The May 8 team had a beautiful day on Sunday (May 20) to climb from camp at 14,200 ft up to the ridge at 16,300 ft where they cached some food and fuel in preparation for moving to high camp. The climbing from the 14,200 ft camp gets a bit steeper as they ascend up to a beautiful exposed ridge that leads to high camp at 17,000 ft. To gain the ridge, climbers ascend a steep “headwall” of 45-50 degree snow and ice using a fixed line to help protect against a fall. They all did great today getting up to the ridge and to the cache site.

While at the cache site they did witness an accident from another team. The accident did NOT involve a Mountain Trip team, nor a guided team and all of our climbers are fine. The National Park Service will be issuing a press release about the accident, and it is not our place to release details at this point. Some of our guide team may be involved in rescue attempts today, working with the National Park Service Rangers. Everyone on our team is fine and back in camp at 14,200 ft where they will rest on Monday.

They will post an audio dispatch later, but rest assured the team is all fine and in camp today.