In the morning, our guide came to the tent to discuss our plan. It was still cloudy, but he seemed surprised when I said we had agreed to go down today. But happy to get out, he didn't object.

As the team was finishing packing around 9am, we realized what a mistake we had made. The weather was clearing and it was going to be a spectacular day. Our guide offered that we could take a ona-hour hike before leaving, but that would have made it a really long day. Marcia wasn't interested and she didn't want to wait while I did it. Almost in tears, I realized a one-hour hike wouldn't make things any better, since the big mountains were further away than that.

As a last resort, I made a face-saving proposal. Instead of going downhill today, maybe we could move the camp one or two hours up the valley and then do a more substantial dayhike in the afternoon. To my delight, the team (and Marcia) agreed.

We reached our new camp in about 90 minutes, but already Marcia's poorly waterproofed boots had made her feet wet and cold. It was probably good we hadn't gone eight hours downhill in the snow like that. With the bright sun, more snow should have melted by tomorrow, and the long trip downhill should be easier. Not as interested in the high peaks as me, Marcia elected to skip the dayhike and spend the afternoon in the tent.

Ah, what scenery! We went about two hours further up the valley, though not quite to the base camp. Glaciers sparkled and the high peaks were spectacularly clear. We were able to get a good view of the avalanche-stroked south face of 7000-meter (23,000 foot) Khan Tengri. The views were still oblique and not the classic Matterhorn-like perspective, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances. The elusive 7450-meter (24,400 foot) Peak Pobiedy remained hidden behind other peaks, but at least we had seen it from the passes the week before. I returned to camp tired but satisfied.