GreatOutdoors.com: Everest 2010 Daily Dispatches

Dave Hahn's Photo Gallery and Reflections from his 12th Successful Summit of Mt. Everest.

peterp — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:07:53 -0700

“It all worked out,” said Dave Hahn, with characteristic understatement on his arrival back in the United States after his twelfth successful summit of Mount Everest, this time leading Leif Whittaker, son of Jim Whittaker, the first American to reach the top of Everest.

Dave Hahn Calls in from the Comfort of Kathmandu

Dave Hahn — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:37:10 -0700

This is Dave Hahn calling from the roof of the . . . Hotel Tibet in Kathmandu Myself and Mark Tucker flew in from Lukla early this morning, the rest of the team flew in yesterday, so we are all out of the Khumbu and everybody . . . . so we are very comfortable right now. And there doesn’t seem to be, well. . . .. there are still political problems here but the city doesn’t seem roiled up too badly right now. There are power shortages, so there are a bunch of generators running but otherwise things are pretty comfortable right now. Went out for a team dinner tonight with the gang, it was wonderful, nice and easy and good food, we’re all filling ourselves up. We still don’t’ have all our bags, they are following us down the valley and should be here in a couple of days, so we’re not really all set to get on airplanes for home yet, but close, we’re just about at the finish of the . . . . be down and out. I got together with a bunch of the other leaders and trip organizers at the ministry of tourism today for a meet about how to make Everest climbing safer and better, interesting, but also nice to see everybody there, all the trip leaders and organizer. Anyway, we are getting used to nice hot summery days and plentiful food. All very welcome. Bye for now.

Dave Prepares to Head Down Valley as Expedition Comes to a Close

Dave Hahn — Fri, 28 May 2010 09:15:24 -0700

This is Dave and I’m still at Everest base camp. Myself and Leif got down yesterday. Our Sherpas just about have our whole load down the mountain now. . . . . walking toward base camp . . . lower part of the ice fall . . . .not in any danger any more. When they get here we’re going to bug out and head down valley. I haven’t been down valley all season so it will be a thrill to walk down and sleep in Pheriche tonight. The expedition is coming to a close. The weather is still nice today, didn’t snow on us today the way it had been the last couple of days but there are a lot of clouds in the sky in mid afternoon and it does seem like the season is starting to change a little bit, getting closer to the monsoon and less like climbing season.. The next few days we'll be on the trail heading down toward Lukla and eventually Kathmandu . . . . (satellite transmission fails).

Dave and Leif Now Safely Back at Base Camp

Dave Hahn — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:05:44 -0700

This is Dave, I’m at Everest Base Camp. This morning Leif Whittaker and I got up fairly early at Advanced Base Camp and came down the Western Cwm. It’s been snowing a fair amount each day, so there’s new snow in the Cwm. Again a surreal experience to have that whole . . . it’s been such a busy season there’s been so many climbers and so many Sherpa porters moving up and down that area, but today just us, Nuptse, Everest, West Shoulder and we walked down through Camp I, there are no tents there anymore of course, then down ever so carefully through the Icefall and tip toeing over the ladders, really trying to be careful that last time down through, we made it down no problem, great to get to base camp, things are much more comfortable here, but as I say it keeps on snowing, makes it a little hard to unpack and pack and wash up and everything, but nice to be down. Our Sherpa team came down with loads today, they’ve got to make one more trip in there tomorrow morning, one more trip up to Camp one to carry loads down through the icefall and then the expeditions will be over. Keeping our fingers crossed for that, but so far so good.

Back Safe to Advance Base Camp

Dave Hahn — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:37:10 -0700

This s Dave, we’re down now at Advance Base Camp, 21,300 again, myself and Leif Whittaker, Tshering and Tendi spent the night up on the South Col. Pretty bizarre, when we came down this morning the Lhotse Face was completely empty, we have been used to seeing hundreds . . . . .completely empty, we broke trail down through new snow and coming into ABNC was pretty surreal, no tents anymore, again from being a camp that hundreds of people were living in was completely empty except for our camp. Tonight, myself, Leif, Tshering, Tendi, Lama Babu and our two Camp II cooks we are the population of Camp II entirely. So our cooks, and Pasang are taking great care of us. We are all looking forward to getting down to base camp tomorrow. Kind of oddly, it continues to snow, it snowed here seemingly all day, that didn’t seem to be in the forecast but there you have it. Our memories of being on the summit yesterday aren’t fading, but like I say are minds are starting to be filled with being off the mountain, being finished. Soon.

Jim Whittaker Tells GreatOutdoors.com He's Very Proud of Leif

peterp — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:55:40 -0700

There have been American father-son duos to climb Mt. Everest before, notably Barry Bishop and Brent Bishop, and John Roskelley and Jess Roskelley. But only the Whittaker family can now claim three blood relatives to have reached the top: Jim Whittaker, the first American to climb the peak, in 1963, his nephew, Peter Whittaker, who climbed Everest last year, and now Jim’s own son, Leif, who climbed Everest yesterday with Dave Hahn. Not surprisingly, Jim Whittaker is very happy.

“I’m delighted and happy and so proud of Leif,” said Jim Whittaker from his home on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. "He’s been climbing since he was a little boy, and this was always a goal of his, he set his sights on it. I think he is a better climber than I was when I was 34, when I climbed Everest, and he’s only 25.”

On Whittaker’s 1963 climb, the expedition put in six camps, not the traditional four used today, including one at 27,500 feet, near the South Summit. ”A lot has changed since those days,” Whittaker, now 81, added. “This is a very big day for me. Diane and I are so proud of Leif. We talked to him on his way down from the summit. What a contrast that is from 1963, when it took our runner eight days to cover the distance between Base Camp and Kathmandu, that was the fastest means of communication.”

Back to the Safety of the South Col

Dave Hahn — Tue, 25 May 2010 02:52:23 -0700

Dave Hahn calling from the safety and the comfort of our tent at the South Col, 26000 feet again. We got back from our summit bid, myself and Leif, about 11:15, the rest of our team was down within a half an hour before and after us, so no epics everybody happy and healthy. So that’s great. Leif and I elected to stay up here for the night . . . and our other four team members went down to ABC. That’s a good strategy, to get a little lower. We are going to overnight, we are going to do it tomorrow morning. It’s such a different feeling now being in this tent at the Col. Before it was stress and wondering and worrying, and in fact last night when we went to bed we’d received just by, randomly, somebody had given us a terrible forecast for the night, and we said, well, don’t worry about it, let’s see what the weather does. But we did listen to it and sure enough the wind blew a little bit, we really thought we weren’t going to get it, an opportunity, we had to come face to face with the possibility that we weren’t going to get up the mountain, that’s part of what made him sweet. And now sitting here in this same tent there’s none of that worry, there’s just the knowledge that we’re going to climb down this thing nice and safe over the next couple of days and make it a real victory, be all the way to the bottom of this mountain with no problems. That’s our hope

Back Down to the Balcony

Dave Hahn — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:53:40 -0700

Yeah this is Dave with my team safely back down at the Balcony, at 27,500, and out of the winds, out of the summit dangers, we are just going to waltz down the 1500 feet of the Triangular Face and get back to camp. Oh man, it’s 10:14 in the morning, the days are just packed, things are great . . . . light snow down here, but no wind with it, so it’s not bothering us, and man our Sherpa team did a an incredible job, of course we couldn’t have done it without them, Tendi Sherpa managed the whole thing and worked like a wild man, but our whole team, we had six incredibly good climbing Sherpas up there who made sure we got up, wonderful.

On the Summit!

Dave Hahn — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:19:30 -0700

Surprise surprise! On the summit of Mt Everest with my team! It feels pretty damn good. We sure didn’t think we were gonna get it last night. We got it, were up there, it’s ah . . it’s ah . . . what time is it? 8:04 in the morning, and we’ve been up here taking a bunch of pictures, there are still a lot of clouds in the sky. It’s pretty dramatic. We are loving being here. The cold is pretty hard on my battery. I’m gong save a little bit of battery and try to give you a call when we are down a little bit safer. But man it’s as big a thrill right now as it ever has been for me. Bye now.

Progress Toward the Summit

GreatOutdoors.com Staff — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:35:21 -0700

Mark Tucker, RMI base camp manager, reports that Dave and Leif have reached the Balcony, where, as is usual, they and other team members are changing oxygen bottles. Stand by for more updates on the summit attempt.--GreatOutdoors.com Staff

Ready to Leave the South Col for the Summit

Dave Hahn — Mon, 24 May 2010 09:37:45 -0700

GreatOutdoors, this is Dave it’s about 10 pm at the South Col and the wind has been dying down, the sky is clear, it looks like we’re going to get a shot. The wind was rattling the tents for the last couple of hours that we tried to rest but now its dying down very nicely on schedule, so we’re going to be trying to walk here in an hour or so. And I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll call in if I’m able.

Hoping to Get Lucky and Go For the Top

Dave Hahn — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:49:46 -0700

Dave at the South Col of Mt. Everest and now its quarter to five in the evening. Yeah, we’ve been sitting in that snow storm all day but things are starting to go our way or as we were hoping. The clouds have dropped down below us now we are in sunshine we got blue sky up above so that was stage one. We got higher winds now we need those winds to calm down but we are counting on that happening this evening. Of course this is an angst filled period, we passed on going to the top this morning, conditions weren’t right for us, it turned out right for others. We sure hope we get out shot on our terms but we don’t know that’s going to happen. We’d sure like our shot, we feel like we’ve worked hard for months, and we’ve followed all on our own rules to get strong and acclimatized and get ready for this thing. But now it just comes to whether we get lucky this evening or not, and that’s an uncomfortable feeling. We are ready to get lucky.

Still Waiting out the Weather at the South Col

Dave Hahn — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:40:27 -0700

This is Dave, still at 26000 feet, still in a snow storm. It’s almost one in the afternoon and we are still sitting up here sipping on our oxygen, trying to keep drinking water. Hoping for a change in the weather tonight, it will be about our last chance of tagging the summit of Mt. Everest. So we are watching as some of the teams that went up today have made their way down in the snow storm, they were pretty much in it all day but they seem to be doing alright with it. We want these clouds to clear out a bit and not too much wind to come up. We’ll see. We’ve got another nine or ten hours and we’ll see what we get. All for now.

Being Patient, Hanging Out at the South col

Dave Hahn — Sun, 23 May 2010 22:04:14 -0700

Dave at the South Col again, and now, at 8:20 in the morning, we’re still sitting in this light snowstorm, but word it we are hearing indirectly boldness has paid off for some of the AAI and IMG climbers, we hear they are on top right now, not their whole teams just yet, but they are up there, sounds like they are working their way through clouds and murk. So that’s good for them and again we are hanging out here at the South Col today and we’re hoping we get a little bit better window, something a little more acceptable for us, some encouragement from the weather, a little clearing in the clouds, a little less snow, we’ll see. But we are going to be patient up here today. All for now.

Weather Stops Summit Attempt at South Col, Dave Hahn hopes to Go for it Tonight

Dave Hahn — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:39:12 -0700

Hey this is Dave Hahn calling from high camp, South Col, . . . after the summit yet, it was kind of a rough night. We hoped to get up in calm conditions and get started, but there was a snowstorm last night not a bad snowstorm . . (satellite transmission fails). . . go for it, friends of ours, and they are still up in it, still in cloud, still in snow, still in light wind, but they are also close to the summit and we hope they do well. We gave up on it about one this morning and decided we were going to wait and try to get a better day. So now it’s morning, it’s 7:30 in the morning, we still got blowing snow around here, we still got moisture all through the sky, we’re hoping the forecast is with us and there will be a little bit less moisture tonight and we might be able to go for it. But I’ll let you know what I hear during the day and as I said we’re hoping our friends from AAI and IMG get up tonight, or get up today, and get back down here safe. All for now.

7:13 PM at South Col: Leaving for the Summit at Midnight

Dave Hahn — Sun, 23 May 2010 08:33:23 -0700

Hey, Dave Hahn calling GreatOutdoors. And again I’m at the South Col, now it’s 7:13 in the evening, it’s dark outside, winds have mellowed out a little bit, it’s still blowing a little out there, kind of scary at sunset, lot of high cloud to the west and north seemed to be moving this way, we’re hoping that mellows out a little bit before we have to start walking. Seems like everybody got down okay today, but not without some heroics. The Benegas brothers, Willie and Damian did an incredible job helping a climber from a different team, not their team, and probably saved a life getting that climber back going again and got some really sturdy help from down here. Lakpa Rita from Alpine Ascents, an amazing guy, when he heard there were people in trouble up there, , it was his rest day before his summit bid with AAI, but he loaded up his pack and went up to help Willie and Damien, so all those guys got down okay. But they really put out. Real heroes, and we take our hats off to them. We hope there is no need for anybody’s heroics tomorrow. So myself and Leif Whittaker are in are in a tent here, we just put down our dinner. Now we’re going to try to get some napping in. Our plan is to wake up at 10 p.m and we hope to be walking at midnight. Depends on the weather. We’ll see. Keep tuning in. Bye for now.

At the South Col Poised for Summit Bid

Dave Hahn — Sun, 23 May 2010 08:22:25 -0700

This is Dave Hahn calling from 8,000 meters up at Camp IV at South Col. And we got up here this morning, my group is now six climbers, myself, Leif Whittaker, Michael Brown, Seth Waterfall, Casey Grom and Scott Jones, and there are six of us so 8 Sherpas up here right now as well. And we got up no problem this morning, we had a really calm night at Camp III on the Lhotse Face, that helped a lot, we got an early start 6:30 a.m. in perfect conditions. No trouble climbing up through the yellow band and the Geneva spur. Beautiful views, and including beautiful views of the South Summit. We watched climbers up on the South Summit it was pretty dramatic with a big plume sailing away behind them. But lots of people made the summit today, but very stressful once we were up here at high camp watching and waiting for people to get down okay. There were some of the usual, well, scary moments while we listened to people trying to deal with problems way up high at 28,000 feet. So far it seems like everybody is doing pretty well getting down. It’s 4 p.m. It’s not wonderful weather here at the moment, it is cloudy, white out, snowing a little bit, a little bit of wind, but we expect that to moderate a little bit and give us a chance to get a start out of here tonight, but I’ll call you later and let you know how that goes. It’s all coming right down to it now. Bye

Close to the Summit: Dave Checks in from Camp III, Summit Bid Tomorrow

Dave Hahn — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:16:04 -0700

This is Dave on Mt Everest. And I just saw that million dollar sunset again from Camp III. Sharing a tent here with Lief Whittaker and all is well. Michael Brown is up here with us, he got an eyeful in his camera for that sunset. Weather is great, weather is wonderful. A number of people summitted today and we were pretty happy for that. We saw some of those same folks as they came down the Lhotse face on their way to advance base camp. Forecast is good for us, still shooting for Monday the 24th over here, it’s Saturday the 22nd now, and so tomorrow our work is pretty clear: we’re going to get up early in the morning and we’re going to climb through the Yellow Band at 25,000 feet, climb through the Geneva Spur, finish the Lhotse Face and walk into the South Col. Get ready for a summit bid, leaving sometime tomorrow night. It’s all coming down to this and right now it’s very encouraging, everything going well. Bye for now

All Systems Go as Summit Bid Continues

Dave Hahn — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:20:03 -0700

This is Dave calling from advanced base camp on Mt. Everest and everything is going pretty well. Pretty dramatic change from this morning to now, this evening. this morning the jet stream was still on the mountain, just roaring like 747s up there, pretty stressful, and blowing around a little bit down here. It didn’t look terribly inviting this morning. A number of people got up and got after it, and the Lhotse Face was full of climbers. And sure enough the winds did die down and by evening it seems fairly calm up above and that’s a good thing cause there’s a bunch of people at the South Col tonight hoping to go for the summit a little later this evening and tomorrow, and there’s a bunch of people on the Lhotse Face at Camp III. And we’re wishing them all well. In fact we need them to make progress, to get out of our way, we are still aiming at for Monday the 24th for our summit day, that means we go to Camp III tomorrow as a group, 8 of us, and then Camp IV the next day. The forecasts are still holding for that, it’s all systems go right now, its all looking good, keep our fingers crossed, keep climbing well the next couple of days.

At Camp II on the Final Summit Push

Dave Hahn — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:14:42 -0700

This is Dave Hahn calling from advance base camp, 21,300 feet, and we are in the process of pulling the trigger. We came up from base camp early this morning, there was a little snow overnight but it didn’t turn out to be much of a problem. My group of Seth Waterfall, Michael Brown, Leif Whittaker and myself, we cruised up here to advance base camp in six hours The other half of our team had planned on sleeping at Camp I tonight so they are there. We are going to meet up here at Camp II tomorrow and go on with the climb together above this point. Today we watched massive winds up high on the Lhotse Face, clashing up above the Geneva Spur. It really didn’t look like a good day to be up high, just as the prediction said, the jet stream is right on the mountain. The lower Lhotse Face was a little bit better, we saw a lot of people moving up to Camp III today. We are hoping they get the break they need so they can get on up to the South Col and get their summit bids going . But everything is in motion now and we’re hoping for good luck in the weather. The worry over the cyclone Layla has eased a little bit but not completely. Bye for now.

Setting Off for the Summit Bid

Dave Hahn — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:34:03 -0700

This is Dave calling from Mount Everest. Last night at base camp, it’s just after sunset we are teed up and ready to go, we’re going to get up early and head up through the Icefall. Myself Leif Whittaker and Michael Brown, we’re going to go to Camp II tomorrow, and stage out of there. Chad, Casey Rob and Scott are going to go to Camp I and meet us the at two the next day. Seth Waterfall will come with the first group to Camp II. Everything is in place. We’re probably one of the last groups down here in base camp, most others are on the hill. True to forecast today the jet stream is back on the mountain, and it’s pretty turbulent all around, definitely looked like the winds were raking the upper mountain. Our planned day for going to the top, the 24th, still looks good from a wind standpoint, the jetstream supposed to pull north of the mountain, and it should get much calmer, but we’re still very nervous about Cyclone Layla, it’s got a name now, and reports are that its should go to the east of the mountain, we want it to go far enough east that it doesn’t hit us with a couple of feet of snow. That would certainly ruin our day. That’s the only wrinkle, to get the cyclone to go elsewhere. Sorry for whoever it does go to but we don’t wan t it here.

Waiting Out the Wind, Hoping Summit Climbers Descended Safely

Dave Hahn — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:39:26 -0700

This is Dave I’m still at Mount Everest base camp, and we’re still hanging on down here. The excitement is definitely building with so many people having gone to the top yesterday. Also a little bit of fear and worry. We stayed up late last night listening to radio calls hoping to find out if everybody got down safe. We think folks got down but it’s tough to tell from base camp what’s going on way up there. To our understanding nobody went for the summit today, today and tomorrow were forecast to be pretty windy days, in reality though this morning was quite calm. In fact . . . . a little bit frustrating sitting down here and thinking how well we would have been doing if we were up high. But our time will come, we’re going to spend tomorrow at base camp as well. We’re hoping to hit the middle of a nice weather window that seems to be the best chance we can give our climbers. And so I’m all in favor of holding on, but like I say it can make you pretty antsy and want to run for the top from time to time. But like I say, the weather window looks nice unless--unless the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal comes our way. There has been one that’s formed up, and the hope is that it’s not coming this way, but yeah a cyclone would pretty much ruin our weather window. So we are hoping it moves the other way, that’s shared by a few hundred people down here that are looking for the summit still. All for now.

94 Climbers Reach the Summit of Mount Everest

Dave Hahn — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:49:17 -0700

Dave Hahn calling from Mount Everest at base camp. Exciting day here. The weather which didn’t look all that good last night ended up good enough: 94 people is what we heard went to the summit today. And we hope they all got down safely. It’s a little tough to tell from base camp, a lot of rumors, tough to tell just what happened up there but we’re certainly wishing everybody well. We’re happy people summited, we’re excited and it also does us some good. We don’t want things too crowded when we go for it, there are a number of large teams left to go. We sat down here and had a strategy session and hammered out our plan for the summit bid which entails another few days of rest down here and then we’re going to pull the trigger and go for the top as one group. So things are looking good that way, every body is pretty excited.

This morning started out kind of interesting, a P3 helicopter that has been flying in and around base camp for the season, this is an operation that has been in the works a few days now or a week, he flew up to advance base camp, and from what I heard landed up there, and conducted a couple of operations. He went in there and removed the remains of a couple of climbers who had accidents in the last couple of years, actually one who had an accident earlier this season on Lhotse, and one who had died up at the South Col two years ago, and so a pretty amazing bit of flying, this helicopter pilot, reportedly a Swiss pilot, carried out these operations and I don’t know of another operation like that that’s been from 21,000 plus feet, pretty stunning for us to see that get done. But anyway, lots of things happening here now and this next week promises to be pretty exciting all around. Bye

Hahn at Base Camp Waiting Out Weather, Some Climbers on Second Night at South Col

Dave Hahn — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:13:14 -0700

Dave Hahn calling from Mt. Everest Base camp. We’re still at base camp, probably be a couple more days down here we are still waiting for the weather to stabilize. Actually Our forecasts call for it to get a little worse before it gets better, right now it’s not all that great, the teams that were up at the South Col last night hoping for a break, are still up there, they didn’t’ go for the summit today is what we heard, so they are on their second night at 8,000 meters and we’re hoping they get lucky but the weather still seems unstable from our viewpoint down here. Often pretty tough to know just what’s going on that much higher up the mountain from us, but it doesn’t look terribly promising at the moment, we’ll hope they get lucky and get a lull in the winds that they are set up for. we are just biding our time down here, we’re enjoying Kumar’s cooking, playing games, reading, walking, half our team went for a hike to Pumori camp I, which is just hiking, not technical climbing, but gives us a chance to get a little altitude. Myself and Leif Whittaker went down the medial moraine of the Khumbu glacier for a mile or two and then back up. Just exploring and keeping our legs in shape for the climb. All for now.

High Winds and Horse Shoes on Mt. Everest

Dave Hahn — Sat, 15 May 2010 07:39:52 -0700

This is Dave, I’m still at Everest Base Camp, we’re still waiting on the jet stream to move around a little bit. It still blowing pretty hard up high. Looked like there might have been some calm conditions first thing this morning, but then it got blowing hard again. Even so we have heard there are a number of teams at the South Col ready to spend the night up there and I suppose go for the summit climb tomorrow. And we are certainly hoping them well, but I’ve heard it’s not all that easy up there right now, heard that they have had some difficulty in the wind and hope that wind dies down for them.

We, down here at base camp, had a great horse shoe tournament, Mark Tucker our base camp manager and team manager organized a really well received tournament of horse shoes. The Sherpas were excelling at the game and really having a great time playing it Two outsiders ran off with our trophy though, Justin Merle of IMG and Michael Horst from AAI teamed up to steal first place honors beating Tshering and Tuck in the final. But it was a lot of fun watching them and participating and yeah that’s just how we are passing the time: games, hikes, talks and watching the weather. So far so go. Bye.

Maintaning Acclimatization

Dave Hahn — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:30:11 -0700

This is Dave calling from Base Camp. Another day of jet stream winds up high and another day of basically resting down low for us. Myself and Leif Whittaker, we went for a nice little hike toward Pumori today just to stretch legs.

After a round up high like we just had up at Camp III it takes a few days to get rid of coughs and sore throats anyway. We’re past that now and now we’ve got to exercise a little bit to fill in the time. I think our acclimatization is pretty good. We purposely didn’t do our round at Camp III until a little bit after ever body else, perhaps a week after the other folks that are trying to climb the mountain because we thought the window would come a little later … acclimatization fading away.

But we’re here at Base Camp … hiking and Michael Brown’s working a lot editing video that he’s been shooting and sending back pictures to Eddie Bauer. And, so far so good on all of that.

There are some teams trying up at Camp III and even Camp IV tonight. But I hope they have good luck. The winds are still blowing and the forecast isn’t for those winds to die a whole lot so I hope people are careful and lucky up there. All for now.

Unsettled Weather Up High

Dave Hahn — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:10:07 -0700

This is Dave calling from Mt. Everest. And another day of somewhat unsettled weather. Big winds up above. And a forecast of more winds in the next days or coming week. Even so, there are a number of teams that are starting up the mountain or are up at Advanced Base Camp hoping to poke some holes in this weather and get to the summit in the next few days. We wish them well. It’s not for us just yet. We’re going to wait until it firms up a little bit and get a little bit more stable pattern.

But in the meantime we’re still resting down here. We’re starting to go on short hikes. Myself and Mark Tucker went out walking in the lower Khumbu Glacier today, exploring out there. That was kinda nice.

For dinner this evening, Kumar cooked up a great meal. We had Apa Sherpa over for dinner, as an honored guest, going for his 20th ascent of Everest in this next week or so. And we had Justin Merle up from the IMG Camp. Nice to have Justin there too. And good to sit down with friends over the dinner table. But a quiet day relatively. Still a little breezy at Base Camp but not bad weather. So we’re all doing OK. Bye now.

High Stakes Poker on Mt. Everest

Dave Hahn — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:09:55 -0700

This is Dave calling from Everest Base Camp. And this is a windy day at Base Camp today, a windy day up above, from what we could see. Big streamers of snow blowing off of Lhotse and Nuptse. We can’t see Everest so much right from Everest Base Camp. But windy enough up above that it was windy as well down below here at Base Camp. The windiest day we’ve had so far. It made it a little bit unpleasant down here, a little bit hard to stay warm but the sun was shining, the sky was blue. It wasn’t so bad.

We had a big, we went over to Willy Benegas and Damian Benegas camp, not too far away, a hundred meters away and they had a big poker tournament. Eight of us, no ten of us played from, mostly from Rainier Mountaineering, from IMG, from AAI, from the Patagonian brother’s expedition. The winner was Michael Horst, a guide from Alpine Ascents. It was a fun time. It benefited a clean up expedition being funded and being promoted by Dawa Stevens, Asian Trekking. It was a pretty fun event to be part of, to pass the time a little bit in this down time waiting for the wind to end. Bye for now.

Jet Stream Keeping People Off the Mountain

Dave Hahn — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:31:31 -0700

Dave Hahn calling from Everest Base Camp. A fairly quiet day for us today. Resting, washing up. Let’s see, people were playing horse shoes, people were playing cards, people were playing chess. No one playing scrabble today. But a quiet rest day. Everybody taking it easy, catching up a little bit on personal business.

It’s good and windy up the mountain today. It’s blowing like crazy. We could see huge plumes of snow blowing off Lhotse. And then it was a little windy in Base Camp, as well. But just as predicted, the jet stream is right over the mountain these days so everybody’s hoping for a break and looking at the forecast to see when there’s going to be a window for going to the summit but there’s not one on the horizon just yet. So still kind of quiet here as far as many people down valley. Not even on the mountain at the moment. But not bad times here at Everest Base Camp. We play games and we wile away the time. Bye now.

20th Anniversary of First Everest Summits

Dave Hahn — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:36:30 -0700

This is Dave, calling from Everest Base Camp. And a good day for us. Our whole team is down, as planned, and resting. All the preparations have been done. It’s kind of a maintenance day down here. We’re camped on a glacier and after being here a little more then a month the tents are starting to melt out kind of odd shaped and uneven. So today was a day of kind of hard work moving tents and chopping out platforms again and flattening things out. But once that’s done we get a much better sleep down here now.

Today was a special occasion for us. Mark Tucker, our team manager here at Base Camp, it was his 20th anniversary of summiting Mt. Everest. He summated in 1990 on the Peace Climb which was led by Jim Whittaker. And of course we’ve got Leif Whittaker, Jim’s son on this trip. And so was kind of nice we’re talking to, there's a few others around camp also for whom it’s the 20th anniversary. Apa, Apa Sherpa, his first Everest summit was on that same day 20 years ago and of course now he’s summited 19 times. He’s camped about 150 feet away from us, just across the way. And our good friend, Ang Jangbu, at the IMG camp; he’s their manager down there. He also summited on this day 20 years ago from the south side. Tucker summited from the north side. So, kind of fun for us to look back and remember back in those years, May 10th seemed like the big day every year. Now that’s still considered kind of early and the weather not so stable. It’s still blowing pretty hard up above right now. All for now.