Summary

On Valentine's Day of 2015, the expedition gathered in Tegucigalpa. Preston was covering the expedition for National Geographic with photographer Dave Yoder, a well-known photographer who was coming from covering Pope Francis and who was known for taking candid pictures instead of posed shots. Bruce Heinicke had died since the last expedition. Chris Fisher had brought along color maps of T1 and T3. They were accompanied by a Honduran military contingent headed by Lt. Col. Willy Joe Oseguera Rodas. Oseguera felt that the only safe landing zone was 20 kilometers away from the site, which would take at least a week of jungle travel to get to from the landing zone. Elkins maintained that there was a landing zone in T1, but the group had to conduct aerial reconnaissance first.

The Honduran military sent 16 soldiers into the valley of T1; they were from the TESON...