November 15, 2016
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- Cayambe
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- Ixta
Tomorrow is summit day — for both Austin and team in Mexico and Luke and his crew in Ecuador. Everyone on each team is at high camp and ready to take a shot in the morning. Ixta and Cayambe are both alpine climbs meaning alpine starts. Teams will be getting up around midnight, having a quick breakfast and starting to walk. Weather tends to be a bit more settled, snow is better for cramponing and the team also gives themselves a ‘cushion of daylight’ at the end of the climbing day to deal with anything which might arise. You always hate getting out of the sleeping bag at that hour but you end up never regretting an early start.
Weather looks reasonable for each team so let’s see how tomorrow goes. We’ll be getting two sat phone calls at some point and will let you know what we hear. Wishing everyone the best.
Phil Ershler