(Webteam: Dispatch 8 is in 3 sections. Part 2 will be sent tomorrow 7/16 and Part 3 will be sent 7/17.) 

On Monday July 6th, Guy, Bruce, Billy, and I began the hike up the glacier to Camp 1. I wanted to continue up to our Camp 2 nestled in the icefall, but was out-voted by the others, so instead we brewed up and spent a hot afternoon basking in our tents among the small G2 tent village. In the morning we (again) broke trail to our Bibler tent set up at 6300 meters in the lower GIII-GIV icefall, and prepared for our early morning climb up the face and into the cwm. Despite the earlier weeks snowfall, we decided to tackle the face even though it still looked quite plastered with fresh snows. Weather forecasts indicated that we would likely have to summit in some relatively high winds - perhaps up to 70km/h- but so far the weather forecasts proved to be inaccurate due to very unstable conditions - a risk we'd just have to take. Ueli Steck sent me a sat phone sms in the evening that he might try for the summit on the 9th, but it would take us at least one more day to get into position in the cwm. Our earliest shot would be on the 10th.

In the morning we awoke to cold but clear skies, broke down camp, and once again crossed under the "Keyhole" serac tower above us. At the depot I began to break trail up the lower snow ramps on the GIII face to the bregshrund, and then continued up the 50 degree face unroped. This is how we would mitigate the avalanche danger- by spreading out and climbing unroped. If one of us would get "the chop"- as Billy so eloquently put it - the others would not be dragged down too.

Conditions on the face varied from loose steep snow to bullet-ice to scary avalanche prone windslab. But in a few hours we had traversed up and left to 6700 meters under the lowest of the rock towers.

Here Billy ditched his pack and took the lead across an extremely loose tongue of rock which had the consistency of a stack of dominoes. He managed to cross the loose pitch in great style, hauled his pack across then set up a rope for the rest of us to follow. I crossed the section next then continued on past Billy up an amazing chute squeezed between huge hanging seracs on the left and the rock towers on the right. About 100 meters up the ice and snow chute I found a flat spot on top of one of the teetering ice blocks and waited for the others.

After a short rest I continued to lead up the narrow 50-55 degree chute to another bench at 7000 meters where the final edge of the serac band met the rocky GIII southwest ridge. After the others joined me we climbed across snow slopes a short distance down the other side and into the cwm until we found a serac ice chunk and set up Camp 3 underneath - directly across from the East Face of GIV. It was a spectacular place for a campsite. We were now among perhaps 15 or 20 other people who have ever set foot in the cwm, and from our tents pitched at the entrance it looked spectacular.

On July 9th we woke to light spindrift on the tent walls and began to brew up and pack for the day. Bruce sat up in his sleeping bag, immediately scrambled to open the tent door, then, puked-up the entire contents of his stomach. After a bit more sputtering and spitting out the door he returned back inside and gave me a rather grim stare. Despite his vomiting, I asked if he wanted to continue up, to which he said, "Definitely yes!" We packed up camp under worsening spindrift and began walking up the low-angled cwm on firm snow. After a few hours we rounded a bend and found a serac to camp under at 7300 meters. Finally - after many weeks on the mountain- we had our first glimpse of the north face of GIII and our route.

The slopes up to the 7500 meter ridgeline offered a number of lines, and we unanimously decided on the main chute. We planned to leave at 1am, climbing the face in the dark and reaching the first rock band at 7600 meters on the ridge at dawn- but this plan would never happen...