By Curtis Jones in climbing — 19 May 2008

Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 15

Carry up Head Wall

Sleep? Not really. I'm gross and I just can't get comfortable at night. Still, I must be sleeping because I'm not really tired, although I was not happy to hear Mike's wake-up call this morning - which was pre-sunrise, again.

Breakfast this morning is cereal, poptarts and cereal bars. I opted for the latter two.

The sun rose during breakfast, finally warming the area and cooking the cook tent. Precious, precious heat.

As promissed, we hauled a load up to the head-wall. The headwall is a bitch. There, I said it. My pack, containing a little group gear and the food and clothing that I wanted to cache, couldn't have weighed more than thirty pounds. At first the headwall wasn't too bad - just walking up steps, really, but then it just got steeper and steeper. At the steepest part and just prior to the fixed ropes, Mike decided that we should pass another group, of course. Being behind them on the fixed ropes evidently wasn't an option. Finally, we shortened the ropes, dropped the trekking poles, dawned the ice tools and continued on up the fixed lines. Once clipped into the fixed lines with the ascenders, we could lean back and "rest" our legs. It wasn't very restful.

We stopped at the top, 16,500' (twenty-two hundred foot ascent - it sure doesn't look like half a mile up, from down at camp) and got anchored in place while the guides started digging a cache. Another guide from Mountain Trips tried to steal some fuel that Lucia cached for us - imposing his own time-limit for the cache ("it's been there for twenty-four hours, you know"). Haul your own freakin' gas up the mountain. Don't steal ours. Moron.

The cache is all buried, so we're going to head down.

Going up the headwall is a combination of strength and technical gear. Going down we arm-wrap the rope and just walk like we're impervious to gravity. It's a peculiar contrast. Anyway, it was a serious workout on the quads - and that with empty packs even. The next time we go down the headwall, I'm going to collapse for sure. We'll have very full packs instead of empty packs (everything we cached plus everything we're going to move to high camp). The headwall is a bitch.

We have been promised a rest day for tomorrow. I hope it turns out to be more restful than the prior rest day, which involved retrieving a cache and making a large ice wall around the cook tent.

After the headwall trip we all had such an excess of energy I guess, so we decided to take a trip to go see "the edge of the world", which is this cliff that drops from 14k camp down into the "valley of death", and from which point you can see our former Camp 1. We took lots of photos and several group shots. It's pretty neat.

While joyously sitting on the Camp 4 toilet, I snapped a photo of the view. It's pretty impressive - gives the Mauna Loa summit toilet view a run for its money.

I look forward to not touching my boots, spikes, gaiters, poles, harness or beacon until the day after tomorrow. My feet will be luxuriously wrapped up in my camp booties.

Weather permitting, we will be moving to 17k camp after our rest day. I've heard rumors of bad weather, so we might be acclimating at 14k camp a couple more days. Once we make the move to 17k and retrieve our cache, we're just one day from the summit. The end is in sight! It'll seem more attainable to me, after we've made the move to 17k. I'm pretty sure I've thought the same thing for each of the previous camps.

The air at this camp continues to feel "thicker", which is a good sign. Still, jumping up to one's feet can give leave you feeling light-headed for a moment.

Mike said that the RMI 3 group did a carry to 10k, while staying at Camp 1 for multiple days and then finally jump up two camps. We probably won't see them until we are on our way down. The RMI 1 team should be back in Talkeetna today, as the weather was very much perfect.

Some people like to get an early start; like these people who are working their way up the head wall. I like sleeping in.

A nice view of Mt. Foraker on this wonderful morning

We're going up the headwall now; looking back at 14k camp; you can see our four orange tents right near the center

Looking back down the headwall

Time for our first break; going up the headwall is *so* much fun; oh yeah

Taking a break; looking at how far up we've come already; we'll ascend a total of about half a mile

Looking out at some mountains; I think this is a bit to the right of Foraker

All the fun is still to come; these people are ascending the fixed line portion of the headwall; you can see that they just crossed the bergschrund gap

We keep on heading up

Oh yeah; time to cross the bergschrund gap; don't look down; that's me right behind the lead guide (second from the front); standing wasn't really very comfortable or relaxing

The view from on high! At this very moment, I've climbed to a higher altitude than I've ever climbed to previously - by about two thousand feet

Mike, content as ever, standing at the top of the head wall

Looking out from the top of the head wall

Paul and Jamie make it to the top as well; you think Jamie would have done anything different if he knew that his name was always going to come second?

Looking out from the top of the head wall

Some climbers are continuing on towards high camp - although they might just intend to make their cache a little farther up (thank you, dad, for teaching me the difference between 'farther' and 'further')

"Resting" up here is just about as relaxing as it looks; ie, not at all

The guides dig a hole for our cache; you can see the gallon of fuel that the guide from some other group tried to steal from us

I told Dan to hold up so I could snap some pictures. We're about to start down the headwall now; you just arm wrap the fixed rope and lean forward; yeah, that's not scary at all

The view of 14k camp from the top of the headwall right before we started our descent

You can see our camp right in the middle; four small orange tents (three in a group, and the guides' tent to the left); it also looks like some folks are holding a town meeting without us

Another picture from the top of the headwall

Finally, back down at camp, we commence with intense relaxation

Paul and Jamie return to camp from caching at the top of the headwall

As though the trek up to do our cache wasn't enough exercise, we opt to take a trip to see "the edge of the world"; this is a view down into the "valley of death" which is the route to the Cassine; Camp 1 is just outside the valley to the right

A closer shot of Camp 1 as seen from "the edge of the world"

The mandatory group shot at the edge of the world (right behind us); "keep stepping back; a little farther; just one more step..."

Another group shot; it looks like Billy (one of the guides) opted to take the photo

Looking back at 14k camp on our way back from the edge of the world

We promptly return to our intense relaxation; ah, what I would have done for a camp chair; next time....

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