Funny enough, more than a dozen of us at last night's party were also all together at a Russ thrown party on Cho Oyu in 1999. Well, with the mystery of the crushed party hat solved, we were able to re-devote our energies to the climb. As you know, we are ready to go, all the tents, oxygen, sleeping bags and fixed ropes are in place. We've been receiving three separate forecasts, none of which are in perfect agreement. When a new one arrives we analyze it closely, even going back a few days to determine which is most accurate.
Forecasting is a difficult job at best.
On Everest, it is nearly impossible. But if we time it wrong, we could miss the summit at best. Currently our forecasts indicate a possible window. If today's forecasts confirm this, we will be headed out, perhaps before I can even update the websites. At this moment, we are planning a single, large group, push.