Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri
Climbers: Diane Evans, Robert Krueger, Timothy Pattee, John Stephenson, Scott Curtis.
"We are now at the Cayambe hut, and we have some news for you. We have decided to climb tonight because the weather is perfect and the climbing conditions are perfect. It has been good and cold, so the snow is nicely frozen.
This team is strong, and they all want to take advantage of these conditions. So today we practiced skills on the glacier, tonight we had a great dinner (lasagna!!), and now everyone is heading to bed. We'll only get about 3 hours of sleep. We're going to get up at 11:00pm and leave at midnight to get the frozen conditions on the whole climb. We hope to be on top for the sunrise over the Amazon Basin!
OK, time for me to go to bed too. We will try to call you from the summit. I am going to take both the satellite phone and my cell phone, so I know we will get through. So we'll call early and then again in the evening.
Talk to you soon!"