Good morning!

Today was a really fun day of climbing! Our hike started with a short descent into a pretty gully lined with crazy native trees that look like pineapples on steroids. After crossing the creek, we started up the thousand-foot Barranco Wall, which involved a lot of third-class scrambling with a handful of fourth-class climbing moves. It was a highlight for everyone up to this point!

It took us about an hour and a half to climb up the wall, and at the top we took a break on a flat beach of sorts, interspersed with volcanic rocks. We were above the clouds, which made for a really pretty place to take a break.

The trail continued by dropping into and climbing out of two more drainages before we arrived at Karanga Camp.

The team did great! It was hot during our last, steep ascent into camp, but everyone kept putting one foot ahead of the other, “pole pole” (slowly, slowly), a refrain our local hosts use repeatedly every day.

Arriving in camp, our tents were all set up and we had a tasty lunch of pizza and pumpkin soup. We spent the rest of the day lounging around and washing the dust off our bodies with warm water provided by our amazing local outfitters.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little bit, until 6:30 AM! We’ll hike about four hours to our high camp at 15,200 feet. The plan is to rest and eat, and try to get some sleep before we make our summit push. We’ll probably depart between 11 PM and midnight to head to the top.

Everyone is really doing great and the team is having a blast!

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