Blog Day 4. Arrival at Camp II:

The climb up to camp 2 at 13, 500 ft took only about 3 hours ad was actually easier than day one. When we arrived there were already several teams there and space was quite limited. The camp was situated on a narrow steep ridgeline between two enormous steep snow fields. The wind was howling, and setting up camp became quite a chore. Also, the jovial mood from Camp I changed significantly. Climbers were becoming a bit more serious; sorting and resorting gear for the summit push tomorrow. 

In my case I had a stupid mistake and packed my helmet with the headlamp so that is was switched on during transport, and the batteries had drained. Man what a panic. Glad I discovered it the day before and not “morning of.”  I scoured the camp and managed to come up with the three triple A batteries I needed. Seems I’d left my spares down at the hotel in my computer bag. Another chain of stupid mistake I’d make on this trip. 

The Angry Looking Summit.

The other bad mistake was my choice of climbing boot. I ended up bringing along my SCARPA Omega plastic-shell double mountaineering boot for the summit attempt. Although the SCARPA is a good boot, it is intended purely for alpine conditions – that is purely ice and snow climbing – and not for class three rock climbing. The boots big clunky boots – although very warm and comfortable -- are very non- dexterous, and are especially poor on mixed rock and ice. The Grivel “newmatic” auto-binding crampons I’d brought only fit those boots, and would not fit the excellent Brooks-RockyBoots S2V trail shoes I’d done the approach with. 

I knew from the Ecuador trip, and from various short climbs in Utah that the SCARPA boots were going to be a problem on mixed ice rock conditions, and did bring along another of old strapped crampons that would fit the S2V shoes. But to save space – my packs were completely filled – I decided to leave the second et of crampons back at the hotel. As it turns out the RockyBoots shoes were sufficiently insulated that they would have been perfect for the climb. They would have been perfect for the mixed alpine climbing, and I use those shoes regularly for rock scrambles in northern Utah. That! was a bad decision I’d come to really regret the next day.