News release: 9 May, fog. |
| Who stays in Lukla two weeks? Nobody - except us! We were all set to
move up to Syangboche today, everything checked, kit packed, porters
ready to go, and then we wake up at 5am this morning, look out of the
window - fog. Not just a passing bit of cloud (we are at 9,000 ft) but
the whole Khumbu valley is full of it. A message from our people at our
'advance base camp' in Syangboche says the weather is the same there.
In the time we have been here this is by far the worst we have seen it
early in the morning; it is usually clear, sometimes the odd little
cloud stuck to the ridges, but nothing like this. Rain and fog is
normally reserved for the afternoon.
We went down to the airport anyway to see ATC, police Etc. so they
understand we are going nowhere today (I think they already realized).
The first planes from Kathmandu started coming in at about 9:30 but at
much reduced frequency than normal, it is still pretty murky out there,
glad I'm not a passenger today.... At least this means there probably
won't be a 'double' rush hour tomorrow which could also disrupt our
plans.
We heard yesterday that nobody from the many 2004 Everest expeditions
(there are more than 20 on the Nepal side alone, some 300 people in base
camp apparently) has yet reached the summit. Our weather forecasts are
still indicating relatively high winds at summit level for the next week
or so, so we are in no particular rush.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more 'normal' and we can carry on with
our plans.
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