Today was essentially an active rest day for our May 7th West Buttress expedition. Yesterday, they moved camp from 7,800′ to 11,000′. The day before, they had cached supplies at about 9,800′. The active part of today was a quick hike down to their cache site, where they dug it out of the snow and carried it back to Camp 2.

Compared to the big loads and 4-5 mile previous days, today was not too “big” a day. They were able to spend the afternoon resting and preparing for tomorrow’s climb up the steepest slopes they have yet encountered. Tomorrow, they will leave their snowshoes and strap crampons to their mountain boots – let the climbing begin!

I couldn’t tell who left the message and unfortunately, they call was pretty garbled. Camp 2 is in a small bowl, with steep ice slopes to the south, making connection to satellites fairly spotty.

Enjoy!

recording