Everest climbers are biding their time in Base Camp, as the delays pile up. Besides the long, difficult route through the Khumbu Icefall, high winds have just flattened many tents in Camps 1 and 2. It comes at a time when the climbers had hoped to start their rotations to those spots.
Reports vary, but most of the tents in Camp 2 — as many as 40, a spokesperson for Seven Summit Treks told The Himalayan Times — were damaged or destroyed after 70-90kph winds hit yesterday evening.
Everest Chronicle states that Camp 1 was also affected. As we noted in a previous story, winds were expected to increase dramatically this week, peaking on Wednesday and then slowly decreasing until Sunday.
New forecasts today show the winds are even stronger than predicted. They will decrease from Friday through the end of the week. However, according to Meteoexploration.com, snowfall will replace the winds as an obstacle to progress.
Forecast for the summit of Everest this week, by Meteoexploration.com
No one was reported injured during the gale, and tents can be replaced, but it spells more delays to climbers’ progress.
Finding and fixing a route through the Icefall took most of April, the longest ever. This has significantly postponed setting up and supplying the higher camps. It has prompted local authorities to allow helicopters to carry loads to the camps.
However, in the current wind conditions, helicopters are not an option. UK guide Kenton Cool, currently in Base Camp, reports no high-altitude flights in the last few days. Cool returned from Camp 2 earlier today, according to his tracker.
