The view from base camp..... As usual in this great state, we were treated to pink and purple sunsets and sunrises every day.
The long haul up to base camp. The weather could not have been better. Here Jason (The Camel) and Matt (Shakleton) take a break and wait for the rest of us !
Ever cheerful in the face of extreme physical exertion, Anthony hammers up the trail to base camp ! Actually, this is Anthony on his way down, dreaming of a hot shower and a soft bed !
Ahhhhhh, home sweet home. Base camp at 11,600 feet.... Altitude headache anyone ? Our kitchen and home away from home... It was about 0' when we hit the tents for an Ever-So-Comfortable evening of listening to everyone SNORE !
The morning before the attempt...it was around '0 degrees.
The ridge-line we followed up to the peak. The weather was warm but the wind was wicked ! Here Paul Russell and Jason take cover for lunch... There were some great and welcome skiing opportunities coming back down through the huge "Bowl" you can see at the upper left... The highest point up on the left of this photo was the final assault point we needed to get to to have a shot at the peak, which is STILL not even visible....
The views from here were absolutely spectacular ! We were around 12,000 feet here....
Here are the highest team members, Ian, Matt and Jason huddled down trying to decide if they wanted to make the final long slog to the summit ! In the end the howling 50+ winds, -15F wind chill, spindrift and cold drove the team back...
Ian braves the wind to take this picture of Matt and Jason huddled from the wind, still about 3/4 of a mile from the summit. Altitude was about 12,800 here...
Here Paul skis down from part of the way back to base camp. Dan, Paul and Russell had skis and snowshoes and the rest of the team was on snowshoes the entire time.... The wind made the snow scarce along the unprotected ridges...
Victory ! Although we didn't make it to the summit, we were back at the starting point,
with no injuries or frostbite and a better team for it !