Day 12

I am writing this the morning of day 13. By the time we got home last night, fed and in bed, I was too tired and cold to write a journal. Yesterday was our big move day from 14,000 to 17,000 feet. This day is said to rival summit day. The day included climbing the head wall up to the fixed lines and to where we cached some equipment two days before. As we were at the top of the fixed lines we saw the other AMS team coming down and congratulated them for all making the summit and back safely. We picked all the cached gear and started to climb the ridge. The ridge was covered in snow, ice and rock. I found out that crampons don't work well on rocks. At some points of the ridge it was less than 6 inches wide with snow on it that was traversed by straddling and walking one step at a time. Each side with over a 1,000 foot fall. At other points we are weaving around large boulders with howling winds trying to hurl us off either side. After 3 hours walking the tight rope we made it to 17,000 camp. We arrived about 40 minutes after the other rope team so they were rested up and started building thick snow walls around the tent location. At 17,000 camp you are looking down at all other mountains and are above the cloud line. I felt really strong in body and mind when we arrived, knowing that the next day was a rest day.