Friday, May 23, 2008

Thursday- up to 14,000 feet

They have made it to 14,000 ft. It was a hard day for them, especially because Andy is having a hard time with a swollen knee. He decided it was better to go up to 14,000 feet and recuperate there than to hike all the way down to base camp and possibly prevent the rest of the team from summitting. Steve, Ben and the GAP team had to take some of his weight. Andy said "they are animals" and is very appreciative of their help. He used the ice axe and a ski pole to take some weight off of his knee during the climb from 11,000 ft. back up to the cache. At the cache, he picked up his sled which GAP had hauled up for him, and pulled it most of the way to 14,000 ft. When they got to 14,000 ft there were no available snow walls left, so they had to build their own, which took many hours. Andy melted snow and cooked dinner while Steve and Ben built the wall. They got to bed at about midnight. It is about -10 outside and a storm is coming in, so they probably will be at that spot for a number of days. Guess they'll get some reading in and I suspect they'll sleep in tomorrow.

They are all tired, but in a good mood; Andy said "you couldn't ask for better team mates!"
-Danielle

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