The season continues on schedule and as normal as possible in this difficult year. Reports of helicopter evacuations have slowed to a trickle either because they are not happening or no one is talking. We know for sure the government is mum. Let's assume there are no new cases and hope for the best.

Slowly a few teams are revealing that they brought rapid test kits and are doing regular testing. Not sure why it was felt important to keep this quiet, perhaps none of our business I suppose. I think it should have been mandated by the government from the start. One bit of good news is a dump of almost nine inches of snow made the Lhotse Face more manageable. Climbing a steep slope on snow is much less stressful than on hard, solid ice.

The Everest area continues to be a busy place with people spread from Lukla to Namache, base camp and the high camps of 1, 2, 3, and the South Col. Everyone is in various stages of preparing for their summit bid that should begin soon. If you think that it is late for the first summits, let look at the last decade or so. As you can see the earliest summits by the rope team and members was May 5, and the latest was May 18 in 2012.