Today we carried ten days of food and fuel along with some personal gear to 15,500’. Our intended goal was Camp 1 but strong winds forced us to cache lower on the mountain. The route out of base camp follows a narrow choke with the Relinchos Glacier on the right and a large rock buttress on the left. Once through the choke, we rambled on through the scree covered glacier with great views of the surrounding peaks. From here we have one more large scree slope to switch back up and Camp 1 sits on a flat bench. The mountain is holding more winter snow then I have seen in the 13 years I’ve been coming down here. Unfortunately the wind was too strong to allow us out on the snow. The entrance to Camp 1 is through a steep and narrow drainage that funnels wind on the best of days let alone when we are having trouble standing on flat ground. We compiled our gear and food, covered it with large talus and headed back to base camp. The Team preformed well on their first heavy carry and their downhill walking was excellent, even with the high winds. We will rest tomorrow and hope for the wind to ease off. RMI Guide Mike King