By Joshua Calhoun

April 30, 2002 Roaring jet stream winds blasted Everest late last week and over the weekend, shredding tents and pinning down climbers above 21,300-foot Camp Two.

Bill Crouse, expedition leader for New Zealand-based Adventure Consultants, estimated gusts in excess of 112 mph, according to company spokesperson Suze Kelly. "They had to collapse their tents to prevent them from blowing away or ripping to pieces," she said.

According to wire reports, Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander who first summited the 29,035-foot peak in 1953 with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, relayed by satellite phone on Saturday that a Swiss expedition saw six of its nine tents torn from the ground while some 150 climbers had to wait out the storm with little or no standing protection.

But Kelly said she's received word from Guy Cotter, Adventure Consultant's director and expedition manager, that the worst has past. Since Saturday, winds have decreased to average speeds of about 16 mph at Camp Two, according to weather reports from www.mounteverest.net

Crouse was able to lead his climbers down from Camp Two to 17,500-foot Base Camp on Saturday, while some of the team's Sherpas stayed behind to fix ropes between Camp Two and Camp Three.

Reports posted on other expedition Web sites in the last few days indicate that most teams were hanging tight at Base Camp, waiting for a safe weather window before the seasonal monsoons start and the peak officially closes to climbers at the end of May.

Kelly said Base Camp awoke to eight inches of fresh snow on Monday, further complicating summit-bid schedules.

"We were aiming for the beginning of May," she said, "Now we're pushed back to the end of the first week—at the earliest."