By Curtis Jones in climbing — 31 May 2008

Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 27

Camp 5 to Camp 3

True to the weather report, at 9am when I awoke it was hot in the tent. All of the moisture had evolporated already. And then I went back to sleep.

Mike was kind enough to let us sleep in a couple of hours. I think we got up around 10 am.

Billy just informed us that breakfast would be cheese grits. Dan donated his block of cheese to the meal - so that he wouldn't have to carry it down. Jerry's frost bit fingers don't look too bad - a little sensitive, discoloration and blistering. JR's client from yesterday will probably lose a chunk of a finger. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are still at high camp and have to be careful. We're not out of danger yet - but at least its all downhill from here. Well, except for Heartbreak Hill. But somehow I don't think that'll pose a significant challenge for us.

Time to start tearing down camp. The plan for today is to walk all the way down to base camp (7,200'). That's a lot of walking. With a lot of weight on our backs.

Well, we made it down the headwall. That was intense. A lot of people summitted yesterday, so a lot of people were descending today, and it took _forever_ on the fixed lines. My poor quads. After the fixed lines we were nearly running down the slopes towards 14k camp, and my quads just couldn't take it. I had to take a couple short breaks to stretch and rest my legs - they were just about to fatigue and crumble under my weight. I think I failed to eat enough while at high camp.

Back down at 14k camp, I can't help but think about the RMI 1 group that we saw, here, many days ago. They really looked bad. I've eaten a ton of food. And RMI 5 (they're here at 14k camp) filled our water, of which I drank plenty. We all look and feel pretty good. I guess that having successfully summitted (which the RMI 1 group did not), helps the positive mental attitude.

When we were approaching camp, I noticed some people tossing around a green frisbee that looked rather similar to mine. I went over to talk with a guy who was part of the RMI 5 group camped here, who was also with me on Rainier, and it turns out that they found my frisbee when they were digging out my cache. Of course, that means that they were looking through our bags. That's a little disturbing. Since they are going to end up staying at 14k for a while I told them to keep the frisbee. I guess I need to find me another one. That was a good frisbee, too.

Jerry is in the med tent getting his fingers worked on. They became discolored and blistered over-night, which is expected. But then on the way down the fixed lines he tore open all of the blisters. Insane. That's bad. So, the medic guy is hacking away at his fingers and bandaging them up. Meanwhile, we get more time to rest here before we continue on down.

Meanwhile, we were charged with ditching as much of our extra food as possible. We all tossed our extra food onto a sled and started devising a strategy when we noticed a Russian group near-by. We sent Yuri over to "talk with his comrades", with the sled, of course. He pawned off ALL of our extra food on them - and they were even happy to take it. That's awesome. That's a ton of weight we don't have to carry now.

We've been here at 14k for several hours. Jerry is ready to go - all bandaged up - and we're off to 11k (Camp 3). Thus far I have always placed myself right behind Mike in the front rope team. It's a psychologically helpful thing for me. Anyway, it didn't pay off this time. He has a heavy sled behind him, except that when you're going downhill, its the person _behind_ the sled who has to pull backwards to slow down the sled to prevent it from running into the person in front. Somehow I don't think I'm going to enjoy this.

Well, we made it down to Camp 3. The slowing-down-the-sled thing, especially down Windy Corner, was just as bad as I imagined. As we got to motorcycle hill I finally told Mike that if he kept on going, I'd collapse - there was no way I had the strength left to stop that sled down a hill _that_ steep. It turned out not to be an issue because we turned the rope team around, Dan now in front and Mike in back (which is good in case anyone starts falling), and Mike slowed the sled down.

The air down here is so thick and wonderful. We dug up our cache and I tore into my pringles and the left-over salami. It was so delicious. I knew my appetite had been suppressed at higher altitudes, and it has definitely come back in full force. It's getting a little windy, so we're going to set up the cook tent and hang out here for a while.

My feet and muscles are all doing fine. We have to switch from crampons to snowshoes here. Just three more camps to go - after we eat dinner and hang out for a while. The menu for tonight is cheese and chicken bagels. I've finished off the pringles, so, we better get off this mountain soon.

This guy was one of the weirdest guys we saw on the whole trip. He would sprint (relatively) ahead of us - a ridiculous pace - and then stop and rest (in this position) for several minutes before continuing again at his sprint-like pace.

Looking out at Foraker from high camp. You can see Camp 4 (14k) at the bottom of the picture.

Foraker.

Some guy up there, with an amazing and unobstructed view.

A last look at high camp (17k) before we start our trek down. The plan is to walk all the way back to base camp, during the next 20+ hours, so that we can arrive early the following morning and be first in line (for Hudson Air) to fly out.

Many people summitted the previous day, so a lot of people are descending today. This amounted to a serious traffic jam. It was very slow going on the West Buttress.

The West Buttress isn't always very wide ... and with a drop on either side of several thousand feet, it's important to walk carefully. I'm second from the front in this picture.

A long line of people ahead of us on the West Buttress.

A major choke point in our descent is Washburn's Thumb. People going up, and people going down. We were stuck here for quite a while.

Going down Washburn's Thumb on the fixed lines. This is the only place (other than the headwall itself) where there are fixed lines.

We got down the headwall and descended into some clouds. On the fairly steep bank we stopped to switch our our ice tools for trekking poles and get something to eat/drink.

We're all very, very happy to finally be back down at 14k camp. Seriously tropical weather here. Unlike the team we met on their way down from high camp, we are in high spirits and ready to go the rest of the way, after a nice break. This is also the point at which we get to ditch as much of our extra food as we can give away - thus reducing the amount of stuff we have to carry all the way down the mountain.

I don't know who this is, but I'm glad I didn't have to carry all that stuff. Crazy.

We made it down past Windy Corner and we've stopped to take a break.

Looking back at Windy Corner.

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