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Berg Everest: High winds thwart initial summit bid
11:26 a.m. EDT Oct 21, 2003
The Berg team has decided to descend from Camp III to Camp II to reassess their summit bid. Even though the skies were crystal clear, the wind was howling and Wally decided to regroup and give it another go later. At this point the expedition is in no rush to summit – although as the days pass, there will be more and more pressure.
Historically there have been 222 summits in the month of October. Only 17 of them happened after the 20th (yesterday). The latest summit was on the 30th. Only 7% of October’s summits happened this late in the season. What does this mean? Well, the longer Berg waits, the less chance they have of making it. The encroaching high winds that have recently turned them around typically maintain through the end of the month.
Does this rule out a summit opportunity – definitely not. They are now well acclimatized, as was indicated by their recent performance in Camp III, and will now be even better acclimatized. The winds could also fluctuate, slowing down enough to let them sneak up.
We’ll all just have to wait and see how things turn out. If you wonder what it’s like with high winds at Camp III, 6800m, check out Everest WebTV to see some of Scott Woolums footage from last spring.
Berg Adventures has the only South Side expedition this fall. They have a real challenge ahead of them these upcoming weeks having to fix and prepare Everest entirely by themselves. One of the expedition members, Maegan Carney plans to ski down from the summit.
Image of Berg climbers on the Lhotse Face below Camp III, 6800m, courtesy of BergAdventures.com.
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