On June 23rd, Bruce, David and I left for Camp 1 with supplies for a few days work. Bruce and I hoped to climb into the cwm at 7000m and stash a tent, stove, and other gear. We spent the first night at Camp 1, leaving the next morning for the cash at 6400m on the lower south face of GIII near the bergshrund- the same place Billy and Guy reached a few days earlier. Bruce and I broke a new trail all the way up the glacier to the foot of the GIV-GIII icefall, and then up through dangerous avalanche terrain to the depot. This part of the approach continues to be a nightmare slog as daily wind and snow erases our tracks after every trip.

By the time Bruce and I reached the depot, new snow and high winds above were sending down spindrift avalanches everywhere, and the right-hand corner of the icefall where we planned to exit the lower GIII face into the cwm was not visible through the mists. After making a stash of gear we retreated back down the icefall and back across the glacier to Camp 1 - breaking trail again as blowing snow had already covered our morning tracks.

On the 25th we left David at Camp 1 and again started up the glacier under heavy loads. Later that morning- in blowing winds and snow- we located a 30 foot high chunk of ice and set up our tent in a spot balanced between big crevasses and huge chunks of debris from falling serac avalanches above, just below 6400m. It would be a safe spot to camp. (Kinda!) The next morning we climbed directly across the icefall under the main avalanche chutes toward the GIII face. It only takes about 15 minutes to cross this section, but the huge towers of broken ice seracs teetering for hundreds of meters above are more than a little intimidating; having faith in divine timing helps.

At the depot, spindrift rained down on us again, but we started up the face anyway. After ten minutes of climbing I heard a soft rumbling sound far above me and peered up - only to discover a rather large white cloud coming my way and spilling over a serac band about 300 meters above. I turned down to Bruce and half-yelled, "um...Bruce...avalanche". In my mind, I thought of the cartoon figure Wiley-Coyote, when he holds up his flimsy umbrella, looks at the camera and exclaims rather understatedly, "Mother.".

Bruce saw the avalanche fall-line coming to our left, so he said urgently, "Come down and right." Of course, from my vantage point the cloud was heading to our right. Just below us was a large serac band, so I began down and right anyway - in sequence with Bruce, of course - since we were still roped up in order to climb safely over the bergshrund. Meanwhile, the avalanche must have split somewhere just above us. I saw streams of powder spilling over seracs to our right and left. I figure this particular avalanche may not have been large enough to wipe us out completely - but it definitely would have put me in a bad, ice-cream-headache-like mood. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and immediately retreated down to the Camp 2 tent.

However, not all was lost in the stormy conditions. Bruce and I amused ourselves for the rest of the afternoon by using our sheltering ice-chunk for a little high-altitude ice climbing "funness."

Later that afternoon, Billy and Guy joined us after their (trailess) slog up from Camp 1. We all spent the night of the 26th camped under the 6400m ice-chunk camp, then retreated back to Camp 1 in the morning due to poor weather forecasts.

David had already caught a ride down with some GII expedition members, so Bruce and I continued to base camp as well. Billy and Guy stayed at Camp 1 to further acclimatize, ascending yesterday up to 6800m on the GII-GIII standard route. They both arrived back in base camp today- a little tired but happy with their acclimatization efforts. We are all now ready for a summit push pending a break in the weather. Forecasts for the next few days look grim, but when we finally get a break we'll all go for it.