Matt Bohne called in from the basin camp at 11,200′ on the West Buttress. The team is now reunited, after guides Ben and Agustin hiked the 9.5 miles up glacier to catch the rest of the team.
Today was a relatively easy day (for everyone except Ben and Agustin!) as the team dropped downhill about an hour to retrieve the cache they buried on Tuesday, located at about 10,200′. They dug up their supplies and carried everything back up to camp at 11,200′. The whole endeavor took only a few hours, so they spent the remainder of the day resting and reviewing skills that they will employ tomorrow, when they don crampons and begin climbing up and around the bottom of the craggy West Buttress proper, to make a carry around the infamous Windy Corner, a feature that is sort of a weather and wind magnet, due to it’s location at the far western edge o the south side of a huge mountain.
The climber with the back injury is heading home to Israel, having been cleared by doctors in Anchorage. We wish him all the best and are very sorry that he suffered a back injury on the ascent.
Here’s Matt!
