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Day 1 - Flight from Talkeetna to Base Camp
After two nights staying at the Sheldon Air Service hangar, we finally got a break in the weather to fly up to base camp on the Kahiltna glacier. Third time truly was the charm on this occasion as we had loaded up the plane and booted up on each of the preceding days only for the weather window to close up. Today though, we (and numerous other climbers) got our chance to fly from Talkeetna to base camp, yay! We'd just finished our breakfast at the Talkeetna roadhouse and a couple of errands in town, when we got the message from Dan that we should return to the airport and be ready. This time Van didn't put her boots on at this 'early' stage, worrying she would jinx it. Gabe made the call to pick up a pizza and we collectively joked that getting the pizza might mean we'd get an all clear on the weather right when we were ready to dig into the pizza. The pizza arrived and almost simultaneously we got the call to get our boots on and get ready to hop on the plane. The two of us were in a small 3-person Cessna with our pilot, Jacque, while Ed, Dan, and Gabe were with David in the Beaver. The flight into base camp was awesome, with Jacque gave us the flightseeing commentary about the history of the landscape, shared insights into the geology, and pointed out the notable features of the range, including Little Switzerland and the Ruth Glacier for example.
As we came into the Alaskan mountain range we were treated to spectacular views up to and including our landing on the "air strip". We quickly unloaded the plane to allow for a quick reloading and departure for those flying out of base camp. Dustin was SAS's base camp manager at the time that we arrived and he gave us a rundown on the lay of the land at base camp. We chose a campsite with some pre-built walls up on the hill. We hauled our packs and a sled load up and then Van set to work with probing, leveling, and work-hardening our tent site while Matt retrieved the final load by sled. We set up the tent and our sleeping pads and bags, then it was time to prepare dinner. By this point, it had been around five hours since we'd arrived at base camp - we began to appreciate how long things take in this kind of environment. For our first camp dinner, we had mac and cheese and some naan bread which went down a treat. Our efforts to organize the food were thwarted by some snowy and windy conditions so we opted to leave that for the next day when we knew that the weather would be clear. A few snacks and then it was time for sleep.
Day 2 - Base Camp to Camp 1
We awoke feeling good and strong and began consolidating our in-tent gear for the move to Camp 1. Van headed outside first and started working on preparing breakfast and melting snow for water. For breakfast, we enjoyed some crème de la crème Folgers instant coffee with brown sugar and three slices of toast each - one with peanut butter, one with apricot jam, and one with grape jam; the first and last of which we would end up stashing at base camp. At the air hangar, we'd taken stock of all the food that Dan had procured for us and now it was time to make some decisions as to how much of this we really needed for the journey. Overstocking would mean that we were carrying excess weight up the mountain, while understocking meant we would risk a food shortage if bad weather extended our anticipated time on the mountain. Our time on the mountain was limited by the flight we already had booked to return from Anchorage to Toronto, and so we knew how many days we could potentially be on the mountain. With this information, and a register of our food stock, we were able to figure out how much food we should take and how much we should leave at base camp. Rigging our sleds, constructing leashes for our snow shoes, packing up, sorting out our cache took much of the day. It was around 7:15pm by the time we had roped up and set out down heartbreak hill (so named for coming back up the hill right at the end of the expedition). We went in a 5-person rope team with Dan in the lead, followed by Ed, then Gabe, then myself, with Matt at the rear. The first downhill part of the route was pretty easy except for having to trot quite quickly on snow shoes to keep up with the skiers. After the trail straightened out and the became an uphill trail was where we started to feel the full loads. After seeing a tease campsite about two thirds through our journey, it was midnight before we finally reached Camp 1. We set up the tent; Van learning at this stage that her hands were pretty useless in the cold of the night once the sun had gone down. Once you stop moving, the cool down happens really quickly and it was a relief to get into the sleeping bags and start warming up.
Day 3 - Carry to Camp 1.5
We awoke to a clear and sunny morning and it was quite warm and toasty inside the tent once the sun had come out. We could hear more chatter around us compared to base camp, as the tents were congregated near us more closely than they had been at base camp. The whole team were on the same page in wanting to do a caching trip to Camp 2 that day. We cooked some toast for breakfast, melted water, got our cache bags organized and cooked some lunch. All this took around four hours and then it was time to get ready to rope up and head up the hill. We started off at 4:30pm. The initial part of the ascent was quite steep (given the load), heading up 'ski hill' and Van had a hard time keeping up with the skiers on the team. We took up all of our food except about two to three days worth, just in case we got weathered in at Camp 1. When we arrived at the cache site, which we later learned was an intermediary camp that wasn't quire Camp 2, we layered up and quickly dug the snow out to drop our cache bags. Van's hands got cold pretty quickly so she used hand warmers to rewarm them. It was much easier heading back down the hill without the weight of the food and we made it down in around an hour with little effort, woohoo! Once back in camp we layered up with our heavy duty puffy jackets and had the best udon noodles ever. We got to sleep around 11:45pm before waking to the sound of snow at around 4:30 am. Van woke and flicked the snow off the tent walls, while Matt went out and ensured that he could find the spade and pulled his crampons in from outside before they would get buried.
Day 4 - Move to Camp 1.5
We had become aware of a storm approaching from a guide on one of the other teams. Gabe had taken a heavy fall while ski-descending from our caching trip yesterday and was feeling some tightness and pain in his knee today. We spent the morning deliberating whether, in light of these circumstances, we would stay tight, or make the move to Camp 1.5 (where we'd left the cache) or Camp 2. It was 11:00 when the group determined to let Gabe spend some time icing his knee and decided that we'd make a call on whether or not to move forward, at around 1 or 2 pm. We considered (1) moving to the Kahiltna Pass camp (Camp 2) then head back to the cache site to retrieve our food (2) camp at the intermediary Camp 1.5; or (3) staying at camp 1 for a rest and recovery day. When the decision time came, Gabe's knee was feeling ok, the weather was passable, and we all felt strong, and so we made the decision to move up the mountain. We departed Camp 1 at around 2:45/3:00 pm. Before that, all we'd really done that day was eat a delicious bacon and cheese grilled sandwich, melt snow, and pack up the tent and our gear. We set off up ski hill, taking the same path as yesterday. Owing to all the snow overnight, and that falling as we hiked, the trail eventually became quite hard to make out in the white-out conditions. The group trekked at a much more sustainable pace today which both of us were very grateful for. Based on the conditions when we arrived at our cache site (blowing snow, available walled tent sites, and low-visibility for making out the trail), we decided to break camp at this intermediary camp site, about 100 vertical metres below Camp 2 proper. It was tough work breaking camp with the wind blowing and snow falling and the limitations of Van's cold hands. Once our tent was set up and we'd warmed up a touch, Matt prepared bangers & mash for dinner. Gabe also offered us some of his excess couscous & carrots which was pretty good. Especially the carrots. We went to sleep unsure of our plans for the next move. Matt was feeling pretty keen to do a big push to Motorcycle Hill (Camp 3) while Dan wasn't quite as keen for a big push. The complicating factor is that we are expecting tomorrow to be the last day of 'OK, travelable bad weather' before a storm hits and we get 'OMG hunker down bad weather' for three days. So if we don't move tomorrow then there is a good chance we could get weathered in here for five nights which would put a lot of time pressure on the rest of the trip.
Day 5 - Caching trip to Camp 3
Van woke up at around 8am this morning and listened to a couple of episodes of Serial while Matt snoozed til 10am. Van was on breakfast duties and prepared our fave breakfast of bacon and cheese melts with coffee. Then it was on to snow melting for a couple of hours. The team decided that we'd set off on a carry to Camp 3 with a departure time planned of 2pm. After cooking and melting, we had under an hour to get our gear together and harnessed and roped up etc. The track started out fairly gradually before getting slightly steeper toward the end, but all in all, the gradient wasn't too difficult. What was difficult was the weather and also the beginnings of feeling the effects of altitude. At one stage on this carry, we got stuck behind a group which slowed our pace somewhat, but eventually they stopped for a break and we were able to pass them. It was windy and sunny when we arrived at Camp 3. After the cache was complete, we roped up for the return down to our camp at 2850m. The 3 skiers rolled down as a group of two and a soloist. Van led the two of us on the descent and got to lead through near-white out and an unclear track at times, which was fun. As to be expected, the return journey was much faster than the laden outward journey. We even spotted the elusive Camp 2 on our way back. The whole return trip took us five hours and ten minutes, very close to Matt's estimate. Matt cooked a dinner of pasta with tuna, then Van was on snow melting duties.
Days 6 & 7 - Weathered in at Camp 1.5
We woke up just before eight on day six to Dan yelling out that we should shovel our tents out. We knew it had been snowing through the night as Van had been waking up and tapping out the tent walls a couple of times through the night to push the snow off. But we hadn't appreciated the amount of snow that had built up. There was a good foot or so built up on the ground, but more than that around our tent due to the way that the wind circled in the walled tent site. It was still snowing and near-white out conditions when we decided that we'd hunker down for the day. That later turned out to be a good decision as the wind picked up and it began to feel like we were in a snow globe that someone was shaking, in that the snow was blowing every which way and swirling about us. We were glad that we hadn't tried to proceed in these conditions. Van was on breakfast duty and whipped up some oatmeal with coffee and hot cocoa. We were on rotations for digging the tent out of the snow every couple of hours. We spent the day reading, listening to podcasts, and playing monopoly deal. The afternoon went really quickly. For lunch we had ham and cheese melts, and dinner was some Asian style rice with naan bread. Chocolate for dessert.
It continued snowing through the night and we continued to do night rotations for shovelling; incorporating Gabe into the rotation so that each of us would have to get out less frequently, but for a longer period in order to dig out both tents. On Van's 7am shovelling shift, she was lucky to be out there in what we later learned was the eye of the storm. It was surprisingly calm, visibility at 100%, but there was dark grey cloud lingering about the outer limit in every direction. Sure enough, later the wind picked up and the snow started again as the back end of the storm system passed over us. More reading and monopoly ensued for another rest day at Camp 1.5.
Day 8 - Move to Camp 3
We were pretty determined to make the move to Camp 3. While the brunt of the bad weather had passed, it was still snowing lightly and fairly windy as we got ready for our ascent. Matt and Van had oatmeal for breakfast again and then began packing gear and getting ready for the move. After some terse moments regarding leaving time, we ended up starting out at around 12:45 pm. Our sleds and packs were heavier than when we'd done the caching trip on day 5 and, combined with powder to packed powder conditions on trail and snow shows sinking anywhere from an inch to a foot with each step, this made for a very gruelling ascent. In addition to this, we were fearing frost nip to our noses or faces as the pace and few rest stops meant that we didn't get a chance to get out our face masks or properly position the buffs. Van started feeling frustrated that she couldn't keep up with the skiers even though this made perfect sense given the flotation of skis vs. snowshoes. Matt was sinking even more than Van since we had the same surface area of snow shoes but Matt and his gear being heavier. This meant that Van was getting pulled forward and backward which wasn't the best. About 20 minutes out of Camp 3, the skiers disconnected us from their rope so that they and we could move at our own pace. We slowed our pace, and were really pleased when the slope flattened out and we stepped into Camp 3. The hard work was not yet done. We chose a tent site and because of all the fresh snow, we spent at least 45 minutes shovelling out the site in order to have walls to be protected from any inclement weather. It was getting really cold at this point. Once we put up the tent and had layered over the fly, Van jumped into the tent pronto and cleared the floor of ice, lay out the survival blankets we were using as an additional insulator, and tried to get warm. Matt threw the sleeping pads in and continued on to anchor the tent and sort out the duffel bags while Van worked on the indoor tasks - inflating sleeping pads, setting up sleeping bags etc. It was cold in the tent, and even colder outside. Matt came in from the outside jobs visibly shivering and spent an hour laying in his sleeping bag to rewarm. Once he felt up to it, Matt cooked up some 'Egg drop' soup for us which was a real treat since it was nice and warm. Van, who is not as good with handling the cold as Matt, spent basically the whole time lying in her sleeping bag trying to get back to a semi-acceptable body temperature. Van had her sleeping bag was totally zipped up around her head, with face fully covered with buff and sleeping mask. We finally attempted sleep around midnight. Van woke up a couple of times in the night to notice frost all over the tent.
Days 9 & 10 - Rest / weathered in at Camp 3
We woke up at 9:30 to water dripping as the frost in the tent melted. At 11:30 am, our team were yet to stir from their tents, with everyone recovering from the day prior and difficult evening. The weather was passable for us to do a carry this day, but we ended up leaving it a bit late to make a decision and so day 9 ended up being a rest day at camp 3. The next day, the weather had worsened and we spent another day resting, playing cards, reading, and chatting.
Day 11 - Caching trip to 3800 m
The day prior, Matt and I had discussed our strategy. Being on a tighter schedule than our team mates, we'd determined that we needed to move the next day if the weather was at least travelable. The plan was that if we had really good weather we would push all the way to the 14k camp, if the weather was travelable then we would carry to windy corner, and that if the weather was terrible, then we would be safe and stay put. We woke up to snowy and semi-windy conditions that were passable for doing a caching trip. We left camp in near-white-out conditions, around an hour after a Finnish team that Matt had been chatting to. The first part of the trail entailed switchbacks up motorcycle hill for around 400 vertical metres until we reached squirrel point. When we got here, Matt changed from snowshoes to crampons (Van had opted for crampons from the outset). During the change-over we were being hammered by strong crosswinds and snow. Van got pretty cold at this point and put on her mitts and down jacket. We continued onward about 500 horizontal metres and then saw a pile of skis. As they were super obvious and given the conditions, we decided to place our cache here. While we were digging out and setting the cache, we started getting some patches of sun interspersed with light cloud. Once we finished caching however, it was total white-out. Van led, with this decision based on the fact that if she fell into a crevasse Matt would be more able to hold her weight than vice versa. Matt gave Van directions using his InReach which had been logging our tracks. Unfortunately, due in part to both the device having not taken readings for the last 500 metres, and Van initially taking 'go right' as meaning 3 o'clock instead of 1 o'clock, we ended up heading down a snow filled valley instead of the ridge that we should have been on. When the white-out dissipated it became clear that we had gone off route. We had both felt like something didn't seem right on this track, but were hoping we would hit the true track. You can really become quite disoriented in 100% white-out. We retraced our steps back up the valley in clear conditions right back up almost to a trail marker wand not far from where we had cached. The journey back down on the correct trail went quickly. On return, Matt cooked up a totally huge meal of fettucine alfredo with tuna which was really filling but just what we needed for the next day. It was a cooler night as the skies were clear. As we turned in for the night, we were pretty sure we'd be moving to 14k camp (Camp 4) the next day based on the weather reports we'd tuned into on our radio.
Day 12 - Move to 14k Camp 4
We started on breaky at around 9:30 am. We always underestimate how long it takes to get ready to leave in these conditions. We'd hoped to be on the trail at 11:00 am but it was around 12:45 before we were ready and then we had to wait in a queue for around forty five minutes before we could start moving up Motorcycle Hill in earnest. It was tough work with the heavier sleds and also the track went more or less straight up rather than switchbacking, as we'd done the day prior. Being the first clear day in a while, there were a lot of people making this move today, and we were one of the last groups to set out for the day. With the crevasse fall risk lower (but still present) above Camp 3 and with clear conditions, Matt and I set out without our other teammates. As they hadn't carried the day before, they were going to cache today but later determined to do a full move. Conditions on the route were completely different than our caching trip the day prior. Snow and wind and only seeing around 20 people at some point on the trail, versus sun and no wind and over 100 people on the trail moving up or down the mountain. We took our first rest stop at the top of motorcycle hill, then another at squirrel point. From squirrel point, it was only 500 horizontal metres to get to our cache. Matt stepped up and took the full weight of the cache in his sled, which made for a very heavy load for him. Van felt bad, but also grateful, as her sled was feeling very heavy as well. From the cache point, we had another 200 metres uphill to reach windy corner. Today, it fortunately wasn't windy, and we had another rest stop here and tuned in for the 8pm weather report broadcast over radio. The next section was slightly downhill or flat, and the biggest challenge here was keeping the sled upright and not letting it drag down the slope too much. At around this point, we were no longer in the sun and the temperature dropped significantly. Van got her heavy duty mitts on pretty promptly and the handwarmers went in pretty soon after that. Our toes also began to feel cold and then numb. After the flat section, we had another 300 vertical metres to ascend to reach camp. Feeling cold and keen to get to camp as soon as possible, Matt led this section at quite an impressive pace. Once we made it to camp, Van's toes were totally cold and numb and she was worried about frost nip / frostbite. There were a few frustrating moments, both for her and Matt, where she couldn't undo her carabiner or harness, and we also experienced frustration while trying to get the frosty tent out of the tent bag. Matt's pep talk to Van which consisted of nothing more than "I need you to be strong right now" helped, and Van was able to assist somewhat with tent set-up and then was allocated the inner tent duties once the first shell was up. We were totally freezing lying in our sleeping bags and owing to this, it took quite a while to get to sleep. We were in our sleeping bags at 11:30 but unable to get to sleep until sometime after 1:30 am.
Day 13 - Rest at 14k
We woke up to a beautiful clear and sunny morning. We'd decided earlier on the trip that our first day at Camp 4, or 14k camp, would be a rest day. We chilled around camp, walked out to 'The Edge of the World' - a cool spot with amazing views of the glaciers and surrounding mountains, and played some monopoly, rejuvenating our energy levels with some vitamin D and rest. We looked at the weather forecast and assessed our options going forward. It is Wednesday and we've heard on our radios that a storm would be coming through Friday/Saturday and that tomorrow may or may not be clear. So it became a question for us of a potential huge summit push tomorrow, or waiting out the storm and hoping for a better weather window on the other side of it. However, our must leave high camp day is Wednesday, so our fingers are crossed that we don't run out of days while waiting for favourable weather. After taking the broadcast forecast into consideration, Matt determined that our only shot at the summit may be a 2000m vertical push from Camp 4 the next day. We planned that we would leave at 8:00 am with the alarm clock set to go off at 6:00 am.
Day 14 - Summit attempt from 14k
At 6:00 am, Matt's alarm song of Fire and the Flood by Vance Joy started sounding through the tent, but the decision was made to reset the alarm to 7:00. At 7, we woke to a very cold tent and it was go time. Matt got some of his gear ready then set about melting snow and cooking oatmeal for breakfast. Meanwhile, in the tent, Van got her gear ready and deflated and rolled her sleeping pad which we were taking, in addition to Matt's sleeping bad, in case we found ourselves in an emergency situation. Van's cold hands were unfortunately uncooperative in the pre-sun morning and therefore she was somewhat ineffective and slow at getting her gear organized and kitted in harness etc. Van would continually pop her hands into her mitts to rewarm them, then be able to do a few minutes of work before needing to put them back into the gloves. This slowed us down, and once everything was organized it was already 9:15 am by the time that we set off from the tent and close to 10am once we got on to the trail as we had to wait for a guided group to filter onto the track ahead of us. The first part of work was up the first part of the headwall which was a climb up an approx. 35 degree slope. We took a slowish pace up here until the slope flattened out. Here we stopped for a break and Matt shared his frustration at the slow start to the day and at this point we both probably knew we weren't going to get to the summit today. The discussion became a question of whether we turned around now, after an hour, or continued on. Van campaigned for us to push on, at least to the top of the fixed lines, with the knowing that a summit goal wasn't particularly feasible. Van led the next section and continued up the rest of the flatter part of the slope and then up the next steeper part leading to the bergschrund at the base of the fixed ropes. We reached a line up of climbers waiting to get onto the fixed rope. The guided team that were on the lines at this time were moving pretty slowly and we ended up waiting more than an hour to reach the lines. The bergschrund was quite open and required more maneuvering than in other years to get across. We were following the advice in Matt's little guide book which (safely) suggested that the fixed lines should be used as a passive line of safety only and that we should climb independently without actually pulling on the rope. This meant that for climbing up the bergschrund Van ended up using the pick of her ice axe to pull herself up. On the lines themselves, we would plant the spike of the ice axe and then move up with each foot, generally in the 'duck walk' stance, and then pull up the ascending device attached for safety to the line. Even with a relatively light pack on, this proved a strenuous activity, and the ascent of the fixed lines was very time consuming and difficult and Van was very slow holding up those behind her, including Matt. Some folks, that we can only assume were training for a speed ascent, whipped past us and pulled themselves up the 'down' rope without any mechanical assistance or protection. A couple of other groups simply used the down rope to pass us. We eventually reached the top of the fixed lines at around 3pm. We stopped for a rest at the top. Given the hour of the day, and our attitudes at having failed at out attempt that day, we decided to head back down at this point. With all the queuing, it had taken us around six hours just to get to here. We didn't have gear to set up a camp anywhere, and it was still a very long way to the summit. Back down the fixed lines we went. This time, we opted for prussiks for our safety, and a non-locking carabiner as backup when moving past the anchor points. Again, we used the rope only as a passive safety as we made our way down the 50 degree slope. We made our way down the rest of the headwall with our moods declining. The evening was spent reflecting, and for Matt, trying to get motivation back, and hoping that the next day would be better.
Day 15 - Move to 17k - High Camp
We woke at around 9am to a clear and sunny morning. After another breakfast of oatmeal (which was starting to get rather old by this point) Van headed over to near the National Park Service tent area to check the weather which was displayed on a whiteboard. As we had heard of a possible front coming through on Friday/Saturday, we were expecting to see a poor forecast for the next couple of days. Van had also heard other teams on the mountain saying that a weak front would move through quickly and the high pressure system would stick around into the next week. So, Van's thinking was that the weather would become poor later in the day and then clear up for us to do a move and a summit attempt on the Sunday and Monday. Instead, the forecast for 17k to the summit read:
- TODAY: Mostly sunny, -3 to -16 Fahrenheit, NE 15-20mph
- TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy, -7 to -17 Fahrenheit, NE 15 mph
- TOMORROW/TOMORROW NIGHT: Mostly cloudy, 40% chance of snow, -1 to -18 Fahrenheit, N 15 MPH
- OUTLOOK: High pressure will persist today. Weak front will bring some clouds and chance of snow. From Sun to Mon, winds increase to 20-30mph.
Based on this forecast, we determined that we should move to high camp to put ourselves in position for a possibly summit bid the next day. Even though the forecast called for a potentially cloudy and snowy summit day, the winds were more favourable at this time and the temperatures were (relatively) mild. We reached our decision at around 10am, deciding that we would aim to leave around 1pm. As usual, completely packing up our tent, burying a cache, etc, took longer than we hoped and it was around 2pm as we moved out of Camp 4 to start up the headwall. It seemed we were the last group of the day to make tracks up to high camp. We passed a guided team on the lower headwall that were practicing skills on the lower headwall. By the time that we'd made our way up to the base of the fixed lines, the queue that had been there had just cleared and we started up the fixed lines with no waiting this time. We followed a Japanese duo comprising an older gent and younger fellow. This time, we used a different technique than last, and it proved far superior, in terms of speed at least. We'd seen other groups that were not only using the line passively and so, decided this was not frowned upon. With ice axe firmly attached to pack, this time we would push the ascender forward and then use it to pull up. As our legs were pretty taxed, it was useful to actively use arms to pull up and take some of the effort away from the legs. With all the built up muscle fatigue and in order to keep our energy for later, Matt was adamant on frequent rest breaks on this section and we agreed on a strategy of taking ten steps and then pausing. In this fashion, we eventually reached the top of the fixed lines for a second time, only this time we would push on further. At the top of the fixed lines we rested for some sips of water in the same spot as the day prior. While resting, we met a descending team of five that included a Brit and an Aussie. They welcomed us to rummage their excess food stash but since we were well stacked, we could only gratefully accept a twix bar each. After around 15-20 minutes of rest in this spot, we continued onward. The time was 7:30 and advice from the team we'd just met was that it would take around three hours to reach high camp. I was enthused by this info, thinking that it would be a maximum of thirty minutes in the shade (i.e. cold doom / cold version of Mordor). With that in mind, we set off. Travel from the top of the fixed lines was along a ridgeline with spectacular views (and drops) on each side. As with all the semi-technical to technical sections in general, Matt led this part of the climb. Generally, the travel along the ridgeline was not too difficult but you definitely had to be careful. There were a couple of short sections of fixed line set up, the most notable at a feature called 'Washburn's Thumb', named for the man who had surveyed/mapped the area and identified the West Buttress route. We soon passed the Japanese duo and would occasionally spot another climbing pair around twenty minutes ahead of us on the ridgeline. The trip took us longer than the anticipated three hours and we didn't make it into camp until around 11:30pm. As we were now above the part of the mountain that blocked the sun to Camp 4 by 9pm, this meant we had actually managed to travel in reasonable warmth with the rays of the sun on us until around 11pm. When we got to camp and found a campsite, we weren't nearly as cold as when we had arrived at Camp 4. Being warmer, combined with now being more efficient at setting up camp, meant that we were able to get the tent up and anchored, and beds set up, in record time. We were offered pad thai by a guy in one of the guide cook tents nearby but neither of us really had the appetite for it, and Van wasn't really keen to get her hands out of her gloves for an extended time to eat. We later realized that this guy was Travis, the guide we'd met at the Sheldon hangar, and then seen at Camp 1 and Camp 1.5. It was extremely cold at this camp which meant that our remaining short supply of water had to go in the sleeping bag with each of us or it would freeze. This night, we never really felt warm and because of that, combined with the effects of altitude, both of us struggled to get to sleep with Van reckoning that she didn't fall completely asleep until around 7am.
Day 16 - Summit Day
The sun coming up and shining on the tent made a huge difference to the internal temperature. The night prior, Travis had mentioned that the weather forecast would be good for a summit attempt today so that was out plan. We hoped to set off at 11am but difficulty in melting water meant we weren't finally on our way til 1:30pm. Breakfast comprised a mix of snacks of jerky, chocolate, cheese, and nuts. We hadn't bothered bringing up a breakfast that would need cooking as we knew it would be tough to prepare, and probably eat, at this elevation. The first trouble in melting snow for water was in trying to light the matches. We had brought several types of matches with us. One type had proved unusable in very cold conditions and had got the cut after Camp 1. The matches that we could light at high camp would extinguish almost instantaneously after lighting and Matty had to try to catch bathroom tissue alight and get the flame to the stove gas as quickly as possible. Once the stove was finally working we soon found out it took a lot longer to get the snow to melt at this altitude and temperature. We eventually melted enough water to have 2 full 1L Nalgene bottles each, to which we added flavoured electrolyte tablets. We also left 750mL of water in my sleeping bag so that there woud be some water available for us on our return (provided it didn't freeze!). As Matt was melting the snow and Van packing down the sleeping bag and pad that we'd take in our summit bag, Travis stopped by and lent us a fork to use for our dinner since we'd forgotten to bring any eating implements. By the time we'd stocked up on water and were ready to go, it was already 1:30pm. The trail started with a short descent from our campsite before the uphill commenced. The first part of the climb switchbacked straight up the slope before traversing climbers left along a section called 'Denali Pass' or 'the Autobahn'. This section had quite a lot of exposure but the slope and snow conditions (mostly firm without being icy) meant that, with proper focus on footing, we didn't feel too sketched out at any point. For the most part, we didn't set up any pro against falls except for a couple of places where the footing was narrow and icy. Given the exposure, we were slow and methodical on this traverse and it probably took us close to three hours to reach the top of Denali Pass. Here, we stopped for a break, some energy gels, and a drink. Van was feeling pretty strong at this point and so took a small amount of weight off Matt - just an ice screw actually. We continued on. There were a couple more sections where we placed pro and then the slope became less steep but seemed to go on forever before we reached a flat section called the 'Football Field'. Van became incredibly tired on the long and gradual incline that had come before the football field. The effects of altitude and lack of sleep meant that every step felt like such a huge effort, and Van ended up giving the ice screw back to Matt to (ever so slightly) reduce her weight back down. On this section we saw the first climbers returning from a successful summit for the day and they were in fact the two Russian guys that Matt had chatted to back at Camp 1.5. They seemed surprised that we were still going for the summit at this point, probably because of the lateness in the day. Matt encouraged Van to go in the lead during this stretch where she was battling, so that she wouldn't feel dragged along. Once we got to nearing the football field, and with the knowledge of the summit being within reach, Van found some renewed energy for this last push. Just before crossing the football field, we crossed paths with another returning group who told us it would probably be another four hours from where we were to the summit. Matt was a bit skeptical about the four hour call as the summit didn't look like it could really be that far away. Little did we know. Van was feeling a little concern about the clouds that had moved up the mountain below us and were now above Denali Pass. But we were so close, and the clouds didn't look too menacing, so we pushed on. After the football field, we ascended up a steeper slope that we had to switchback up, and with very laboured steps by this point, progress was very slow. Again, we employed a step counting strategy, taking around twenty steps before having a 20-30 second pause. In this manner, we eventually reached the summit ridgeline. The summit was so close now that we had reached the ridgeline. The path was precariously narrow but, like Denali Pass, snow conditions meant that we felt very confident with our footing and so didn't make use of any of the fixed anchors along here. We could see a pair of climbers in the distance posing on the summit for their snaps. On we carefully walked. We congratulated that same duo as they returned from the summit, giving them high fives in heavily mitted hands. We soon reached a false summit, and then soon after, the true summit. We were each overcome with our own wave of emotion that encapsulated the success of the journey and reaching the top and the challenges and struggles we'd each faced in getting here, both on the mountain and in the lead up in Toronto. Absolutely exhausted and absolutely thrilled, we were stoked to stand atop North America's highest point at 11:45 pm on Saturday, June the 3rd. Being the top of North America, there was nothing whatsoever to shelter us from the wind, and it was a freakin cold wind. It wasn't particularly fierce, but it would easily blow the lag to stand out proudly and have Van worried that she might lose her grip and let the flag blow off the side of the mountain. We quickly took the obligatory summit shots. Matt removed his gloves for a couple of iPhone selfies, and I noticed that the top third of his pinky finger was completely white. We'd later determine that he had suffered some superficial frostbite. With photos done, we started our descent. It had taken us just over 10 hours to reach the summit, and it took about four hours to get back down. We moved quickly (for us) but carefully, well aware of the statistic that most climbing accidents caused by human error, occur during descent. It took every bit of energy to maintain our focus through Denali Pass, as a misstep here could have dire consequences. Fortunately, the cloud that Van had seen looming earlier had dropped below high camp by the time we reached Denali Pass so we were glad to have complete visibility for our descent. It was around 4:30 am when we got back to the tent. We were pleased to find that the 750mL of water we'd left in the sleeping bag had magically turned into 1.5L and can only assume that Travis looked out for us and was so kind as to top up our water supply. With the sheer exhaustion we felt that night, it was easier to fall asleep and pretty soon after getting into our sleeping bags, we were dreaming.
Day 17 - Return to 14k
We didn't stir until around 10am the next day. The sun was shining but it was definitely windier than yesterday. We'd hardly eaten anything the day before and so we made sure to have a semi-decent feed before we left, sharing a 2-serve chicken with dumplings freeze dry meal. Then it was on to packing up the tent and our gear. The travel back down the ridgeline flew by. There was one section where we had to wait as a team ascended the fixed lines at Washburn's thumb but aside from that we moved quickly. We utilised a better descent approach than our last time down the fixed lines, this time using a single prussic and our gloved hands to move down the rope. Again, we rappelled down across the bergschrund and then made it into 14k camp around 7pm. It was lightly snowing. Van dug out the cache while Matt started setting up the tent. Dan and Ed came over to congratulate us and we learnt that Gabe, who had suffered frostbite on his toes on the move from Camp 3 to 14k camp five days ago, had set off back down to base camp the previous day. Dan and Ed had been for a ski the previous day and were now looking for a weather window to make their summit attempt. Matt cooked up some ham steaks and mash for dinner. Dan and Ed were so kind as to fill our 1L thermos with hot chocolate which was really delicious, mainly because it was our first hot drink in days. After a late night udon noodle snack, we fell asleep around midnight that night, already feeling stronger with our appetites back at this lower elevation.
Day 18 - Return to Base Camp
We rose later in the day, around 11 and had another freeze dried chicken and dumpling meal for lunch. We then packed our gear, said our goodbyes to Dan and Ed, and set out for base camp. It was probably about 2pm when we left. Our goal was to make it to base camp but we were open to setting up a campsite at camp 1 if we got too tird. The first challenge of the day was our sleds. Matt was having an especially frustrating time as his sled was much heavier than Van's and when our sleds would swing from behind us to in front of us, Matt's would sometimes pull him off his feet. Our sleds were generally quite frustrating until we got to camp 3. Here, we retrieved the cache that we had left and also changed back from crampons to the snowshoes that we had left here. Matt was happy to take the weight of the cache here but even though the sled was heavier, the slope from Camp 3 to Camp 1 while still occasionally frustrating, was not as steep and so the sleds were thankfully no longer flinging around in front. The descent as far as camp 1 went really quickly. At one stage we saw a few men in camo gear whom we learned had been called in to help with a many hour rescue effort the previous day that had since been resolved. We passed the old camp 1.5 location which looked completely different since the snowscape had changed. The way that the tents were set out at Camp 1 had also completely changed in terms of layout since we were last there around fifteen days ago. We took a short rest at camp 1 and were warned by a guided team there of spots up ahead where crevasse falls had occurred and we needed to take extra care. We soon came across a spot where one of two major crevasse falls had occurred the day prior. A set of skis were left there and there were signs of a lot of activity. Soon after getting past this spot, cloud cover rolled in and it was near white-out conditions. Van had been leading the descent today and so was route finding in this section which took a lot of focus. The wands were often few and far between so Van was looking to the ground to try and make out the boot marks and see the trail. We came across a cache stash that was being raided by a large black raven. The only other life we saw apart from people and the raven that day was, strangely, the odd large fly (insect variety) on the snow which, coupled with the grey cloud we were walking in, seemed scarily ominous. As the weather had been warmer on the lower mountain the past several days, the snow was much softer than when we had come through this section on the ascent. There were a few scary moments where the snow would partially collapse beneath Van, or where she would cross a sketchy section and sink half a foot, then Matt would fall knee deep or more crossing that same section. One of the scariest moments for Van was when she was crossing an area with signs of there being a crevasse (a perpendicular line of depressed snow) when she stepped in about shin deep. Van stepped with her other foot and the snow around her all separated from it's surrounding snow and shifted down and her foot sunk down such that she was thigh deep. Fortunately, the snow stopped moving here and she quickly scurried forward and out. When we reached heartbreak hill we started a break strategy of 200 steps then a break for a quick dinner and breather. The travel from Camp 1 to base camp seemed to take a really long time compared to the trek from Camp 4 to Camp 1. Eventually, we finally made it! We found a spot for our tent, dropped our gear and then found our cache. Matt quickly found the Sockeye Red beers that were waiting for us. We cheers'ed and high five'd at having reached the summit and returned safely to base camp. Sleep that night was sweet.
Day 19 - Fly to Talkeetna
We awoke shortly before eight a.m. and Matt went and scheduled our flight with Sheldon Air. We were given a leaving time of approximately 11am which turned out to be fairly accurate. We loaded our gear onto the aircraft, which we shared with a pair who had actually camped just across from us at high camp. It was a nice and sunny morning as we flew off the mountain and farewelled the amazing place that had been our home for the last eighteen days.
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