Hello from Dingboche!

We have been down here at 14,000 ft. enjoying the thick air and warmer weather of the wonderful little village of Dingboche. I’ve attached some photos of Taboche Peak above Dingboche and Lhotse in the clouds with a huge wind plume blowing off the summit, which I shot the evening of the 12th.

Now is the difficult time, waiting and watching. So many groups are just about going crazy with impatience. I’m not sure where that’s coming from…

We have another day rest here before we will head back up to Base Camp, so we are on schedule, just as we had planned quite awhile ago. We are hoping some groups take advantage of a small dip in the intensity of the tropical jet stream winds on the 18th and 19th, as that will mean somewhat less climbers heading to the top during our summit window.

It also good news this arm of the jet stream will slowly be moving away over the next couple days. We still see very high winds until the 21st. While this is interesting, there is no surprise, as this is a normal pattern of very short, sharp, cold, windy pre-May 20th weather windows. In the nine seasons I have been coming to Everest, this has been the normal pattern.

So we are resting and feel that when a window presents, we’ll be ready to go. We are planning to move back to base camp to be in position if forecast models change in the next couple days. Next update from base camp!

-Scott Woolums, Dingboche Village, Mountain Trip Everest Expedition

Tabouche Peak 1

Lhotse in the clouds 1