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The day ended with a team dinner and an airport run for Tatsuya, where he successfully collected his bags. Another 6+ hours on the trail today, but the team did it in good form and with smiles on their faces. After settling into the tents, we regrouped for dinner where we swapped stories from the previous 6 days on the trail. After enjoying the crater for a few hours we'd had our fill and made our way to the Farm House, our hotel for the night.

After a four hour drive from Anchorage we'll likely fly straight onto the mountain or if weather precludes a fly-on to the glacier, spend the second night at our bush pilot's remote lodge on the Chitina River. The peaks of Wrangell - St. Elias Nation Park provide a perfect step up from glacier climbing in the lower 48 states, and are excellent preparation for Denali or other big expeditions. In 2017, on an attempted expedition to nearby Mt. Sanford, our bush pilot wasn't able to land on the icy Sheep Glacier on Sanford and instead dropped the team in a broad saddle between Mt Wrangell and Mt Jarvis. you can have as a mountaineer — putting one foot in front of the other as the freezing wind and blowing snow desperately try to resist your progress..." Does NOT include bush pilot fee (quoted $1,100 for 2018), arranged shuttle from Anchorage to Chitina ($400 for 2018), meals and lodging other than on the mountain or at our bush pilot's lodge, or required travel insurance policy for trip cancellation, medical treatment, evacuation etc.

If you have trekked in the Khumbu Valley, you have seen Ama Dablam, as it's impossible to miss. , I was fortunate and honored to lead the 2017 Ama Dablam Expedition for International Mountain Guides. After that, it was a straightforward high traverse partly around Ama Dablam to Base Camp and the beginning of the climb. The first day we climbed past Yak Camp to Camp 1 for the night which put us on a schedule to avoid other parties while higher on Ama Dablam.

Late this afternoon the clouds cleared allowing helicopters to reach Everest Base Camp, so the remaining members and duffels were flown to Pheriche and then on down to Phakding which was under the clouds. If the weather improves tomorrow and fuel arrives from Kathmandu, the plan is to fly members to Kathmandu and duffels to Phaplu (from where they will go by truck to Kathmandu). Our Team's strategy of waiting for the traffic jams to die down and the weather to stabilize proved a good one, and our climbers enjoyed two perfect summit days. All the members were planning on taking a helicopter ride down to Lukla, but the weather in Lukla has been less than perfect the last couple of days and today was the same.