The team decided to move up to High Camp today, as everyone was feeling strong and healthy back at Camp 2. The weather is also looking like it might change in the next day or two, so they factored that into their decision making. They are hoping to awaken early in the morning to clear skies and make a summit bid.
The trip up from Camp 2 follows a vague sort of ridge line for a bit and then crosses over a rock-covered, dead glacier. It then traverses and climbs up to the north ridge and the site of our High Camp at White Rocks. Just below White Rocks the team climbed into a shallow basin flanked with bizarre purplish colored rock towers. This is a beautiful and surreal landscape that I can only compare to the set of a 1970's Star Trek episode. The towers appear as if poured of blobs of violet play-dough by some enormous child. It's a pretty neat place...
White rocks is a flat expanse on the north ridge of the mountain that is more or less flanked by white versions of the same looking rock towers. This is a challenging place to camp, as it is located just shy of 20,000 feet above the nearby Pacific Ocean (on a clear day, you can see the Pacific from camp!). The wind up here can be brutal and more than one tent has been shredded in the maelstroms that scream up and over the ridge. We spend a lot of time fortifying our tent sites with tall and thick walls made of rocks to help deflect the wind.
Summit day will require a pre-dawn start, and often affords the climbers a magnificent view of the pyramidal shadow of the mountain stretching off to the west. Hopefully, they will awaken to see enough stars in the sky to warrant an attempt. We'll keep you posted!
