Mt. McKinley (2011) - Day 19
Rest at High Camp
02:00 - A rescue is in progress. Someone saw a team fall from the top of the autobahn (~1,500 feet) shortly ago. The very top. High camp is partially populated by one team of a dozen or so men of Dutch military, German military, US PJs and some other; and another team consisting entirely of US Army Rangers.
Within minutes of the first call for a rescue, a small team set out down into the bowl where the fallen team of four had come to a rest - tangled up completely in their rope. Meanwhile, other teams prepared and departed similarly. One guy found that his overboots didn't fit his boots and he was encouraged to remain behind and make water. That's gotta sting.
Camp became very quiet for a while.
05:45 - A rescue helicopter just departed from high camp. The two dead team members (a woman who was the Alpine Ascents guide and a client) were left below the autobahn. A severely injured man (head, neck and spine trauma), and an uninjured (!) man were brought back to camp.
How often does one get into a jam and find 20+ military personnel staged minutes away, intending to train in high altitude mountain warfare and rescue? Damn lucky for the two survivors.
Counting these two deaths (and probably a third, if the injured man hasn't already died, as the rescuers expect him to), there have been at least four deaths on this stretch of the mountain since we arrived. And a broken leg.
Time to try to get some more sleep.
10:00 - Wes has declared this our summit day.
11:00 - Wes has declared this no longer our summit day. He also said something mean about Lisa and her weather reports that I don't care to repeat.
13:30 - Mike, Jeff and team, which summitted yesterday are packing up for the descent today. The wind here is gnarly. I'm not the least bit jealous.
They've unloaded a fair bit of food on us - including a bagel, salami, beef jerky, life savers, cup-o-noodles, lots of Gu, and other stuff. This additional food will supplement our ample fuel supply very nicely. Wes was becoming worried I think. So, now we have supplies adequate to hang around a few more days while waiting for that elusive summit day weather window.
Meanwhile, my iPod nano is running on it's last leg. I don't know what to do. I guess there's really nothing that can be done.
I need to use the CMC. It's windy outside though. I can wait.
20:10 - Let's see; what has happened this afternoon? Mostly I baked in the tent. Ate. Drank. Managed to use the CMC very successfully. Very successfully. Chowed down on a Snickers (how do people eat these things regularly?). I day dreamed of Talkeetna having a barber that does straight edge razor shaves (they don't have any barber at all).
I got some clarification on the accident that occurred around the time we flew onto the glacier: a Mountain Trips team of at least three took a spill descending Pig Hill (shortly below the summit). One client broke a leg; the guide injured his arm or shoulder or something. They dug a small shelter for the broken-legged client and then the guide and the other client continued their descent towards high camp. Shortly above the autobahn, on the ice slopes, the other client took a spill and died. The guide managed to make it to high camp without further injury. The broken legged client was subsequently rescued and may have lost his feet and hands to frost bite. I'm reminded of the Mountain Trips team in 2009 that had a client die of "natural causes" (a heart attack) after they climbed well above the obvious limit of the client. I think the National Park Service needs to publish mortality and injury statistics on a per guide organization basis.
Lisa's weather report has changed slightly from her script the past couple weeks: 15 mph summit winds, continued high pressure over the mountain (?!), mostly sunny for the next few days (which is good for our descent) and a chance of snow on Monday evening.
I listened in on Billy's conversation with Brent Okita. Billy intends to summit tomorrow. That's a good sign for our summit attempt. Billy is fairly conservative despite having been trained by Mike, who is a bit bolder when it comes to summit weather.
Time to have some freeze dried garlic mashed potatoes, finish the 2nd half of this Snickers and try to get some sleep. Summit day tomorrow?
