The team called in an update from Plaza Argentina, but unfortunately, it was cut off before everyone could say hello.  Satellite phones don’t always work as well as they do in the movies…

Today, they loaded up their packs with supplies and headed up close to 3000′ to the site of their Camp 1.  This was a moderately tough day, with some tricky sections of trail, particularly when the climbers negotiated a snowfield filled with “penitentes.”  Penitentes are formed when sun, wind and small particles of dust and gravel cause a snowfield to melt out into a series of cups of snow, and eventually into steep fins of snow, occasionally several feet or more tall.  On occasions, the fins can be 203 meters tall!  They are very interesting to see and can be fun to negotiate, but definitely make travel harder than merely hiking on snow.

Here are the team members: