Mt. McKinley (2011) - Day 18

Rest at High Camp

01:00 - I haven't slept at all. My mattress is flat and it's killing me. Inflating the mat really requires the participation of both people in the tent and I'd rather not do that right now.

03:00 - I folded over part of the mat to decrease the volume of the mat and, besides making the mat shorter, it did increase the air pressure enough that I could sleep-ish.

Until Mike woke up Jeff. I guess they're going for the summit today. I'm glad I'm not in that guided group. They just fired up their stoves. I guess Mike's secret 3am weather report had something good to say.

I should have used the CMC last night. I haven't used it since the morning we left 14k camp. I haven't been drinking much this night as a result and I have a serious headache. Great.

09:00 - Wes poked his head out the door and reported the autobahn is shrouded in clouds and we're seeing some pretty decent gusts of wind. Going back to sleep ... just as soon as I use the CMC so that I can start drinking in earnest and get rid of this headache.

12:45 - Time to wake up, I guess. The headache is gone. Wes jumped out to get more snow for water and I got the mat reinflated. The gusts of wind persist. Maybe Mike and his team are above the weather we're seeing.

18:30 - I persevered and managed to stay in the tent all day except for a couple pee bottle emptying needs.

Mike's team returned exactly twelve hours after they departed. The clients looked wiped, Jeff got his first summit, and Mike looked bored as he sauntered into camp (for his eighth summit?) at the end of the rope team.

20:00 - Lisa read off the same weather report, again. We're looking at 20 mph summit winds tomorrow and mild weather the following couple of days (as we descend), and snow on Sunday (and we intend to be in Talkeetna well before then).

So, we're planning on heading up by 10 am tomorrow morning, and we'll hopefully be back by 8pm with a couple hours of sunlight remaining. Billy and his group intend to summit tomorrow as well.