April 27th mid morning... ABC

Good day all, Robbie writing today the 27th of April and it is a windy/chilly morn. Temps are in the high teens (-8 deg C) right now and we received a light dusting of snow. It is supposed to get a lil' warmer before the weather changes. Scuttlbutt around the camps pertains to a weather pattern that is not in our favor for the upcoming three days. Snow and higher winds from the NW are to come in this evening. We we are trying to plan for tomorrows move up to Camp 2 with this in mind. Yesterday was stunning for mountaineering!!!! Too bad we weren't acclimitized for a summit bid for there was 0 wind and Mediterranean skies til 1100 hr... Basically we were climbing thru the pages of National Geographic... We were all able to move efficiently and confidently to camp 1 and all were feeling well. Camp 1 is @ 21,000' & change... It is situated on a spectacular bench that over looks the upper 2/3s of the route... There is a stunning couloir that we will ascend that feeds us to a summit plateau that then leads us to the summit ridge. The climbing yesterday was all glaciated with a section of 100 meters of 65 deg blue ice as well. There were 4 other expeditions ascending /descending which made for rush hr traffic at the fixed lines... Plans are to have a couple of us set up another fixed line system to alleviate the clusters @ the toe/head of the lines just below Camp 1. Highlights are as follows... Heavy laughter with the French (quite the eclectic group of individuals), stunning 360 deg views, route finding discussions and tactics for how we wish to climb the upper mountain, gourmet high altitude pizza, the Klinke/Klimek morning lattes, and lastly,assisting with some altiude related medical issues... Right now we are reconfiguring the mess hall in anticipation of the storm that is coming in. Thanks to all that have written back to us... It is always a pleasure to hear from our friends and loved ones... Keep it coming.