Lead Guide Eli Potter called in after a dinner of chicken sandwiches from the Zahid brothers’ camp for the past few nights at 11,200′ (3414 m).  Today, they climbed back up to grab the cache they dropped a bit short of their intended cache site yesterday.

High winds and firm conditions made them stop below the infamous feature on the West Buttress route known as, “Windy Corner.”  Their camp at 11,200′ is nestled in a deep basin and it is impossible to see Windy Corner from camp.  Without any teams above them to look down at the corner from Camp 3, they had to hike up to see what conditions were like yesterday.

Today, the weather was perfect, with much warmer temperatures and clear skies.  They carried up and around the corner, dropping their cache into a deep hole in the wind packed snow at an elevation of about 13,500′.  Basking in the hot sun for a bit, they also gave their bodies a chance to ease into the higher elevation, in preparation of moving even higher tomorrow.

Here’s Eli!