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September 25th Our packs are all on again with camp all packed up and we're off on the trail ready to crest Kaphne Cal pass. This time, with a new twist... We get to our cache that we set up the day before and actually plan to carry EVERYTHING up and over. If you didn't have an idea before of what our cache is like, it's basically another half pack full in weight. So to try and pull my own and help out the team, I took an extra food bag and a half, as well as a tent body, avalanche pole, and a few other things. My pack was so well packed and stuffed to the brim-ity brim, it was nicknamed "The Couch" while I lounged on it, waiting for our rope team's turn to round up the end of the hike.
The hike overall took a lot longer than expected, partially due to the most gigantic steps we've had yet. For someone who's barely taller than 5', it's definitely difficult to scramble up stuff, with a new and improved heaviest-pack-yet.
We didn't even take breaks! and by the time I crested the pass, feeling like a true mountaineer, on top of the world, like I had just conquored the biggest challenge of my life - every other rope team was already down the other side, waiting and debating what to do next since they hadn't even made it to camp 3 yet.
The rest of my rope team joined me at the top and we had only an hour and a half of daylight left, but since no other rope team had gone back to get the few things we had left behind that no one could fit, KG made the quick decision to unload three packs and go back for it all to save the team an entire day later on.
Alas, my hiking isn't as strong as the people that ended up re-doing the most rewarding hike of my life. I waited at the top of the world with one other teammate and by the time they got back, we had to get on a few other layers and strap on our headlamps to our helmets as we began the now icy descent to the rest of the rope teams.
Everyone else in the mean time while they were hiking back, had started to set up, only to realize that nearly all of the tents were with us, the last rope team; especially since I was carrying more than just my tent. They managed to dig out a pretty wicked pooper and probe out a descent area for camp, even though we had two of the three avalanche probes too...
We finally arrived after backstepping down the ice with my "couch" trying to pull me down with every step and I was sarcastically in high spirits, but everyone's laughing at my jokes eventually brought me back up as well; not to mention the golden hot drink my tent group had prepped for me. I downed a ton of water after our mad 11 hour day, set up the tent at lightening speed, had 2 ramen for dinner and was out like a light.
We found out the next day during the debrief that we were the first NOLS group in 20 years to make it to camp 3 with no evacs or serious illness. We rock.
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