Pat Ormond, where what looks to me, about 100 vertical feet above Washburn's Thumb on the 16 Ridge.As far as the 16 ridge goes, this is about half way to 17K in linear distance but the majority of the elevation has been gained.
Pat and Tim are up at 14K. Today is day 8 I believe for Pat and Tim. Day 8 is the perfect day to roll into 14 camp. It's a good # of days on the lower mountain and now they get to really start their acclimatization.
They rolled in to 14 last night around midnight. Made some food and hit the sack. They had perfect traveling temps. It was snowing lightly, zero wind, decent vis., it took about 8 hours or so to make the move. Eight hours is a fine time for that stretch. As we speak, it sounds like it is "puking out" (snowing heavily and zero vis.) Kind of feels like you are living inside of a ping pong ball. No one is going anywhere today, up or down. Pat and Tim's group timed it perfectly it sounds like, not they get to take a rest day. MAybe the first rest day of the expedition so far.
The arrival into 14 camp marks, what I consider to be the second phase of the expedition. The lower mountain being the first phase, where everyone is learning all the little nuances of climbing in Alaska. Like staying warm, cramponing, clipping through running protection, altitude illness awareness, sleeping warm, and etc. etc. etc. During these next several days everyone will be perfecting their systems, going through their kit for the upper mountain and double checking that they are bringing enough but not too much. From this point on it's all about efficiency.
later, rfg