May 22, 2008

Paul reported yesterday the team had successfully moved half their gear and all of their food supplies to Camp 4.  They are planning to make the journey again from Camp 3 at 11,000 feet to Camp 4 today.  This will be completing their move to the 14,000 altitude before a large 3 day storm moves in on the mountain tomorrow.

Last night an additional foot and a half of snow fell across the trail from Base Camp 3 to Camp 4.  Paul said his team was hoping other climbers would break the trail open. This would save his team the extra work as they move up the mountain.

Paul mentioned they were starting to feel the effects of low oxygen, due to the altitude.  With all of their food cached at Camp 4, the climb today was of extreme importance.  Paul’s spirits are still good and the team is hopeful they can reach the summit as scheduled.

May 21, 2008

The Alaskan tundra from 12.5K feet

View between 11K and 13.6K ridge

We enjoyed great weather again today. We carried 1/2 our gear to 13,600 feet. We hope to pick that gear up tomorrow and move everything to 14,000 feet (camp 4). It was a grueling grind to move up the 2,600 feet in elevation. We could feel the thin air making every step much more difficult.

Our climbing group at 11K

The team is feeling good though and is very excited about our chances. The weather looks good for tomorrow for our move to 14K camp. The forecast shows the next 3 days to have 50-70 mile per hour winds. We plan to have a rest day on Friday and wait out the storm at 14K feet.

May 20, 2008: Travel Plans

Since we haven’t done any climbing, it feels like we have been eating all day. Everyone still has a healthy appetite and are feeling good. Once again, we continue to be very fortunate with gorgeous weather. We plan to carry half our gear to 13,600 feet tomorrow and climb back down to 11,000 feet. The following day, we plan to move to 14,000 feet depending on the weather. If the weather continues as has been, we’ll have no problem climbing to 14,000 feet on Thursday, May 22.

May 20, 2008: Rest Day

Here are some photos from our rest day at 11,200 feet above sea level.

Four Star Resort

One of my co-workers at Pearlman’s asked an interesting question. “Why not just stay at a nice 4-star resort?” Its hard to explain if you have not climbed mountains before. So I took a picture of the 5-star view I have from my tent in an attempt to show the true breath-taking views. They are a constant reminder of one of the many reasons I climb.

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