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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 9, 2001
This is just a quick update from Advanced Base Camp on Mount Everest.
Mike Chrisp and I arrived at Advanced Base Camp yesterday. As things go
with us, yesterday was one of the best days on the mountain but today
we are socked in a blizzard. You can’t see the summit. Big cumulous
clouds came in and we’ve got a storm on our hands. The Australians
are up at Camp V and are on their way down because the winds are extremely
high on the North Ridge.
Mike and I will stay here for two to three days. If the weather clears,
we’re going to try to establish Camp V and get Phil and Walter up
high so they can hopefully make a summit bid. We’re not sure if we’re
going to make a summit bid ourselves, but I’m going to climb without
oxygen as far as I can, in part because I don’t have oxygen up here.
I’ve been quite sick on this trip and haven’t been able to get
a lot of my personal gear up high -- including oxygen. So I will give
it my best go without oxygen. Mike will attempt to go as high as he can
with oxygen. And we’re going to try to do this in the next two or
three days. If we can’t do it then, we’ve run out of time. The
expedition is going to be over on May 20th when the yaks come back to
Advanced Base Camp. So we’ll be starting the journey back to Kathmandu
on May 21st.
We’re hopeful that the weather will cooperate with us but Mike
and I have had the worst luck climbing this mountain. It seems every time
we’re up here the weather turns bad.
Tim Boelter
2001 British American Lightweight Everest Expedition
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