Mt. McKinley (2011) - Day 08
Cache at 13,500
09:45 - Like clockwork Wes awoke with a powerful need to make water and cook breakfast. More power to him. When I shortly later became uncomfortably warm in my sleeping bag (due to the sun heating up the tent), I gradually emerged and joined him.
After breakfast (freeze dried scrambled eggs and half a pound of real bacon) we started sorting supplies for the cache. I championed the notion of not lugging sleds. Wes agreed. We each ended up with some fifty pounds of food, supplies and warm clothes destined for the 13,500' cache.
13:15 - Suitably late in the day, with the sun beating down on us in full, we started the slog up Motorcycle Hill, finally wearing crampons. Snowshoes are a thing of the past.
The snow volume on Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill and Windy Hill was ideal. No blue ice, just nice firm steps the whole way up.
16:45 - We rolled into the cache site 3.5 hours later and got to use an existing cache hole. That saved some effort. We took a nice long break afterwards and chatted with a guy from Iceland (team name: Iceland) who was doing a back carry by himself for his two man team. His teammate had apparently fallen asleep, so he set off lugging a 45kg pack back up to camp. Slowly. Very slowly.
He did this thing he called an Airforce Lift to get himself into a standing position with the pack. First, the pack is on the ground with the shoulder straps facing up. He lies down on the pack and straps himself to it. Next, he rolls himself and the pack over so the pack is on top of him and he is face down in the snow. Lastly, he does a push up of sorts, gets his feet under him and carefully stands up. Impressive.
19:15 - Five and a half hours altogether, and we were back at camp in time to catch some final rays and the weather report (for whatever it's worth) before retreating to the tent.
Wes cooked a gumbo like meal. It wasn't gumbo, but it was delicious, plentiful and warming.
The weather report said clouds tomorrow. We should both have light loads and we'll hopefully have a new camp at 14,200' (Camp 4) come tomorrow evening.
