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3 July 2004

The biggest news is sad. Amir "Chilli, the general" Cuturic is sick with
some undefined illness that includes balance problems, quite an issue up
here where even getting to the dining tent means negotiating loose rock. He
left this morning, assisted by our excellent Major Imran, whose army
connections may speed up the process of getting a heli flight out of
Concordia. Everyone was sad to see Chilli go, he was generous and fun with a
repetoire of great stories.


Otherwise everyone else is well and last night before dinner we checked our
oxygen saturation (with a fingertip device) and we are a strong team with
plenty of sats in the high 80's and even a few 90's.


On the mountain we are making progress, yesterday Jamie finished fixing 600m
of rope, the alternative route to Camp Half that avoids the bowling alley
couloir. We have Camp Half (5350m) set up with two tents and everyone except
Chilli has slept at least a night there. Camp 1 is completely full, no space
for more tents so we have a "French Camp 1" set about 100 vertical metres
above in a safe, if small place, only one tent.


We also have Camp 2 (6150m) in place with three tents up there ready for
Malte and Taqui to stay at tomorrow. Everyone except Mike and Jamie have
already slept a night up there.


When we arrived it had been snowing for days and our first walk over to the
very base of the mountain was thru deep snow, now this has melted to moraine
stones and slippery ice and raging streams in the afternoon. Malte and Mike
pulled another team's climber out when she slipped while crossing; the stone
bridge collapsed as Jamie crossed causing a bit of wet adventure.



At Camp
Half we watched avalanche after avalanche one warm afternoon but the
mountain has stabilized and is in much safer condition now, and we have had
a glorious run with the weather. Yesterday was warm and cloudy but this
morning it is gray with snow gently falling, but not the wind we want for
firming up the deep snow high on the mountain.

Regards,
Jamie