Weather Window opening?? Time to get high!
25 May 2005    GPS-pos: °' | °' | Alt: 0 M
Summit push is planned for a 30th May or 1st - 2nd June.
There are two windows of opportunity appearing on the radar. The first on the 30th May will is predicted for 20 Knots of wind and -23? C, which is upper level for safety, but is firming up as a reality. The Second window is more like the 1-2-3 June, still some way off, so not 100% yet, but predicted lower winds in the range of 5-15 Knots is much more friendly to the fingers and toes. This is however further away and apart from boredom, illness and other problems with staying longer the advantage would be nearly all the other expeditions would have gone by that time leaving the route clear for us to run up. We had hoped to call our Yaks for the 4th June to leave ABC, which would mean summiting 2nd June, descending and packing up ABC on the 3rd then beginning our journey homeward.

Current Plan for Summit Push
27 May ABC – North Col (Camp One 7000m)
28 May rest North Col
29 May North Col – 7900m (camp two)
30 May 7900m – Summit return to 7900m or lower
31 May return to ABC
1 June Spare summit day
2 June Spare summit day
3 June descend to ABC latest
4 June Pack up ABC – descend to BC with Yaks
5 June Depart BC in trucks and Jeeps for border town on Zhangmu
6 June Arrive in Kathmandu
7 June sort out gear and party in Kathmandu

If the weather on the 30th is not so good, we will look at delaying by up to three more days summiting on the 2nd June at the latest.
We are checking the weather twice per day, the decision to go for the first window, must be made very soon ie by midday on the 26th to prepare. This decision based mostly on weather reports from 4 different sources, so we are in the hands of the forecasters…
The accuracy of their reports will determine success or failure, we have done everything else to prepare and are ready on our side of the bargain.
Expect further posting tomorrow the 26th for our final plans!