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Equipped with satellite communication tools, the team is sending dispatches
and photos back to this Web site. You’re invited to follow the climb
through written accounts and digital images. 
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May 8, 2001
Mike Chrisp and I are back in Advanced Base Camp, both feeling much
improved. We made the 12-mile trek from Base Camp at a good pace and we
both felt quite strong.
We’re starting to see the first signs of the impending monsoon
season in the weather. The clouds are looking more ominous and the snows
are increasing. So that weather window we climbers talk so much about
is starting to narrow.
Mike and I hope to establish Camp V and Camp VI over the next couple
of days. We might not have enough equipment in place for all four of us
to summit. So what might happen is that Mike and I will get the camps
ready for Phil and Walter to make a summit bid — just the two of
them. As always, we can establish a plan but in the end the weather will
help make many decisions for us.
So far nobody has reached the summit here on the north side, but several
teams are in position to make attempts later this week, so watch
for news on that. Eric Simonson’s group has done a tremendous
amount of work in their search for the body of Andrew Irvine. So far they
have found remnants of the 1924 expedition’s high camp but no sign
of Irvine himself. Eric’s team is beginning to pack up their camps
and a small summit team had left for a summit bid when they came upon
a group of Chinese glaciologists who were suffering from severe altitude
sickness. Members of Eric’s team helped in the
evacuation.
Our yaks are scheduled to come back here to help take our gear out on
May 20th, so by then we need to have broken down all of our established
camps. Everything that’s gone up must be brought back down, and that’s
no small task in itself.
We’re hoping the weather holds for at least a few days so Mike
and I can establish the two high camps.
Tim Boelter
2001 British American Lightweight Everest Expedition
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