Negative 33

I was going to take a picture of my pack and hang it onto this blog but apparently my new camera requires drivers to upload pics and I smartly forgot the disc that comes with the camera back in Seattle. Good one.

Anyway, so we are in Tokyo right now and the weather is beautiful! Mild, sunny, tranquil. We arrived with little fanfare yesterday but sped quickly through immigration and even did a good number in entertaining the customs officials who thought we were comical with our 400 lbs of climbing equipment. We went out to Ebisu and Roppongi last night, had a great time and barely made the last subway back to Hiroo. Our rooms are now cluttered with climbing gear as we do some last minute packing to prepare all gear.

Looking at the latest weather forecast for the next few days, we found an ever-shifting wind scale. What we have noticed is that despite the winds, it will remain clear and cold. As in negative 33 degrees cold. Here's the latest on 23 and 24 Feb:

In order to protect the team from this wind and cold, we have added a few snow shovels to the gear list in order to build up some robust snow walls. We also have down jackets to add on to the goretex and soft shells. Down mitts, face protection and some quality head gear top out the list. It's going to be cold, cold, cold.

But with all the extra equipment added to our thorough gear list and already heavy packs, we are extremely prepared for any situation we encounter.

More to follow later- the team is heading out to explore Tokyo for the rest of the day and then call it an early night. Maybe by then I'll be able to figure out how to upload pics.