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We woke up today to another day of blue skies and low wind, but to some unfortunate news as well. Tom had not been feeling well ever since we got to Base Camp so decided that the best thing for him would be to turn around at this point. He’ll hang out at camp until we’ve finished our carry & Tincho will be taking him down to Base Camp where he’ll catch a helicopter off the mountain. Tom’s been a great teammate, I speak for the team when I say that we all missed him greatly.

Setting out, our goal today was to climb to the top of the saddle that we’ve been moving towards since base camp. Then it’s a flat traverse and some more uphill before we get to camp 2. I’d say the overall slope was steeper than the climb to camp one, but not nearly as steep as that last section before getting to camp. Winds picked up to about 15 mph right at the saddle. I think that winds from the back side of the mountain pick up speed and are all funneled here.

Of course, we had a rest stop right in the middle of this windy saddle, which was a little unpleasant to say the least. It was good that the temps were not too bad or that would have been really annoying. You’re warm when you’re climbing – when you stop for a break you need to quickly put layers on so you don’t get cold, then quickly get food and water into your system before the group gets going again. The colder/more windy it is, the shorter the break. They really don’t feel much like breaks when you’re trying to do so much, especially at altitude! Luke was pretty generous about our break time on this trip though, I didn’t really run into that as much as I did on Elbrus.

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After about 5 hours of climbing and breaks every 1-1.5 hrs, we made it to Camp Two after getting through some annoying snow/ice fields. These require a different technique to get through as you’re sometimes waist-deep and have to take giant steps so they quickly winded most of us. I took a minor spill when the snow I stepped on broke and I slipped down a few feet. They were just as annoying on the way down. The only person who didn’t have trouble was Craig, who was able to take huge steps thanks to his tall frame.

Getting to Camp Two, it was a similar deal as our first carry – deposit our stuff and head back down. Camp Two has some great views and is more sheltered than Camp One so we’re looking forward to moving there tomorrow!

Back at camp, we relaxed for the rest of the day and again had excellent food courtesy of our guides!

Continue to Day 10 – Move To Camp Two