Yesterday the team got up and chose fuel, food, gear, and other supplies that they wouldn’t need for a few days. They packed these items up, tied in to their rope teams, and started the day by ascending the 1,800′ foot (548m) hill directly above Camp 1 known as Ski Hill. Once a top Ski Hill, they experienced rolling terrain and a slight continuation of elevation gain to all the way to Camp 2, skipping the cache site at 10,200′ (3108m) to leave their cache directly at Camp 2 at 11,200′ (3413m). Here, the team digs a one meter hole into the glacier to bury these items, and piles a mound of snow on top. You have to make sure to do a good job burying the cache to prevent those pesky raven’s from digging in for their learned favorite mountaineering snacks! Once all that is done, the team sticks a 6 foot pole of bamboo into the mound with a tag on top identifying the cache as theirs and also marks the site with a GPS point (don’t want to lose that cache!).
Caching allows the team to “climb high and sleep low”. Which helps their body acclimatize to the altitude in a nice gradual way. It also allows the team to brake up their loads into lighter chunks rather than carry all 110lbs up the mountain every day!
A 2021 team leaving Camp 1
Here’s lead guide Jed:
