Team at 17,200!

TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008

Team at 17,200!

The team has moved to 17,200! They moved to Camp V yesterday. Wes said it was a really tough climb. It took about six hours. Although it was really hard he said it was a great climb meandering through rock passageways right along a ridge. They had spectacular views along the way. There were a lot of safety procedures in place. There was a fixed rope section along Washburn's Thumb. They had running belays and pickets with carabiners. Once they got into camp they spent about four hours making walls and getting the campsite ready. Wes said it pretty much wiped everyone out - the altitude and the exertion from the climb. He said I wouldn't have even recognized him if he had called last night, that's how out of it he was from the climb. The team has ditched one of their tents and now they have four climbers in each tent. At first they thought that might be a little too close for comfort but everyone has decided it is pretty cozy! They ended up working so hard yesterday that they didn't even eat dinner until 11:30 p.m. Today they cut more blocks of ice for the camp. It was a nice day. It was about zero degrees. He said that inside the tent it got up to 100 degrees because of the radiant heat. Wes said from their camp they have panoramic views of the whole route they have climbed so far. They could see Medical Camp and it looked so far away. There are about 30 people at Camp V right now. Another RMI team (one guide and one climber - the rest of that team is still at 14,000) arrived today at 17,200. Wes' team has about five days worth of food now. They were able to pick up their cache at 16,000. Wes has seen aircraft flying overhead the past two days still searching for the missing Japanese team on the Cassian Ridge route. There was a German team at 17,200 that lost a couple of their tents from the wind and ended up bunking in with an American team for a couple of days. One team in camp had two tents and a modified igloo for shelter. They had their climbing rope spidered all over the tents to anchor them down. Wes said it looked pretty interesting. The plan right now is to wait for the winds to die down before making a summit attempt. They had thought about it today but the winds at the summit were just too strong. The winds are supposed to slow by Friday. Until then the team will watch the weather and hang out. Everyone on the team is in great spirits. Wes said they have a really tough team. Wes was glad to hear that you made it back safely, Baron. He said he will pass on your well wishes to the team.