Rick Notley called in from 14,200′ camp, after the team carried a load of supplies up to the ridge at about 16,400′. We’re happy to announce that Rick has set a new personal altitude record with today’s endeavor!
The weather has not been very amenable to travel of late, so there were a number of climbers who took advantage of today’s clear weather. The route above 14 Camp is one of the areas where it bottlenecks, and funnels all ascending climbers into one path, in this case, the “Headwall,” which is a steep, 600′, icy face with ropes affixed from top to bottom.
As the climbers ascend the Headwall, they clip mechanical ascenders (fancy term for a one directional rope clamp) to the fixed ropes. The ascenders are in turn tethered to the climbers harnesses, giving them an additional level of security in the event of a slip. At the top of the Headwall, they climbed up a couple hundred feet of exciting ridge line to a flat spot where our teams traditionally put in their last cache of the expedition.
After caching, they dropped back down to camp for the night. The plan will be to move up to the 17,200′ high camp tomorrow or possibly the next day.
Here’s Rick!
