Today we got up a little later, around 6:30 or 7:00. Even at the late hour, there were big chunks of ice from what had been the hot water bowls the evening before. Despite the cold, both of us were feeling pretty good, so we were hopeful that the acclimatization was working. The hike this morning was tougher than the preview hike we had the night before. Part of it was undoubtedly the fact we had backpacks on. Part of it was the fact that even in a short distance, we came up a fair amount in elevation, as Lava Tower now sat below us when we looked back at where we had come from. But the largest part was that we were getting smacked with a stinging wind from the west, right in our face. Thankfully the hike didn't take too long - it was so short that camp wasn't even set up by the time we got there.

At first, there was no wind at the campsite itself, which was a nice respite. Arrow Glacier Camp (4871 meters, 15,981 feet) sits right at the base of the Western Breach, and was obviously much less used than any of the other campsites, with the possible exception of Moir Hut. In addition to having less wind, it was also much sunnier than at Lava Tower. There was a good view of the Western Breach, but even accounting for that, we still weren't sure exactly where the "trail" up the breach was.

We spent the late morning in the tent, reading. The wind picked up significantly just before lunch. In fact, at lunch, we thought the mess tent was going to blow away with us in it. We joked it would be nice if it took us all the way up the mountain - much easier for us than hiking. After lunch, we were happy to get back to our tent, which was much lower profile and less prone to the wind. We spent the afternoon reading and trying to sleep, since we had an early wake-up call planned. We also futzed around with our backpacks, planning for potential contingencies that might arise on the hike to the summit. We were both anxious and apprehensive about the climb the next day

To help keep the heart rate up (to help with acclimating), Justin walked around camp and took some pictures of the surroundings. One cool shot was a guy standing on a big hill south of camp, trying to get a cell phone signal. From certain vantage points, it looked like he was standing in the clouds. Thankfully, the wind died down a bit in the late afternoon. We grabbed an early dinner, where we ate mostly out of necessity than desire. We chatted with Joseph about situations where couples had to split up because of altitude sickness or whatever. Joseph told us that most of the people, surprisingly, hadn't discussed what to do before they started up the mountain. Joseph told us that one couple, married for 30 years or so, stopped together just shy of the top when the wife had to turn back. The guy told Joseph that he had been with his wife for 30 years, and wasn't going to change now, no matter how close to the top. At the other end of the spectrum, a younger guy was livid when his wife wouldn't turn back when he had to. She was near the top and wanted to complete the mountain; her husband wanted her to come with him. Hopefully there was no irreparable damage to the relationship, because she went (and made it). Just after dinner, we got checked out on our safety helmets, and did our final packing.