After a seemingly long ascent the first day, through forests, across a river, and up a lateral moraine, made worse by temperatures around 90 degrees F (34 degrees C),we established our base camp on a small peninsula of dry ground just below the snow fields.

We camped here for several nights, making increasingly lengthy day trips up the mountain for training and to acclimatize ouselves to the altitude, and undoubtedly so the guides could appraise our group members' strength. In addition to its location just below the snow fields, the camp was also situated immediately adjacent to a small creek, fed by snowmelt. This creek was our source of water for the next few days.

The area also had the most spectacular location for a toilet I've ever seen; a wooden seat (no building around it) in a small clump of trees about 200 meters down the mountain from our tents. The view from here was a spectacular one across a small valley to the next ridge to the west. We were fortunate enought to have a few beautiful red-sky sunsets during our time there, and the view from the toilet at sunset was particularly impressive.