Camp June 2nd	It was a beautiful morning; the ice-pinnacles standing around the edges of the lake gleamed in the sun, and the broken ice clanked against the raft.
Base Camp June 1st	Other men, less unlucky will come looking for Sandy Irvine next year. I wish them the best of fortune, and a safe descent from the heights of Mount Everest.
Base Camp May 31st	The team at Camp 2 find it impossible to go up or down. Two of the Sherpas attempt to descend early in the morning only to be caught in minor avalanches.
Base Camp May 30th	There was so much snow drifting around the tents that they had to be dug out every few hours.
Base Camp May 29th	I think this is the beginning of the end. From midnight heavy wet snow fell, and it's still snowing at 2 p.m.

 

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Base Camp May 26th	Russell rings his ballooning-round-the-world weather man who will come back with a "hand-made" weather forecast, the ones we're getting never seem accurate.
Base Camp May 25th	More problems. A huge glacier lake has formed down the valley and is preventing the yaks from getting up to us.
Adv. Base Camp May 24th	Tony Kelly's tent is virtually buried and he has to poke his ski-stick out to make a breathing hole.
Adv. Base Camp May 23rd	The two teams awake at Camps 1 and 2 to find the weather worse, if anything. At the higher camp they have to crawl out to dig away the snow.
Adv. Base Camp May 22nd	Down at ABC a Sherpa working for the Chinese TV team, who has nearly died at the top camp has been brought down to Russell's camp, the 14th life he's had a hand in saving on this side of Everest.

Graham's officially announced the Expedition in his Lecture  Unraveling the Mystery of George Mallory in Washington D.C.  

• Latest Updates Direct from Everest from Graham and the BBC

	Adv. Base Camp May 15th	At last, someone climbs the mountain. We watch all morning as 4 tiny specks creep up the final pyramid.
	Adv. Base Camp May 14th	Feel lousy. Danielle and Tony go up to 7900 metres to practice for their summit attempts within 10 days or so, and come down again.
	Adv. Base Camp May 13th	Climbed the 12 miles up to ABC at 6400 metres from BC at 5200 metres just to gratify male pride.
	Base Camp May 12th	Tonight we have a birthday party and invite the British Army guys. It's quite surreal.
	Base Camp May 11th	I have to say I have respect for yaks. They're like cows with attitude. They carry big weights up to 21,500 feet, and they don't complain.
	Base Camp May 10th	Heavy snow over-night. I'm getting anxious about our search- we'll never find anything under all this.
	Base Camp May 9th	Everest has disappeared behind grey clouds.
	Base Camp May 8th	The whole mountain is unstable, just like the foothills surrounding Base Camp on the south, Nepali side. The stones underfoot are brittle and loose.
	Base Camp May 7th	Tony and I take a walk down to the cave at Rongbuk monastery. This is where some of the Lamas escaped persecution during the Cultural Revolution.
	Base Camp May 6th	The satellite phone has broken, joining the computer down here at Base Camp, so we are without communications apart from radio to ABC.
	Base Camp May 5th	"How do you go to the toilet on Mount Everest?" the small boy asked me accusingly in front of his whole school.
	Base Camp May 4th	Three of Russell's clients leave for a break in Xigatse- the last decent hotel about 12 hours drive back towards Lhasa.
	Base Camp May 3rd	I walked down to Base Camp from ABC in four and a half hours. This time just shows the effects of altitude; it took me 2 days to walk up.

• Latest Updates Direct from Everest from Graham and the BBC

	Adv. Base Camp May 2nd	We dash down the snow-slopes, running our hands down the fixed ropes. It's so fast! We can go down in about 30 minutes what takes over three hours of sheer hellish slog going up.
	Adv. Base Camp May 1st	Oh, to be at home with Sarah! England must be lovely just now, whilst here it seems to get colder and the snow keeps falling.
	Adv. Base Camp April 30th	Sabotage is in the air. One of our Antarctica tents is seen flying off the Col and crashing into a crevasse.
	Adv. Base Camp April 29th	Acclimatization on the North Col
	Adv. Base Camp April 28th	Mount Everest stands accused of murder- and of concealing the evidence.

Latest Updates Direct from Everest from the BBC 

	Adv. Base Camp April 26th	I met George Mallory this afternoon. He was wearing greenish tweeds - a film team was reconstructing Mallory and Irvine's last climb.
	Adv. Base Camp April 25th	Snow on the ground, but warm sun. Washing day for me. The drying clothes freeze solid in the shade, but in the sun they are actually steaming.
	Adv. Base Camp April 24th	I open my tent flap and look out into a world of whirling snow and vanishing hopes. I don't think our search party has much hope of finding anything this year.
	Adv. Base Camp April 23rd	During the night there is a deafening crash and I'm sure the top of Everest has fallen off. Apparently everyone else buried their heads in their arms, expecting rockfall, too.
	Adv. Base Camp April 22nd	Wind and snow all night. Eight of us hiked across the glacier to the Raphui La. This gave us some great views of ABC and the North Col.

Latest Updates Direct from Everest from the BBC 

	Adv. Base Camp April 21st	It's hard here on man and machine alike... we learn that our third laptop computer has died.
	Adv. Base Camp April 20th	Mark Whetu and I climb up to the North Col. We have incredible views all around. On our left rises the enormous bulk of Everest itself, with the summit visible.
	Adv. Base Camp April 19th	This morning we have had a refresher course in how to climb up and down the ropes that Russell and the Sherpas have put up to the North Col.
	Adv. Base Camp April 18th	I'm trying to get into George Mallory and Sandy Irvine's minds, to try to understand what they would have done on their last day.
	Adv. Base Camp April 17th	Another tough slog up to ABC. I'm particularly scared of this section as last year I had a TIA, a sort of mini-stroke, as I staggered into the camp.

 

• Latest Updates Direct from Everest from the BBC in search of the camera and Irvine 

	Tingri April 8th	This is my third trip to this side of the mountain, and I'm still stunned by the sheer size of Mount Everest.
	Tingri April 7th	This lodge is rather like a medieval motel.
	Road to Tingri April 6th	There was a huge explosion and rocks started raining down on the roof.
	Shigatse April 5th	There was blood all over the red plush of the bell-boy's trolley
	Deprung April 4th	We paid for prayers to be said for our Sherpas and for ourselves, and left.

Click on the picture above to take you to the full BBC Dispatch

The BBC web site is http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/exploration/everest/ 

Latest Updates from Everest: 

Lhasa 4/3/2000	"The Potola palace is enormous, a sort of cross between Gormenghast and a 1930s ocean liner".
Lhasa 4/2/000	"The predominate colors are the electric blue of the sky and the orangey-brown of the hills".
Kathmandu 4/1/2000	"Disaster! We've just been informed by the pilot that the winds are too strong for landing at Lhasa. We will have to fly on to Chengdu".

   Click on the picture above to take you to the full BBC Dispatch

The BBC web site is http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/exploration/everest/ 

We encourage you to read our report on Graham Hoyland  from his lecture in Washington D.C. last month.

Other EverestNews.com Features on Graham:

• Q&A on Mallory