Camp 3

With Carina ill from flu and altitude, the team, now down to six, pushes on to Camp 3. The weather is unstable - blue skies clouding in the afternoons accompanied by snow and thunder. Altitude begins to play a significant role - with each step, half the team sets a personal high altitude record.

Despite the previous days recon - Mark and Carlos spent hours finding the easiest route to Camp 3 - the tricky route finding and miles of travel take most of the day. By the time the team picks its way through jumbled ice blocks and menacing crevasses and set their tents up, it's late afternoon.

"Despite thick clouds and snow showers, I don't think there is an avalanche threat. Besides I am tired of waiting. I have let expeditions slip by before waiting for day after day for perfect weather only to find that all too soon I am trekking toward home, grimly wondering if I should have at least tried."
- Mark Newcomb, 1 October

"The most perfect day of the trip this morning. Wow! High pressure comes in. I was exhausted yesterday after exploring the icefall with Mark all afternoon. Nine hundred thirty meters total day's ascent after 400 meters to Camp 2. I was tired - very tired - when we got back to Camp 2 at 7 p.m. The other five stayed here and brewed up, and rested. But - now Carina's been sick all night and Mark suggested he was going down. This is a bad turn for us. I told him, 'Mark, I need you!'"
- Carlos Buhler, 1 October

"At Camp 2, Carlos and I got in a heated discussion. He was adamant that only he and I should attempt the summit, that others weren't feeling well and that the others were too slow. I got really upset and maintained that everyone should plan on giving it a try and should be allowed to go for it. I was already in a bad mood - Carina had gotten violently ill the afternoon before and vomited twice. Then she spent a restless night vomiting up what few calories she had eaten for breakfast. Finally we decided she had to go down. At first I decided to go down with her. But Carlos appealed saying that he needs me for a summit bid. Finally I decided to go with Carina back to the fixed rope and leave her to descend the rest of the way to Camp 1."
- Mark Newcomb, 1 October

"For a valid summit attempt it is important to get plenty of fluids and have space to keep things like boot liners, mittens etc. warm. Whatever rest at high elevation can be garnered is also important and three farting burping people kicking and elbowing each other doesn't make for a pleasant nights rest.

The last thing was to set the alarm on my watch and go through the various scenarios for the next day. It didn't seem real that after almost a year of planning the day of the summit attempt was finally a brief night's sleep away. Would we successfully summit?"
- Mark Newcomb, 1 October

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