Dispatch 47: Rare Traverse of Everest from North Side to South Side

Hey, this is Dave at Everest Base Camp and it's the 15th of May and things are starting to shape up weather wise. The forecasts we'regetting from Michael Fagin, back in the states, are starting to point for the kind of windows we're hoping for, the jet stream moving away from Mount Everest and a little time before the monsoon comes in. We're hoping wind speeds are calming down. In fact tonight, just as I'm speaking to you, it's about 10 pm here, there should be teams on the South Col starting for the summit and we'll be interested in the progress they make. There were actually two climbers from the north side of the mountain came over the top and down our side of the mountain even though the upper part of our climbing route isn't fixed yet, these guys fixed a little bit of rope, presumably the Hillary Step and then all the way down to advance base camp, it was Phurba Sherpa, who I got to work along side of, who works for Russell Bryce, very strong lead Sherpa for Russell Bryce and a client climber of theirs that were coming over the mountain, and they did that successfully. Me, I'm still at base camp and still haven't set a date to heading up but of course it will be in the next few days. I'm waiting for my own interpretation of the weather and waiting to see what the crowding conditions are like up there, I don't want to get into a crowd, biding my time and playing games at base camp. Bye for now.