By Curtis Jones in climbing — 10 May 2008

Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 06

Camp 1 to Camp 2

Second night on the glacier, and nothing terribly interesting to report. Sleeping on a foam pad with a therm-a-rest on top of it is surprisingly comfortable. Of course, I sleep on a couch when I'm not on mountains, so maybe I just don't have a good basis for comparison.

Breakfast this morning is toasted bagels. Very decent breakfast, although sort of lacking in quantity; but far more decilious than granola. It is evident to me now that I need to be eating more at every opportunity.

Right from the start, this morning, we were moving neck-and-neck with "Ze Germans". They're just another group heading from Camp 1 to Camp 2. We'll pass them and take a break and they'll pass us and take a break, etc. Not very interesting information for the journal, but when you're walking along a glacier for hours, there's limited entertainment possibilities.

We made it to Camp 2! Boo yah. My legs hurt, but not as much as they did yesterday. I'm mostly just running out of energy. Eat more. I look forward to my "carved in stone" physique upon my return.

Ze Germans crafted the most elaborate crapper I've yet seen. Wes has been our self-designated "crapper constructor", partly because he is good at it but mostly because he has the most powerful urge to "go" each day, so he has motivation to get it set up as quickly as possible. He does fine work.

Baron invited me over to his place in Anchorage upon our return. I believe he intends to throw a Memorial Day party. I can't wait.

So far I'm not smelling so bad - as far as I can tell. The weather has been so nice (as in warm) that sweating is inevitable, but it hasn't been too terrible. I'm sure the smell will kick in soon. The Kahiltna glacier is actually so warm during the day, later in the Summer (June / July) that most teams only travel at night (it isn't very dark at night) until they reach the upper mountain. And then you try to only be in your sleeping bag at night.

My handwriting sucks.

Dinner this evening was stir fry made with rice, peppers, chicken and broccoli. It was delicious but it was only adequate because I had lots of cheese, salami and tortillas before hand.

My second use of the CMC went great. And a bad trip to the CMC definitely has the potential for ruining your day, so, this is a good thing. I hope for many more pleasant CMC experiences.

Tomorrow we will push on to the 11k camp. We'll probably do a single load (ie, carry all of our gear and move camp at the same time). Uggh.

I believe we came down that hill the previous day; or maybe that's the way we're heading out to camp 2. I get all turned around.

Some people dry out their sleeping bags by tossing them on top of the tents.

We prepare to set out from camp 1 and head up that stupid hill

Some little mountains

On our way to Camp 2; taking a break

Mike, the lead guide, gets far too much enjoyment out of these trips

Looking back the way we came from

Happy to be sitting for a while

We've come quite a long distance but we really haven't ascended very much

The nose protector. You don't see a lot of those these days

Everyone is so happy and fairly cleanly shaved

When we get to camp the guides make sure that we're not sitting on top of a snow bridge; or that if we are, that it is a thick snow bridge

They call it "probing". I was of the opinion that a better word could be found

Wes settles in for some animal crackers and hot chocolate - the staple of any good diet

One of only several types of life we saw on the mountain - these birds enjoy flying, eating and freezing to death over night. Also, they like to get sneak into the tents at night. Not my tent, thankfully.

I still don't understand how those birds got up there, since they all just tend to die over-night

Subscribe to A garage sale for your mind