Mt. McKinley (2011) - Day 06
Camp 1 to Camp 3
Friday the Thirteenth! Too bad I didn't bring that movie.
09:00 - Wes burst out of bed like we were tragically late for something. I asked if the tent was on fire. He said, "if the tent were on fire, I'd be OUTSIDE yelling at you to get out." What a fireman. We enjoyed more bagels and cheese for breakfast and started packing up camp.
Mountain Trips (a team of nine, including guides), passed by our tent on their way to Camp 3. However, instead of caching and moving with light loads, they were doing a single carry the entire way. And once they arrive at 11,200 feet, they still have to dig out a camp and set everything up. Their guide is insane ... unless his goal is to avoid having any clients who care to push all the way to the summit. It probably makes financial sense for the guides.
12:15 - We leisurely made our way out of Camp 1 and up Ski Hill on our way to Camp 3. Several teams on skis were right in front of us and they stopped, right in the middle of the trail every minute or two for no apparent reason - other than to disrupt the flow of traffic. We passed them.
15:45 - Rockin' a very respectable pace, we arrived at our 10,000' cache from the previous day. We snacked and hydrated and decided to leave the cache for tomorrow.
17:15 - The haul up the last hill that lands you at Camp 3 wasn't half the hill I remember from years past. No thanks to Wes though. Once he spotted the Mountain Trips team on the final stretch to Camp 3, he put it into high gear and started hauling it up there. In the end it didn't matter since there were many camp sites ready to go. We had three very decent ones to choose from.
We crossed the camp of the puking lady from the afternoon before, set up around 10,800'. They were surprisingly smart not to push any farther. There were no sounds of active puking going on.
Tomorrow we'll back carry from 10,000' (weather permitting) which should take about two hours, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing in the sun and eating junk food.
