"It really comes down to Everest and the weather … we haven't had a season recently where we've had major storms the whole season but that has happened in the past and you would expect it to happen again. That will be interesting if it happens again: will climbers attempt, or will they just not go?"
- George Martin, EverestNews.com

Protective clothing

To protect their bodies from the cold, climbers dress in layers. The layers draw sweat from their skin, provide insulation from the subzero temperatures and offer a bit of a windbreak against the cold.

Eating and drinking as much as possible also helps. The body burns a lot of calories to stay warm so the extra calories and fluids keep circulation flowing and prevent the climbers from getting dehydrated.

Climbers watch for snow with sophisticated weather-tracking forecasts. The experienced ones also use the eyes of veteran climbers to scan the horizon in search of upcoming problems. Of course, the key is to stay put and burrow in if it looks like a snowstorm is on its way. It's not only the storm that can be dangerous. The powerful rays of the sun that bounce off the snow can quickly cause blindness, so the climbers use glacier goggles.

For the wind, climbers can't do much but hold on, reinforcing their tents and supplies as much as possible by anchoring them to the ice or to debris, such as used oxygen containers, around camp. But contending with these forces of nature at altitude can be tiring.

"Two guys are holding down the camp up there [Camp II]. We have a number of tents including one rather high profile cook tent that is really key to our camp up there that those guys have to struggle to stay up. I think that it was a rather sleepless night for them last night and it only relented a little bit during the day today..."
- Wally Berg, Mountain Zone dispatch

"As long as this snow falls, I cannot see anything else. Not even the Khumbu Icefall, which I know from memory stretches up, like a big piece of white apple crumble, only 100 metres from my tent."
- Virginia Robinson, AGF Everest 2000 physician's log

"The high winds started at about 10 p.m. last night and have not let up. Just about all of the expeditions on the mountain have lost their tents at Camp II. We had 10 tents and it is our understanding that only one remains, it happens to be our largest tent at camp. Some of the expeditions had a cook, and some had a Sherpa up at Camp II. These people held on for dear life in the raging storm, putting rocks on top of knocked down tents, and putting gear in the tent that they were in."
- Byron Smith, 1998 diaries

Expeditions pay hundreds of dollars a shot for the highly accurate "Bracknell reports" - the weather forecasts coming from Britain's Meteorological Office in Bracknell, England. Expeditions often share the expensive forecasts, particularly when summit bid dates approach and the weather information needs to be retrieved each day.

Want to know more? Basecamp weather reports Everest 2000 Education: Weather UK Meteorological Office Asian Satellite Image The Weather Channel British Mountaineering Council Weather Links Weather info from the Nepal Information Center Avalanches on Everest Cyber Space Avalanche Center

Sharing information, strategizing and keeping camps as secure from the wind as possible help climbers confront the weather. But the various expeditions don't share their entire strategy freely with everyone else. Expeditions guard their summit plan somewhat, not because they're necessarily racing the other expeditions to the top but because each expedition is responsible for its own safety and the added risk coming from more climbers going up on the same day is something team leaders want to avoid.

The wait for the weather can be long and frustrating in a bustling Basecamp when all climbers want to be doing is climbing. But without a four or five day clear window, staying put is the far better choice. Getting caught in snow or wind up high has meant tragedy for climbers in the past. The most famous example, because of the IMAX movie and Jon Krakauer's best selling book Into Thin Air, is the 1996 disaster, in which eight climbers died. (A total of 15 people died on Everest that year, but not all due to the storm.)

"Three hundred yards to the west I was shivering uncontrollably in my tent - even though I was zipped into my sleeping bag, and wearing my down suit and every other stitch of clothing I had. The gale threatened to blow the tent apart. Every time the door was opened the shelter would fill with blowing spindrift, so everything inside was covered with an inch-thick layer of snow. Oblivious to the tragedy unfolding outside in the storm, I drifted in and out of consciousness, delirious from exhaustion, dehydration, and the cumulative effects of oxygen depletion."
Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air

Questions Kids Ask
How is the team going to keep warm as they climb higher and higher?
Answer:
The first line of defense is to keep dry. Therefore clothing next to the body is designed to "wick" or move sweat away from the body. Next are insulating layers. Because the insulating layers close to the body also may become wet with sweat they are designed to be warm even when they are wet. More...