May 30, 2017 Our unseasonal snowfall over the past two days set the team up for a wary summit bid in the wee hours of the morning. Leaving High Camp at 17,000 we found ourselves in boot high fresh snow. Yet, after two hours of uphill, we quickly came upon wind deposits well over a meter deep and made the tough but safe call to walk back to our refugio amongst the clouds. However, our morning wasn't quite over, for as we peeked back down through the cloud ceiling we were just in time to watch the entirety of an absolutely spectacular sunrise. The sun rose behind Huayna's sister to the east and lit three levels of clouds in hues of pink and gold. One rope team simply stopped in the middle of the boot pack and watched for 45 minutes as the valley below us slowly filled with light. Right as the sun finally crested the peak to our east, the valley clouds rose up around camp and engulfed us in a glowing mist. Despite not getting the chance to climb higher, I'm afraid we would have missed the sunrise being stuck in the high clouds and honestly it was all any of us could have asked for. RMI Guide Eric Frank