Camp III - 11,000 ft.

Update compliments of April Milan (Aaron's girlfriend in Salt Lake City, Utah)....

She heard from the guys late Weds. night and was surprised to hear that Aaron and Scott were relaxing in the tent at Camp III and looking out at a rainbow.

They woke up at 9,500 feet at Camp II with the entire inside of their tent covered with ice. Icicles hung from the ceiling of their tent. Despite the cold Aaron sounded really excited and full of energy. He said they are both feeling great and looking forward to tomorrow's climb. Since the weather has been a bit touch and go in the past week and since they had good weather today, they decided to forgo climbing Kahiltna Dome and take advantage of the conditions. After packing all of their gear up and loading their sleds, they estimate that each of them was hauling 120 pounds of gear and food. Because Camp III had gotten 3 feet of snow 2 days ago, the guys ended up having to break trail with their sleds and packs all the way up to Camp III at 11,000 feet. They say there are about 15 other tents up there at Camp III and no sign yet of any climbers on their way down from the summit.

When they got to Camp III, they ate, refueled, and refilled on water before taking a cache of all of their food, save 1.5 days supply, up to 13,200 feet. What a couple of overachievers. The weather forecast is decent for tomorrow as well, and the guys plan to climb to Camp IV at 14,200 feet tomorrow. This will put them 2 days ahead of the posted schedule!

Aaron was excited to hear that Dana and I are going to do a "fly-by" of the mountain on the 21st. He says if they're still on the mountain on the 21st, that we should look for 2 climbers, both in red jackets in black pants. I can only hope that we'll be flying close enough to the mountain to spot climbers up there!