Climber Chris Perez called in an update on the May 20 West Buttress team, who unfortunately had to return to High Camp after severe weather moved in, quickly and unexpectedly, and dashed their chances at making the summit yesterday.

The team set out for the summit from High Camp at around 9 am, after the sun warmed up the sub-zero temperatures. They made it about 1,000′ above camp before an intense snow-thunderstorm moved in, forcing the team to turn around for fear of lightning. They team has a few days left on their itinerary and plan to wait it out at 17k in hopes of a better summit window materializing for them within the next few days. It’s always a tough call to turn around, especially when headed for the summit, but in this case it sounds like the right one. All is well with the team and they are still optimistic with their chances of making the summit in the coming days.

Here’s Chris!
recording