September 18, 2006 – First Tracks and They Are All Ours

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It is early evening on the 18th of September.  It’s the end of our first full day working out of Camp 1 and beginning to explore the Western Cwm.  We are about to settle down for our second night here at this elevation continuing our acclimatization.  And as often, folks, it’s beautiful, it’s pristine and as I told you years ago when I first came here I couldn’t believe that I was really in this place and I can tell you that the rest of our team members have reported the same experience to me today.

Four of us, Dave, Rob, Kit and Jimmy walked up to Camp 2 site today and were awed by the Lhotse face.  Kit said to me when she came down, ‘it's first tracks and its going to be all ours, it's very beautiful.'’  The second part of the team Michael, Bryce, Danu and I stayed here and dug in a better camp and cooked up a lot of food.  We enjoyed the clouds that kept the sun off us for awhile but dealt with the sun and heat when we had to and we had a beautiful day here in the Western Cwm.

We’ll report to you as the trip goes on now that we are at this elevation and making our way higher.