Weather May Delay Summit Attempt

Strong winds may delay the Filipina climbers' attempt to reach the summit. According to the latest weather report on Everest, there will be strong winds on the summit on May 12, which is also the date set by the climbers to summit Mt. Everest.

Because of this, the team is thinking of delaying their summit attempt to May 15 or 16. For now though, the dates are tentative as the team is still deciding on what is best for the climbers.

New World Record Attempt

This blog was supposed to be posted last May 3. It's actually a transcript of a live phone patch report aired on Studio 23's News Central. Sorry for the delay.

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The Kaya ng Pinay Everest Team support group has reached Chinese Base Camp here in Tibet. We're all here preparing to go up to Advanced Base Camp to meet the women and the big buzz here is our Filipina climbers because of the record that they're about to set.

The women, Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao, will be traversing Mount Everest, meaning they will be climbing from Tibet and going down in Nepal. This has never been done by any woman so the three women will be setting a world record by doing just that. So a lot of people are talking about that here at base camp.

Another thing they're talking about is Janet Belarmino who's climbing after giving birth just five months ago to this week. So everyone is surprised that she's doing really well, she's very strong just after giving birth five months ago.

An update also on Noelle Wenceslao who was hit by altitude sickness a few days ago, she's doing really well and she's performing well at altitude so they're all set for their climb to the summit of Mt. Everest.

Right now, the women are at the North Col that's camp 1 on the Tibet side of Everest. Tomorrow, they will climb up to camp 2 and then go back down to Advanced Base Camp where they will rest for maybe three or four days. After which they will attempt to summit Mt. Everest so the tentative date for that is May 8 or May 9. They're looking at the May 8 or May 9 window because the weather at that time will be very good.

The girls say that they're psyched, they're ready to go and all that they're asking for is for all their countrymen to pray on that date and for people to pray that they be given support and guidance climbing up to the top of Mt. Everest.

If they start on May 9, their target to reach the summit of Mt. Everest is on May 11 and they should be down at the Everest Base Camp on May 13. Those are the dates that the girls are looking at and all they're asking for is prayers from their countrymen.

And that's the latest from the Everest Base Camp here in Tibet, Vince Rodriguez, ABS-CBN News.