Day 7 - Camp One - Tentbound!

It continued to snow steadily yesterday at base camp. Though we woke to a gorgeous sunny and clear day we needed to unbury ourselves from the previous day's snow and pack everything up for our move up the mountain.

The weather held spectacular for most of our climb. The snowpack allowed up to bypass the penitentes which was quite an agreeable route change for us. As we arrived at camp one, a relatvely flat spot in the mountain about the size of half a football field, our storm settled in again. We quickly erected our tents and jumped inside. Now we are tentbound with quite a snow storm raging outside.

We lost one member of our team today. Rich Shear has made the decision to head back to Mendoza tomorrow. Sounds like he's making a wise decision but we'll miss him dearly as he's been a wonderful key member of our group.

We do a gear carry tomorrow up to camp two at 19,000 feet. We'll then come back sleep at camp one and have a rest day the following day before we move up to camp two for our summit bid.

The mountain is proving to be formidible and visually spectacular and I continue to enjoy my comrades immensely.

Thinking of all back home. Back at you tomorrow.

Terri