Field notes4 June 20267 min read
Waiting for the window
Most of an Everest expedition is spent waiting. How we read the jet stream, and why we would rather be last than first.
Words by Ingrid Halvorsen
By the middle of May the jet stream begins to lift off the summit of Everest. For a few days, sometimes only two, the wind at 8,800 metres drops below thirty kilometres an hour. Those days are the window, and an expedition is built around finding them.
We take forecasts from three providers every morning and compare them with what we see: the plume off the summit, the clouds over Tibet, the noise of the wind on the Lhotse Face at night.
“The summit is optional. Getting down is not.”
Why we wait for the second window
The first calm days of the season bring everyone out at once. A queue on the Southeast Ridge costs oxygen, warmth and time, and time is the thing you cannot buy back above the Balcony. We usually let the first window go and climb on the second.
It is a hard thing to watch other teams go up while you sit at base camp. It is easier when your team understands why, and that conversation starts on the first day of the trek.
