{"id":20709,"date":"2015-03-31T11:49:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T17:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=20709"},"modified":"2016-05-27T13:40:39","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T19:40:39","slug":"everest-2015-heavy-snow-in-the-khumbu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/31\/everest-2015-heavy-snow-in-the-khumbu\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2015: Heavy Snow in the Khumbu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Flight<\/a>
Welcome Aboard!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As climbers and trekkers make their way towards Everest Base Camp (EBC), doctor<\/a> they are being challenged in many ways. Unusually heavy snowfall is delaying putting the route in the Khumbu Icefall and rain, <\/a> fog and low clouds are delaying many from reaching Lukla.<\/p>\n

The Kathmandu Shuffle<\/h3>\n

Team after team are leaving their hotel early hoping to get a flight to Lukla only to wait for hours at the airport, <\/a> then told the flight is canceled due to low clouds. The Lukla airport has a deadly and dangerous reputation. It has no radar so pilots must use visual flight rules. If there are low clouds, the airport is effectively closed.<\/p>\n

Some teams are using helicopters but even then delays ensue.<\/p>\n

Jim Davidson made this comment on his Facebook<\/a> page:<\/p>\n

Pilots in Nepal say: “We do not fly in cloudy weather, because in Nepal the clouds have rocks in them!” After a long wait at the Kathmandu airport today for the clouds to lift, all flights to Lukla are canceled. We reed to a different hotel for the night, then we’ll return to the airport and try again tomorrow. Or, the next day. We must be calm and , like Buddha.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Icefall Route<\/h3>\n

The Himalayan Times<\/a>‘ Rajan Pokhrel reports that David\u00a0Breashears arrived in Nepal a few days ago and is consulting with the Icefall Doctors on the safest route through the Icefall. Through his work, GlacierWorks<\/a>, he has an amazing collection of high definition pictures and videos, some as recent as last year after the serac release. Using these images, they can evaluate a potentially safer route.<\/p>\n

Pete Athens<\/a> went to Nepal last month to also work with the Doctors on alternative routes.<\/p>\n

The article quotes the leader of the Icefall Doctors:<\/p>\n

According to Ang Kami Sherpa, who leads a team of eight icefall doctors, heavy but unusual snowfall has been affecting their work. The team has planned to complete a route that passes from the middle of the icefall section in the next 10 to 12 days, he added. \u201cTwo-third section of the route has been constructed, but Breashears\u2019 facilitation will be important to complete the remaining part of the treacherous route,\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, the season gets started, albeit a bit slowly, but there is plenty of time.<\/p>\n

As for me, I’m currently stuck in Istanbul after my flight to Kathmandu was delayed by 3 hours, so far. I’m hoping to get there tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Climb On!
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n

Please consider joining ?#?<\/span>Alzheimer?<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Prevention Registry. Joining does not obligate you, just provides you the opportunity. Many trails are questions and surveys. Open to anyone over 18 worldwide. 80% of all al trails fail due to lack of volunteers http:\/\/bit.ly\/1HONXgl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As climbers and trekkers make their way towards Everest Base Camp (EBC), doctor they are being challenged in many ways. Unusually heavy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[409,413],"tags":[410,415],"class_list":["post-20709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-coverage","category-lhotse-2015","tag-everest-2015-coverage","tag-lhotse-2015-climb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}