The final traverse to the top, taken from Makalu's summit
AND...a short video of our good friend, Da Yula Sherpa, reaching the top of Makalu in perfect weather conditions a few years ago...
Friday, May 17, 2013
Going Up
This expedition has turned into an endless waiting game for Tonya, largely due to fickle weather with constant high winds on the upper mountain. Finally, however, it's looking like the team is going for the summit with a forecast of decent weather. The plan is to leave ABC early tomorrow morning - May 18th. In USA time zones, that is late afternoon - May 17th. The team will make a series of 3 to 4 camps, with hopes of reaching the top early morning on the 22nd. From there, they will get back down to ABC and BC, with plans to depart the mountain on the 24th. It's still windy now, but if forecasts hold true, the wind should drop dramatically on the 21st, with steadily increasing temps and calm winds continuing through the 23rd. Then, after the 24th, precipitation is supposed to pick up with return of heavy winds. In other words, it looks like the team will be getting a classic one to three day weather window before the Monsoon moves in and closes down the climbing season. Right now on Everest hundreds of climbers are going for the top over the next few days, while on Makalu there are only about 15-20 people on the entire mountain! We may not hear from Tonya until she is back down from the summit attempt, and I'll update as often as possible.
