May 10
Altitude: 3300

Weather: perfect, sunny
The night was cold, probably -10 in the tent but the forecast from base camp is announcing a high pressure system and better weather.
We wake up to a sea of clouds under us. It is beautiful, for hundreds of miles all around us, clouds are everywhere, nature treats us to an impressive scenery, almost as a reward for being patient the day before.

We gulp down a quick breakfast, and gear up. We are off to an amazing day. Kai is leading our rope, I follow him at the usual 8-10 meter rope distance. We are down-climbing towards the cache site. There is at least a meter of fresh snow.

 

The scenery is breathtaking, mountains all around, glaciers, crevasses. Some wands in the snow indicate the trail that has disappeared under the snowfall. The other wands signal crevasses, in other words: no-go zones.

The atmosphere is good and the spirits are high, it is fascinating how weather impacts our spirit in the mountain in rough conditions.
We reach the cache quickly, dig out all the content: 15 days worth of food , camp gas for the stoves, and our personal gear that we had cached 2 days ago and start to pack up. The bags are incredibly heavy, the sun is strong and we heat up on the way back. It is tough but the reward is to be back to our nice camp in incredible sunshine, take out all our wet gear, hang all sleeping bags on the outside of the tent, relax outside in the sun on our insulated sleeping mats. It’s the perfect afternoon high in the mountains.
Dinner is cooked by Patch tonight. Rice and cheese tortillas, delicious in the mountain! Chatting, cracking jokes, sharing stories of our various adventures.

930pm the sun is still shining but clouds are coming and bring a light snow. We are lying in the tent on our sleeping bags doing our routine before sleeping and we can hear a light snow falling on the tent. Patrick and I have discovered that the middle spot is surprisingly the most comfortable one, more headspace, less water dripping on the bags. Xav prefers his personal space on one of the tent’s side. It’s working out fine for now.