Our team is still at base camp on the verge of a pending rotation to do the Camp 3 tag, which has been postponed due to the Cyclone storm that we had received on our weather forecast. We originally were planning on going up to Camp One on the 2nd of May, however the decision was made to wait it out, not feeling the pressure to push upward into marginal weather at best. When you have tens of centimeters of snow predicted followed by strong winds on the slopes surrounding the route, these are red flags that you should take head of, regardless of pressure by date or ropes, or being able to say your team has completed its acclimatization.
Today there is quite a lot of snow falling on Base Camp. Even the scheduled departure of the 5th is in question as we will wait to see what the afternoon gives us, the prediction of clear weather on the 5th will undoubtedly unleash a flurry of climbers and staff toward Camp 1 and 2, however we will take a pause and see. Lots of fresh snow, with wind on the slabs that will likely form on the 5th are all factors we will take into account. Our team feels no rush for time, all our expedition gear for the higher camps is already in Camp Two, and so our Sherpa team will eventually be up there for a longer stretch to do high carries now that the ropes are fixed to C4.
Meanwhile we have kept busy with a day of Ice Climbing, walks and we got out yesterday on a walk “above” base camp which is quite unusual, to explore the head of the glacier, just to get a different perspective on the valley. It was nice to stretch the legs and the team is keeping high spirits ready to get back on the route and complete the remaining bit of work still awaiting us before the eventual summit push.
