On August 8th we finally made base camp in beautiful Kap meadow. On our way here, around the Bazhin glacier, we saw the Rupal face for the first time. It's amazing, so large, with no order but resounding beauty. If you crane your neck back to see the upper wall, you can piece together options. Our hats go off to Anderson and house. I f you have not stood below the face and seen what they had climbed in person, it is really hard to gather from photos the severity of their route. They obviously have superior mental strength to hold it together for so long in such a threatening route.
We have had a lot of good luck since moving base camp. We established camp 1 on the Messner (our acclimatization route), the day after arriving. It is 13,000 meters above base camp, all of the climb on terrible scree. We have made 4 trips to it now and have slept 2 nights there, pushing up to 52,000 meters yesterday before being held back by terrible snowfall.
We now have to wait for better weather.
Wish us luck!
