September 10, 2007

We received the following dispatches over the weekend (September 8 and 9) from AAI guide Mark Johnson:

Hi everyone, this is Mark calling in from Bolivia to give a report for Saturday and Sunday. We woke in the Condoriri to 2 - 3 inches of fresh snow. We packed up, loaded the horses, and headed up under snowy conditions. We went into the town of El Alto, ate some delicious pizza for lunch, then drove to Zongo Pass to begin our approach to Huayna Potosi. Since the campsite we were planning on staying at was full, we decided to stay at the refugio on the pass. This was a fantastic decision as we all took hot showers and had a nice, relaxing evening together.

On Sunday morning, we woke, packed, and left the refugio for our high camp (the upper refugio). We heard from one team that tried to climb last night but that gave up due to all the fresh snow. There are quite a few climbing teams on the mountain today, headed up to the upper refugio. The weather comes and goes - it's snowing on and off.

At high camp, we found socked-in conditions. I walked up the mountain a little this afternoon and found that the snow seems to be fairly stable. There is about a foot of new snow that has accumulated over the last few days over the old snow surface.

There are quite a few people up here at the refugio. Many teams will be heading up in the morning (Monday). We plan to get up at 1am and leave by 2am. We'll call again as soon as we're able.