Alan Rousseau called in from the team’s home for the past week to tell us that the team pushed their supply cache high on the ridge that leads to high camp today.  They donned crampons and scaled the steepest part of the West Buttress route, utilizing a couple hundred meters of rope that is affixed to the icy slope as protection against a slip.  This stretch is known as The Headwall, and conditions need to ne just right in order to move up through it.

The plan is to rest tomorrow and them move up to high camp. Alan mentioned some “good news,” but unfortunately, we lost his satellite phone transmission.  I suspect he was talking about the forecasted better weather that will hopefully allow the team to keep moving and stand on top of the mountain in a few days.

Here is Alan!

recording