Russell, Paul and Dusty

Just heard from this crew (Russell, Dusty and Paul) this morning.  They were about to walk out of camp around 6:00 AM en route to the 10,000 foot elevation area to make a cache.  Early/low down on the mountain there is no shortage of items the team gets to cache.  As they move up in elevation the temperature obviously drops and they are unable to do without some of their really warm items.

Early on in the expedition the carry days are equally as heavy as the move days.  Later on in the expedition the move days are much heavier than the carry days.  As the teams advance up the mountain the overall weight is lessened as they eat more food, burn more fuel and wear more clothes.

Too bad for AMS guide Dusty Eroh, his Kindle broke already.  Hopefully Paul and Russell have paperbacks that they can all share.  I know that's old school, but believe it or not, people used to climb Denali with out Kindles, satellite phones and solar panels.

Weather permitting, they will move up to 11K tomorrow.  Dusty said the weather was pretty dood today.  He couldn't really tell from the bottom of ski hill what the winds were doing up high on the mountain.

Photo of ski hill.  7800 foot camp is just out of view at the bottom of of the sunlit hill.