We've just completed our second week on Mount Logan and are presently at Camp 4 /5100 metres - our highest camp yet. Everyone is feeling the effects of the high altitude to one degree or another. The night before last, headache and nausea forced Jonas to descend to a lower altitude to sleep. These are common ailments at high altitudes: to compensate for the low level of oxygen, the blood vessels in the brain dilate to allow increased blood flow and this leads to headache. Almost all of us have suffered from this to one degree or another. Another difficulty has been Cheyne-Stokes breathing which usually occurs at night and results in breathing becoming deeper and deeper and then shallower and shallower, to the point of almost stopping. The cycle then abruptly repeats itself. These are more annoyances than hinderances when dealt with properly.

Today we have had a slow day, to recover and acclimatize. Craig, Rob and Jonas did a carry to the top of the col above Camp 4. It is from here that we'll descend onto the Logan Plateau to reach Camp 5 - our launching point for a sumit bid. In the meantime, Christian skied down to Camp 3 to pick up the solar panel for the laptop computer and other equipment. John-David and Andrew took the day off after a hard day yesterday.

Tomorrow, we move to our final camp and, to enable us to travel as lightly as possible, we will take only essential equipment. We'll ski to 5500 metres with our packs and sleds, and expect it will take us over three hours to travel the 2.5 kilometres to the col between Aina and Prospector's Peaks. Each stride requires almost three breaths and we find we need to stop every 100 metres or so to rest, before moving on.

On summit day, we'll reach 6000 metres, although it will actually feel higher because of the latitude effect: the atmosphere being thinner at the poles than at the equator, a 6000 metre peak in the Yukon is the equivalent of a 7000 metre peak in the Himalayas.

Our next message will not be until after our bid for the summit as we will leave the laptop computer behind to cut down on our weight. However, we hope to post good news on our return.

Cheers,

'96 Mount Logan Expedition for Heart