There’s not a ton of new information out of Everest Base Camp today.  They were able to evacuate injured out of EBC today by helicopter.  Efforts to descend from upper mountain Camp 1/2 through the Khumbu Icefall were put on hold after another large “aftershock” earthquake hit.  It’s hard to describe how unstable the Khumbu Icefall is even under the best conditions, and it is not a place to be when an earthquake strikes.   We have 6 staff, climbing Sherpa and cooks up at Camp 2 now and are working to arrange a helicopter to evacuate the upper mountain.  We hope to be able to get a heli up there tomorrow morning (April 27th) but this is obviously weather dependent.   There are still many many climbers up above the icefall so a helicopter evacuation of everyone could take quite some time.

Here is our weather forecast for the next few days from our forecaster Marc DeKeyser (weather4expeditions.com).  Weather is going to be a challenge in the next few days, and rains in Kathmandu are further complicating their rescue efforts and causing problems for the people who are living outside for fear of collapsing buildings.

General weather conditions
Still a lot of moisture and clouds around the mountain. However there are spells with better conditions, especially today and tomorrow. Tuesday looks like the worst day out of this period.

day 1: 26 april: short lived sunny spells but mainly very cloudy with periods of slight snow or showers; risk for slight snow/snow showers 60%
day 2: 27 april: still pretty good conditions at times but take in account from time to time very cloudy periods with outbreaks of slight of slight snow or showers; risk for snow/snow showers 50%
day 3: 28 april: very cloudy to solidly overcast-periods of moderate snow or showers; risk for snow/snow showers 80%
day 4: 29 april: very cloudy to overcast-periods of snow or shower. But soon the cloud cover becomes thinner and sunny spells develops; risk for snow/snow showers 50-60%
day 5: 30 april: further enlarging sunny spells in the morning, showery outbreaks in the afternoon risk for snow/snow showers 40-50%

I did not speak to Jacob this evening, but staff at EBC spoke with the Expedition Himalaya team in Kathmandu and report that all of our team is still OK at C2 and EBC after more aftershocks today.

Scott H. is OK in Lukla.  Fog came in today and prevented flights to Kathmandu.  Scott has been helping with clean up and not getting much sleep.

David and Alisha Germer remain in Pokhara.  Road to Kathmandu is closed due to landslides so we are working on arranging flights to Kathmandu so they can get on flights home.