At High Camp!

The team moved up to High Camp yesterday (Saturday, July 4). They packed up their kit and climbed up to the steep headwall, clipped in to the fixed lines an d made their way slowly up to the top of the ridge that makes up this part of the West Buttress. As they passed by the cache of supplies that they left Thursday, they picked up some of their kit and proceeded up the ridge.

The ridge to High Camp provides some of the most fun and exciting climbing on the route. The climbers weaved in and out of rocky sections, and clipped snow pickets and slung rocks for protection against slips when they climbed through some of the more exposed bits. Another short bit of fixed rope protects some tricky climbing around a large rock feature called Washburn's Thumb.

Upon reaching high Camp, the team needed to get to work fortifying a camp site. High Camp can be buffeted but extremely high winds, so the tents need to be protected by thick walls built from blocks of snow. They cut the blocks out or firm snow with snow saws and stack them atop each other until they feel satisfied that they have adequate protection. Moving to High Camp is difficult enough, but adding the workload of building walls makes for one of the hardest days on the climb.

The report I received was that they might make a summit bid today, if the weather looks favorable. smoke and haze are obscuring the view from the TAT webcam, so it is hard to say whether they are going for it today or not. the weather forecast looks OK, but not perfect, however; the weather forecast is often quite wrong.

I'll update today as often as I receive information.