Ed and the rest of the climbing party are up at Camp II. He's been up there about a week and a half now and will probably be up there another two or three days.

They went up about a week and a half ago, expecting to stay about five or six days and have been plagued by--not by horrendously harsh weather--but they had about two days of wind, and then they've been socked in by snow.

Basically what they have been trying to do is get up to Camp III and spend a couple days at Camp III and get some (IMAX) filming out of the way. They are afraid that if they wait until later, they will have a lot of other climbers around them. So they are trying to get up there and get some filming out of the way in pristine conditions, but haven't been able to because of the weather. They are hoping to get up to Camp III tomorrow.

We just heard from Ed about half an hour ago and he said it's freezing cold there. But if it is clear, they will get those shots out of the way and then come on down for a well-scheduled rest before they make another attempt. Summit day is tentatively scheduled for the fourth of May.

It is a pretty extraordinary amount of time to spend up there. They'll have spent about twice as much time up there as they had originally anticipated. Except for a couple of minor health issues, a few stomach problems, generally they seem to be in pretty good spirits, although they are a little frustrated getting what they thought was going to be a pretty straightforward mission accomplished.

They just called and are having have some film supplies sent up tomorrow with the Sherpas that are going up in the morning. They seemed a little frustrated, but they are confident these conditions can't last forever and they'll be able to get up there within the next few days and get it done and come on down and get some rest down here at base camp.

At which point I'm sure Ed will have many interesting updates to share.

-- Brad Ohlund