Wednesday Evening Update

Nate & Joey called from 14 camp, they've decided to stay there tonight.  The weather below them is foggy and there are plenty of people already sitting at base camp waiting for flights.  No reason to rush just to be in line. He said they would be seeing us Friday, at the earliest.  They'll be our last West Buttress team down the hill for the season, so they'll be doing a sweep, making sure that we've cleaned up all of our camps and caches.  

It's been cloudy in Talkeetna for a few days, with rumors that it has been clear above 6000 feet or so.  There have been enough clouds at that crucial point to preventing flights from landing on the glaciers.  The air taxi tried to fly into base camp about a half-hour ago and the planes had to turn around due to clouds that had moved in.  So Mike Hamill & his team will be spending the night at base camp.  The Ruth Glacier was totally socked in, so Colby's crew will also be enjoying another round of hot cocoa and another night in a cozy sleeping bag.  

I'm off to fight mosquitoes.  ~ Julia