Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 22
This morning was beautiful and not cold at all like yesterday. We got up a little early and "enjoyed" some kellogs cereal for breakfast. Immediately thereafter we set about tearing down camp and turning our kitchen into a giant cache. We're about to start on up the headwall, for a second time.
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There was a serious backlog of stupid people on the fixed lines so it was very slow going. We got our cache, which barely fit in our packs and continued towards 17k camp. We stopped for a break right before the one other part of the trip (after the headwall) that requires ascenders. When the break was over, I lifted my pack up and the top of the left shoulder strap busted - due to some design flaw whereby the entire shoulder strap is secured by a tiny little plastic tab. Thankfully, Mike was able to spare some rope to tie the shoulder strap back in place, and then the guides started going off on Jansport equipment. Apparently it all sucks. So I'll be returning this pack as soon as I get back. I had this very solemn moment where I was contemplating exactly how bad it was that I only had one working shoulder strap on my pack. There's no way I could carry it back down the mountain in any dignified fashion - much less make it to high camp. Thank you, Mike. I thought it was over for me.
It took us six hours to get up to 17k camp. It was definitely hard, but not as bad as I expected - since Mike had been saying from the start that the move to 17k is the hardest day. We'd basically been preparing for this day since the start. And the Camp 2 -> Camp 3 day still tops the list of the hardest things I've ever done.
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Wow. So, instead of building up walls like everyone else does, we decided to dig into the side of the hill, for added protection, supposedly. I think the idea was sound, but it took a lot more effort than anyone expected. Four hours of work, and I think we all found the digging _a lot_ more challenging than moving up to high camp. Insane. We're all utterly exhausted now. Great.
I think we spent more calories digging out a camp than we did walking up here - even when considering our psychotically heavy packs (post cache pick up). Except Yuri, who didn't do a single thing - he walked to where work was but didn't actually do anything the entire evening.
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Dinner was comprised of these Mexican freeze dried meals. Nearly two thousand calories each. But it was way too spicy for me. I ate 2/3rds of it and it forced me to drink a lot of water, which was a good thing since none of us drank enough while walking up here. Jerry also dished out some mostly frozen smoked turkey jerkey, which was amazing. And smelled amazing. It was the first substantial thing that any of us in this tent (Jerry, John, Dan and I) had eaten since breakfast.
I don't remember shivering ever in my life nearly as much as I did this evening. And my thermarest has gone flat, which sucks. Just one foam pad between my sleeping bag and the snow. I re-purposed my parka pillow as a parka mattress, which helped enough to let me get warm.
We're four to a tent now. Very cozy. Time to sleep. Finally.
