Day 14: Friday, 1/8/10: Rest Day at Camp 2

Well our friend high wind paid us multiple visits throughout the night. Gusts, although not as fast and loud as Camp 1, were enough to keep us up most of the night. Anxiety for the climb probably didn't help our cause. When the alarm went off at 01:00, we were both exhausted. Jason had an SPO2 in the high 60's and I wasn't much better in the low 70's. The temperature inside the tent was chilly -5F. Neither of us were mentally prepared for the summit attempt and we decided for a rest day Camp 2.

We slept in a bit and awoke when the "Rocket Scientists" paid us a visit. Most of the teams decided to do the same thing as us. The Swiss team however made a go of it. One of the climbers started out on the glacier around 6:30 solo while the other member opted for the traverse route. They were both successful, and from what we heard they actually summitted within 5 minutes of each other and got to enjoy the goal of their journey together. Our day was spent walking around Camp 2. We hung out with some of the Rocket Scientists at the more populated side of Camp 2. We filled all of our water bottles from a small frozen pond near their tent and enjoyed some relaxation at the camp. Two climbers were messing around on the foot of the glacier. We had not met them up to this point, but they were from Mexico and also planning the Polish Direct. Kurt Wedberg was also guiding a group of two climbers up the glacier and he also arrived at Camp 2.

As we headed back to our Camp after socializing, Kelly asked us if he could join us on the glacier. His partner decided to take the traverse route after reaching Camp 2 and he didn't want to go up solo. We agreed on a meeting time of 03:00. We got to bed around 19:00. I think both of us were much more mentally focused having the day off to relax. Confirmation from the base camp indicated that the weather was to be perfect on the summit. This was it, one shot, one kill.

Time, Location (Altitude), SPO2, HR
01:00, Camp 2 (19,200 ft), SPO2 70%, 67 bpm
10:30, Camp 2 (19,200 ft), 73%, 70 bpm
19:00, Camp 2 (19,200 ft), 70%, 82 bpm

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