July 10, 2013
Climbing the Barranco Wall (Eben Reckord)
Short and to the point sat phone call from Sheldon today. The team completed their climb up to 14,500’ and then headed down to the Baranco Camp at 13K. Weather good, everyone feeling well so no issues. That’s all we needed to hear.
Tomorrow is Karanga Camp. The morning starts off with the Baranco Wall.  It’s a 2 hour hike/scramble up good rock with sensational views. Looks intimidating from camp but only fun once people are on it. Karanga Camp is close to 13K feet, too. Some folks skip this camp and head straight to high camp at Barafu. Why do that? Adding an extra day gives our teams an extra day of acclimatization, breaks up an otherwise long day and allows us to arrive at high camp quite early in the day and not be unduly tired.
I’d call tomorrow ‘hump day’ as far as the climb’s concerned. Once they reach Karanga, attention will be focused on that summit and no longer on the approach. So far, so good.
Phil Ershler