After days of continuous wind and facing the end of the eight days of food they carried up onto the West Rib, the team has decided to drop down to resupply from a cache they left at 14,200′ on the West Buttress.  They really needed less windy conditions to fire the last part of the Rib, but they can push the weather a bit more on the Buttress, so in the coming days, we’re expecting to hear from them as they head to the summit via that route.

Additionally, the wind, combined with fresh snowfall has created an unacceptable avalanche hazard for the upper Rib, conditions that they should not encounter nearly as much on the Buttress.

Here’s Fischer –

recording

And here is Matt Park with a follow up –

recording