Mt. McKinley (2011) - Day 16
Camp 4 to Camp 5
09:30 - Despite moderately high winds all night, this morning was bright and clear. Mike's team was already resting part way up the headwall when we first looked out of the tent. We aren't the early birds in any sense.
I broke out clean underwear, socks, shirt and beanie. Of course, it's the same old dirty me, but it feels (and smells) good to have some clean clothes on.
Breakfast was granola. Lots of it.
13:30 - It took forever to tear down camp, and the small Russian group that made camp beside us yesterday asked, in very broken English if they could move into our very well fortified camp.
Max dropped by to wish us farewell. He and Justin are planning on moving up to high camp tomorrow. He also said that they sent out tons of letters to various companies looking for sponsorships for this trip. One that they heard back from explained that they're just a small local cheese company and can't afford a cash sponsorship, but they could have thirty pounds of cheese. They got sharp cheddar. Thirty pounds of it. And they brought it all with them. We thanked Max for the offer of some cheese, but we already had enough.
We had delusions of thirty or thirty-five pound packs the previous night. That didn't work out quite as imagined. My pack was easily mid-fifties.
As we started up the headwall, and I tried not to think about the hours and hours of climbing left, it seemed impossible that we would ever arrive at high camp. The weather was amazing though, and that helped. I just had my t-shirt (my clean t-shirt!) on all the way to the top of the headwall. It was very reminiscent of the move to Camp 4.
As we ascended the fixed lines we ran into a group that was descending. What I put together was this: thirty-five days on the mountain, they went up the Muldrow. After summitting they got caught in a storm and were stranded (with all their stuff) at Denali Pass. When the weather broke (a bit) they abandoned their sleds and most of their food and made the trek down to high camp, where they got stuck again. The amount of ice clinging to their facial hair, when I saw them, was impressive. They, "just wanted off the mountain", the one guy said.
Along the buttress, nearing high camp, we spied a camp (at high camp) that was a perfect square with walls at least four feet high. It was castle looking. And way off on it's own. A lot of work went into that place. I'll have to find out who it belongs to.
19:30 - I counted some nearly seventy people ascending the fixed lines while they were in view. However, when we arrived at high camp there were no more than thirty-ish people; apparently most of those people were caching. Maybe they'll move tomorrow.
We stopped at a place to build camp where we could share an existing wall, and it turned out to be next to Mike's tent. We designed a duplex and eliminated the need for one wall, such that we only had to build two. And we got right to it. Wes leveled the area and I started sawing and shoveling at an existing, near-by quarry.
22:30 - The tent is set up, anchored and moved into. My Exped mat is doing the same crap it did near the beginning of the trip where the pump wouldn't inflate and it took like ten minutes to inflate. I need to call them and find out what's going on with it, when I get back.
The walls are built pretty high. I dug large blocks.
The weather report indicates low winds tomorrow, so despite having just moved to high camp, we might summit tomorrow. And then the trip will be over.... That's a bummer in one sense.
I'm having a freeze dried breakfast skillet for dinner. It was very difficult to eat. I stopped three times and just waited.
Time to sleep.
