Third day of Ascent...Friday, February 12

(Bill narrative)

Today was another terrific day on the mountain. We started in Barranco Canyon which is at the elevation of 12,926 feet. It was clear weather in the beginning of the day, but then got cloudy and eventually rainy as the day wore on. We started our hike at about 9:30am and hiked for a couple of hours. The 1st group stopped at about 13,500 feet, and the 2nd group went on to about 15,000 feet. This was really more of a practice hike to get everyone “climatized” to the higher elevations, which of course we will be hitting later in the trip. Tonight we will be returning to the same camp, not moving higher to another camp.

The first group arrived back at camp at about 12:30pm and had a nice lunch of spaghetti and meat sauce, as well as empanadas – very delicious!! The second group, which went up to an area called “Lava Tower”(15, 190), came down at about 3:00pm and had lunch as well.

During the course of the afternoon, it was raining pretty hard, which was a new experience for us, as we have been very lucky with the weather conditions thus far. Then later in the afternoon, we had an absolutely hysterical card game with our porters. We weren’t exactly sure what the rules of this card game were, as they seemed to keep changing. In fact, there were so many rules that at one point, one of our “krew members”, Jim Marver asked if there was a handbook – which really cracked everyone up!!

We played cards until dinnertime which was at 6:30pm. Afterwards, everyone was so exhausted from the successive days of hiking that we all went to bed at about 8:00pm. For the first time on the trip, most of slept right through the night (although some of us got up here and there for various reasons). During one of my stirs, I looked up into the night sky and I was completely awestruck at what I saw.. I can say that I have never in my life seen a night sky like this before. There were thousands and thousands of stars, shooting stars. I could see the Milky Way as if it were literally right in front of my face. It was truly amazing!

(Cindy narrative)

Today was a rest day to help us acclimate to the higher altitude. It was very cold this morning, and when we started our hike, it was overcast, which had quite an effect on the photography. We hiked for 3 hours up to what is called “Lava Tower”. Well that was our intention anyway, but some of us were really exhausted and ended up turning back half way while the rest continued. At one point of the hike, we were sitting on the side of the mountain on a plateau. We had passed through a really big waterfall and had to cross over the stream at the waterfall’s cause. Here I dipped my hands in the really cold water and washed off my face. I was part of the group that decided to return to camp early, and was very thankful as it was starting to get very misty. By the time the other group returned, it was pouring, which must have been just dreadful! But having returned early, Donna and I were snug inside our cozy tent (me zzzzz....., Donna reading her book).

A couple of hours later, I and woke up and ambled over to the big tent to join in a card game, called “Cardy” that Kurt, Sara, Bill and the porters were playing before dinner. This game was very similar to Uno and it was quite a raucous as Bill was at the height of his hilarity...the altitude seemed to enhance his sense of humor. We really enjoyed ourselves and hope to play another game tomorrow evening...although I never did understand the rules (which seemed to change with every hand. Luckily no money was being wagered!)

After dinner, it was right back to bed. This whole trip I never had any trouble sleeping - even though I was in a very small tent with a thin mattress under my sleeping bag, wearing regular clothes and often a wool hat - I would still drop off to sleep in a flash. Others had trouble with stuffy noses or coughs. It was a good thing I took that Diamox as I never really had any altitude issues other than an occasional mild headache - which cleared up after I downed 3 Excedrin Migraine pills!! It was today that I started fanaticizing about In & Out and Sophia's spaghetti and meatballs… Sweet dreams!