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"As in any alpine region, the weather is changeable, protection questionable, route-finding bewildering, rockfall frequent and descents tedious. In short, it's everything you could ever ask for." — from the Canadian Alpine Journal, 1993. Day 2. We wake up early the next morning, break camp and head up to the base of the glacier. Wow! As we approach the the glacier, I see a large ice bridge arching from the left side of the glacier, looming over a small stream, to the rocks on the other side. Isaac and I both start chattering about climbing it- maybe next time. We work our way through ever-deepening snow to a rock mound near the base of the glacier and spot an ice cave in its base forming a gaping mouth ready to consume the wandering mountaineer or hiker. It’s really beautiful in there, and there’s a very clear stream flowing from the center of it. Isaac and I jokingly talk about ice climbing in the cave. If we actually had time we might have climbed in there. We stock up on water knowing this will be our last chanc to get wather with out melting snow and slip on snowshoes for the ascent to the Liberty Ridge. I have never owned snowshoes and got mine from REI. I’m really dreading having to use them, but I do a few test runs out into the deeper snow, barely breaking the upper crust. I begin feeling the altitude, but I am relatively happy with the snowshoes. We get some pictures, throw our packs back on and head out to pass the ice bridge. Isaac and I decide to take an easy looking snow slope and Neal stays a bit lower in the gully. The higher route quickly becomes steeper and slippery, even with the snowshoes, so we traverse and front point until we join up with Neal again. We climb out of the gully and I lead us onto the glacier. I keep the gully to our left, try not to top out on small mounds, and stay focused on avoiding steep side hills. This whole time I am a little nervous I might be slowing down my two younger climbing partners who are 25 and 28 VS me at 36 so I decide to keep a steady pace as I lead them up the lower parts of the glacier until Neal will take the lead and start looking for crevasses. Instead of focusing on keeping the pace up I should have been focusing on eating and hydrating more, but I was feeling fine. The day starts out cool and clear and was great for walking the glacier, A little later in the afternoon Isaac starts calling out the temperature from his watch which is connected to his pack- it is rising. Sooner or later he calls out 68F and I realize I’m feeling every degree of it. I have stripped down to my base layers (tights and Power Dry top with the chest zipper all the way down). No hat needed at the moment, although that will change. Even my poly glove liners are too warm, so I stuff them away. The snow is getting wetter and starting to stick to the snowshoe crampons, making each step feel like I’m carrying ankle weights. We gain a rock group not too far from the ridge to the left of the Carbon Glacier and now I’m feeling a bit tired and a little sore. I advocate leaving the snowshoes behind and stashing them with the trekking poles, especially since I’m not excited about carrying an extra 4 or 5 lbs of aluminum, steel and plastic on my back while leading the ice pitches near the top of Rainer. Finally, Isaac takes one snowshoe off and starts stomping around to test the snow- it looks good. Neal then changes his mind and we agree to leave the snowshoes behind some rocks marked with a wand. We decide to take a higher ridge to our left, and start picking our way along it towards the upper portion of the Carbon Glacier. The snow is deep- knee to waist deep close to the ridge, but the top of the ridge is wind blown and relatively free from snow. We stop at a cut in a ridge just before a steep rise and Isaac indicates our altitude to be about 6900 feet. . The wind has picked up and is blowing a constant 15 mph with stronger gusts, all while the temperature continues to drop. We go from sweating in our t-shirts to donning our shells and hoods to keep us warm. It is getting late in the afternoon and I suggest camping here instead of trying to get to the base of Liberty Ridge. Pitching our tent on the glacier at the base of the ridge does not feel as good to me as pitching a tent right here and getting a full nights sleep. The other two agree and we start cutting a tent pad just below the ridgeline and use the snow we cut to make a 3 foot tall snow wall to protect the Trango 2 from the wind. We are enjoying a nice snow-free weather window and it’s supposed to hold for two more days. We figure that’s enough time to get up and over the top of the ice cap. We decide to leave any extra weight on this ridge in a cache and carry only two days of food. Neal mentions something Jen Grimes said during a presentation we saw her give at the Nipigon Ice Fest a month earlier, something like “I would rather go with out food for a few days than go without water.” We decide to bring all the fuel for the stove about 5 days worth. Isaac and Neal retire to the tent but I am feeling pretty comfortable in my down jacket, so I stay outside the tent and lay down in the snow so I can look down into the valley. The wind whipping over us is hitting a ridgeline down a bit lower and making small snow tornados. I lay back and watch day fade into night and listen to the wind. I hear Neal laugh and tell Isaac that I’m lying in the snow outside the tent. I think I’m just fine where I am (for now) because that tent is tight with the three of us in it. But Neal finally says with a smirk, “Erik, get inside this tent!” I crawl into the tent and we begin discussing the next portion of the climb. We soon realize we’ve left behind the high quality pictures of the route. I’ve been looking at them for weeks, so I’m confident I can navigate the route just fine. Besides, we have other pictures we took with Neal's digital camera during the initial part of the hike in. I pop in my magic earplugs and fade off to sleep sandwiched in between Neal’s and Isaac’s shoulders.
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