Day 7: Friday, 1/1/10: Cache to Camp 1

There was definitely some New Year's Eve celebrating last night as we heard music, dancing and some pretty loud fireworks. We were party poopers and crashed around 22:00. Overall, not a great night's sleep. We got packed up with our cache and hit the trail around 10:00. We both felt great when we left basecamp. This leg of the trip can be looked at in three sections. The first part involves some loose switchback up until our first encounter with penitentes. We took a break about two hours up around 15,200 ft and chatted with a group of climbers led by Laurie Skreslet. We then proceeded across the second section, also called the Mine Field. This is a flat section of glacial morraine covered with loose rock and boulders. We managed to get off trail and had some difficulties sinking almost knee deep into dirt and rock that had covered up some crevasses. It's very important to keep your eyes open for cairns to stay on the more travelled portions of the mine field. After the Mine Field, we hit the final pitch up to Camp 1. We ascended the snow field through some short Penitentes. Just before Camp 1, we cross a over some runoff from above and had one last section of loose scree. I felt like I was taking two steps back for every step forward., so I put in a brisk push to Camp 1 and paid for it with a head ache on the flat just below the site.

We arrived at Camp 1 around 14:00. We picked out our camp site, set up the EV2, and unloaded the fuel, food, and supplies for the higher camps. We snacked and rested for a bit. We met a two man Swiss team that had just moved to Camp 1 today and were also planning an attempt of the Glacier. They had just moved their camp below ours as there was a problem with water draining into their previous site. Both of us felt the altitude (me especially). This was the highest I'd ever been, and was a bit nauseous and had a slight headache. We left Camp 1 around 15:30 and made it back to Base Camp around 17:30. When we got back, we loaded up on tea and soup, got our appetite back and finished up with a Mountain House Meal later that evening.

Time, Location (Altitude), SPO2, HR
09:05, Plaza Argentina (13,800 ft), 90%, 110 bpm
15:30, Camp 1 (16,300 ft), 71%, 115 bpm
17:30, Plaza Argentina (13,800 ft), 82%, 115 bpm
22:00, Plaza Argentina (13,800 ft), 89%, 89 bpm

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