Lead Guide Yoshiko Miyazaki called in after our June 20th West Buttress Team made the big push to move their camp from 11,000 feet to 14,200 feet. The team made it in good order and is now nestled in a fortified camp in a stunning location known as Genet Basin.
The team broke camp in the morning and loaded their packs with tents, sleeping kit and all the supplies and extra food they had on hand. Donning crampons to give them purchase on the steep snow and ice ahead of them, they shouldered their packs and began the thousand foot climb immediately out of camp. Known as Motorcycle Hill, this slope has some crevasses that they avoided, climbing to the top and then continuing up a series of steep slopes known collectively as Squirrel Hill.
A long, gradual ascent along the edge of a glacier and below the crags and steep snow gullies of the West Buttress, soaring thousands of feet above them. At the head of the glacier, they took a hard left turn around Windy Corner and picked up some supplies at their 13,500′ cache before making the hour long climb into Genet Basin.
Here’s Yoshiko!
