Stan and I decided to climb Mt. McKinley(Denali) with American Alpine Institute(AAI). It was our first expedition of any kind and we choose AAI because of the great training we received during the mountaineering course we took from them. The following is from my climbing journal written prior to, during and after our expedition.
We’re on our way! Picked Stan up at the hospital at 6am and headed to the airport after a quick breakfast at Mickey D’s. No problems getting the huge bags on but I’m glad we got there early. On the plane from Quincy to St. Louis he threw up. After we landed he headed for the bathroom. We got the seats configured so he could sleep on the flight to Seattle. He says he’s got a bug and threw up food from yesterday. What a way to start out! Long wait in Seattle and Stan can probably sleep more. I’m ready to go. The last couple weeks of training were getting boring. I guess I was tired of looking at all the stuff in the living room while I pedaled the trainer.
Got to Seattle early. We rode around on the tram thing to find a cafeteria. We decided to check on an earlier flight to Anchorage. There was one at 1:55 and we got on it. They weren’t sure whether we would get our luggage but it was better than sitting around until 5pm.
The plane was really full but the food was great. We got in all right but one of my bags wasn’t there. Filled out the paperwork then went on to pick up the car. Called one of my skydiving friends, Bobbi Joyce who we were going to stay with. She met us in the parking lot and we followed her to her house. We then went to a restaurant to meet more skydiver friends.
Decided to drive down the Kenai Peninsula to Seward. Not much of a town but the drive down was really beautiful, we even saw a moose. Took a couple hours to get there. Went to the National Park office and watched a video on the glaciers. I think you really must fly over to see anything of the park. Got back to Girdwood and took a look at the drop zone. Gravel runway and the landing area is kind of a swamp. We got home around 3pm and took the luggage to the hotel. We then delivered the car back to the airport and met the climbing group at 5pm at the hotel. There are ten of us total on the climb including the two guide. They are a Mark Houston and Kathy Cosley, a husband and wife team. A couple of climbers transferred over after Genet expeditions folded. The meeting was about the expedition itinerary and a medical briefing. The movie K2 was playing at the theater so we all went to see it. There were many other climbers at the showing and everyone groaned at the bad climbing scenes.
Early breakfast before we met in the lobby to board the van. We carried our duffels down and then went to get the boxes that AAI had sent up. Wow, lots of very heavy boxes. All this for 10 people?! We had to pack the van tight and the trailer to get it all in. After jamming everything in we headed out at 7:45am.
Made it to Talkeetna at around 11am where we unloaded the van. Next we made a visit to the ranger station to watch a mandatory Denali video required of all climbers. As we walked in we heard the ranger talking about a mid-air collision over the Ruth glacier. It is the first one to occur. After lunch we changed into our mountain clothes and Stan and I volunteering to make the first flight with Mark. As we taxied out we saw the damaged airplanes one with a wing sheered off at the tip and the other with damaged landing gear. I can’t believe either plane could land!
The flight over to the mountain was spectacular with unbelievable views. We flew right next to the mountains going through "One Shot" pass. Landing on the glacier was a new one for Stan and I. Both of us are pilots so the flight was even more memorable. We unpacked the plane and found a site to set up the tents.
9:55pm Still light out but the temperature has dropped significantly. Kathy got in late with the food so we stood around a lot. The wait was well worth while though. We had fresh salad with carrots, mushrooms and tomatoes for a start. Followed by spaghetti and garlic bread. Dessert was pecan pie. A wonderful way to start off the expedition. The weather is getting worse now.
Just got back from the latrine area. They have a wooden "throne" set up near the side of the runway. Great view looking down the glacier but not too private with the planes flying in and out all the time. I bought a funnel like device that I use to urinate through. Very, very handy and much easier than the usual way. Great for in the tent also. We use pee bottles for the night time!
9:56pm Long day! I’m really tired. After a cold, lazy morning we gather supplies for the carry up the glacier. It was around zero degree at breakfast time and my toes were froze. Mark reviewed procedures on hooking up the sleds and crevasse rescue. The sleds will be attached to use by waist belts and enable each of us to carry around 70 to 80 pounds. We all hooked up in two sled teams and headed out at noon. Lunch was an hour later along side the trail. My hips and knees hurt already and it was a long way to the cache area. Finally after hours of pulling the sled we got to the designated spot where we dug a very large hole for the stuff. After we got it filled with our items we buried it and marked it with a very large pole with a flag on it. Pulling the empty sleds we made good progress and were back in a few hours where we ate a great dinner and hit the sack.
Got up around 8am and devoured a light breakfast. Started to pack for the trip to Camp 1. Just ready to move out when Anne, the landing strip coordinator said "no one is to move." She had word from the rangers that there was a huge storm approaching. She warned the climbers that if they did leave she was going to "take names." We started reinforcing the camp and building an igloo to cook in. Stan and I cut snow blocks for walls around our tent and buried the tent loops with ski poles for anchors. I think we have everything set for the big storm. So far it’s only snowing lightly and there is really no wind to speak of.
9:30pm Still snowing out but still no wind. We ate curried rice and chicken for dinner at 7pm. Really spicy. Filled the water bottles and headed to the tent to read before bed. Not really cold out compared to the past couple nights but it’s hard to get around in the snow. I’m glad we didn’t leave the snow shoes at Camp 1. The storm is supposed to last until Friday but the worst is the first 24 hours. I hope this is the worst. Everyone is getting along fine and I think it’s going to be a good group.
I have never seen this much snow in my life! This morning very early, Annie came over and asked if we had any needles to start an I.V. She told us some guy fell around 300 feet when his rappel rope snapped on the South wall. He was in bad shape with head injuries. She came back later to check for more medical equipment and again around 10am to get the injectable Decadron we brought. When I got out this morning I literally waded down to the cook tent to pick up a shovel. The snow then was thigh high. It took awhile but we got dug out around the tent. Ate some bagels, peanut butter and cheese for breakfast. We waded back to the tent and began reading since there would be no lunch today. The food rationing begins today since we brought almost all it up to Camp 1 along with the ice axes and crampons. Should be lots of fun trying to find it now. I got out around 3pm to shovel the cook tent and our tent. The snow was around my upper thigh by then. Not really too cold. Stan and I played cards most of the afternoon. Kathy came by at 4 and said dinner will be at 6 or 7. We dressed and Stan cleared the tent off again. By the time dinner was finished the wind picked up. The snow now is above my waist and in the back of the tent it’s around 10 feet deep. It’s hard to imagine us wading up the mountain now. It doesn’t look good actually.
The helicopter woke us up early around 6:30. Really neat watching it come over the surrounding mountains. When it got close to the ground they dropped a Christmas tree size pine bough to help them spot the distance to the ground better. The snow was blow everywhere and some of the closer tents were blown flat. They loaded in the injured climber and flew out blowing more tents down. The day was clear so we hurried around and packed up. Finally we will be leaving for Camp 1. While we were packing a plane landed. Unbelievably they brought in a 207 tricycle gear plane instead of a tail dragger type aircraft. When it landed it just sunk into the very deep snow. The pilot tried in vain to taxi but it was of course impossible. A little later a tail dragger flew in and had no problems. Many of the climbers including us put on snowshoes and tried to pack the way for the 207 to take off. He used everything he had of the snow runway and finally made it off. The taildragger tried but got off the path and plowed through the marker flag and buried itself at the end of the hill. People went down and helped the pilot get the plane on the right track where he taxied back up the hill. The power of these planes in unbelievable.
We took off through deep snow. Mark’s group was leading first. Some of the climbers are using skis and some like us use snowshoes. The groups rotated leading since we were breaking trail for everyone. It was a long way and took around 7 hours to get to Camp 1. Along the way a Korean climber came up behind me and announced that he was "supposed to be first". I shouted up front to let them pass. Little did they realize we were breaking trail through 3 to 4 foot high snow. They took the led for about 10 minutes before we saw them sitting along the trail "having lunch". Needless to say they didn’t ask to be "first" anymore. We were lucky to have put a flag on a very tall pole because we found the cache site easily. Some in the area weren’t so lucky and were digging all over the place trying to find their stuff. We quickly set up the cook tent and the rest of the personal tents. Mark and Kathy cooked up a great dinner. Everyone was really hungry after the carry. It’s very cold now and I think it will get even colder during the night.
We got up around 9am. Everyone was cold and waited for the sun to hit the tent before we moved to the cook tent. We ate breakfast and packed our sleds to haul a load up to the next camp. The loads were heavy but the trail was packed so we didn’t start on the trail wearing snowshoes. Kathy was lead on our rope and took off like a shot up a steep hill. Too fast a pace for me! I was really sweating by the time we got up the hill. They slowed down somewhat after that. Hard carry day! Should have put snowshoes on earlier in the day. We ate lunch then kept going to 10,000 feet. The weather started getting bad with more wind. Of course it got colder and started to snow. We decided to cache the stuff down the hill from Camp 2 because of the deteriorating weather. It took us about five hours to get to the cache and two to get back. Stan was having trouble with his snowshoes so we got a welcomed stop 4 or 5 times on the way back. About half way back we had a whiteout but Mark had placed plenty of wands so there was no trouble staying on the trail. When we got back I put on dry clothes and especially dry socks and boots. Felt great getting the sweaty, cold stuff off. I had three helpings of dinner and five cookies. I only peed once all day and that wasn’t much. I really have to drink more tomorrow.
Well, the sun’s out but the wind is howling. We got up at around 7:30 for hot water. The wind is weird. Sometimes nothing but silence then ten seconds later it creeps up to 20 to 30 mph and then all the way up to around 50 mph. It’s really not that cold out but the carry would be to 11,000 feet with no trail to speak of. The usual time to Camp 2 would take 7 to 7 1/2 hours. Who knows how long it would take without one. We took a vote and most wanted to stay put.
Adventure in Camp 1 today, I had to make a trip to the bathroom! Wonderful timing I have. I wore my snowshoes over to our latrine area. The wind had covered everything with about 2 feet of snow. After I dug out the spin drift it was time to get down to business. Dang, it wouldn’t have been so bad except the wind was directly in my face blowing at 40 to 50mph. Well, at least it was memorable and worthwhile. Afterwards I went to the cook tent to get some tea to help me thaw out. The other guys decided it was really way to windy to use the toilet out there and so they brought the bucket in the cook tent and took turns. Weenies!
6:30pm Still here and it’s still blowing snow all the time. Getting tired of the tent and Stan and I are certainly not lacking for sleep anymore. Not many climbers are moving out there Saw a small group cross off trail to a campsite and only two go up the hill. Everyone is plowing through their books. I’m about halfway through "Clear and Present Danger". The temperature is around 10 to 20 degrees but I think it reached 75 in the tent this afternoon. Dinner is at 8pm tonight and hopefully we will have an early start tomorrow.
Wind really howled all night but calmed a bit early in the morning. We decided to pack up and make it to Camp 2. It took a couple hours to break everything down and then we tackled Ski Hill. Heavy loads for everybody today. We didn’t stop for lunch break only brief pee stops. I didn’t take my pack off all day. It was a real killer from 10,000 to 11,000 feet. Torture. My hands and feet froze. I thought for sure I had frostbite. It took about an hour and a half to get up that damn hill then the snow started again. We had to dig a pit for the tent which was hard work but warmed me up. Set up the cook tent also and built walls around it. We ate around 10pm then crashed in our tents for a long sleep.
Slept OK but not wonderful due to an unlevel platform we built. Huge wind blasts all night. I thought that the tent was a goner. Oatmeal and granola bars were the choice for a late breakfast. We put our duffels on the sleds and roped up to get our cached gear at the bottom of the hill. I was the lead on one rope and Stan on the other. Downhill no problem except for snowshoes coming off. We got down the hill in about 25 minutes and dug up the cache. After loading up our sleds we headed up at a good pace. Hard in the steep sections with the sleds but not too bad. It was too windy to set up the cook tent so we made a lunch bag of cheese, crackers, and sausage that we passed between the tents.
Long day! We got out of camp to make our haul to Camp 3. We didn’t use the sleds this time. Same rope teams today. Motorcycle hill wasn’t as bad as all the rumors. I think it would be a lot harder with the stupid sleds though. We took all day at a slow steady pace. Actually too slow. I almost fell asleep waddling back and forth. We kept running into the Australian army expedition. They stop every few minutes for something or another. We met some Brits along the way and stopped to chat. Windy Corner wasn’t as windy as it is at Camp 2 but it did cool us down a bit. After the corner the skies cleared beautifully. The glacier is tremendous with huge crevasses opened up. Saw multiple helicopters around 14,000 at Camp 3. Even a huge Huey landing near the ranger station at the camp. Time was running out on this day so we cached our loads a little ways for the camp. It took about four hours to get there. After dumping the load we turned and busted our butts down in one hour to Camp 2. My head hurt when we got back probably due to dehydration. Took some Tylenol and a Diamox. Looks like the weather is clearing finally. There is around 80 to 100 climbers at Camp 3 and it looks like there are quite a few more at Camp 2 now.
Started early packing up camp. Had to dig the tent out since the wind had really packed the snow and ice down. Loaded the sleds up. At breakfast I thought I was going to puke so I left. I had an upset stomach and felt weak and out of breathe. Wonderful, the hardest day so far and I don’t feel 100%. I pulled myself together and we roped up to start the day. The pace was good up Motorcycle Hill and I did OK until the last part. Ran out of breathe! Took a short break they continued up the hill. Tons of people on the trail. There was two lines going up and down the mountain in one stretch of the trail. Hard to believe we were on an expedition with all the traffic. When the sun was out it was very nice. Took the Gore tex off for the hill up to Windy Corner. Good idea at first because I was sweating bad. However, at Windy Corner I about froze to death. Wow, unbelievable cold wind. I thought for sure I was frostbitten. Got around the bend and put my coat on. We stopped a bit little later to have lunch, I was really tired and out of gas. It was all I could do to get to camp. The wind picked up to 50 to 60 mph easy. We had to find a campsite fast. Stan and I helped dig out a space that held two tents. We ended up putting three tents in the snug little hole. It took a long time to get everything setup and we finally settled in around 10pm. Kathy brought over a pot full of pasta for supper. It really hit the spot! Made a mistake of having coffee with cocoa and didn’t sleep at all.
Kathy brought around some drink mix, Grapenuts and instant breakfast. Yuck! It was my turn to get dressed first and bring the hot water to the tent. We were to be ready at 11 to go to the cache. Blowing so hard out it almost knocks you down. We got to the cache quickly and loaded up and headed back. I dug more around the tent since the wind is blowing the snow everywhere. We doled out some lunch then Stan and I took a walk around the camp. I would say there is now around 50 to 60 living climbers here and one dead one at the rangers tent. He was a Swiss guy who just dropped over dead. They have to wait for the wind to subside before they can call a helicopter to pick him up. Not much of a walk since the wind was so fierce. We settled in the tent for an afternoon of reading. Some French climbers summited yesterday starting from here. Wow what a day they had. At best it will be five days for us if everything goes right.
Later: Damn started my period, that’s all I need. Windy still. Will it every let up?
Back hurts from the uneven platform. I have to take more time building these things. At breakfast it was unanimous that no one slept good. Overcast skies this morning and the visibility was around 400 feet. Had nasty granola with powdered milk and way too much hot water. Best part was the Poptarts. We waited for the weather to clear and decided to carry up our down stuff today instead of tomorrow. We’ll have more room in the packs and of course less weight. It was a good pace heading out. Today, I felt great. The best I’ve felt the entire trip climbing. The hill up to the fixed ropes was steep and we crossed some huge crevasses. Actually the biggest crevasse was hidden until some guy fell head first in it when a snow bridge collapsed. Lucky for the guy there were some climbers around to yank him out. Actually the rescue climbers turned out to be Jim Wickwire, John Roskelly and the ranger. How lucky can you get?! We saw the huge helicopter today probably up to pick up the body and drop off more supplies for the ranger. We got to the fixed ropes and attached on with the jumars. At first it wasn’t too bad but then it got really steep. My outside heels hurt bad. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow. Lots of people on the ropes today. Actually the temperature was just about right. I was sweating some but not real bad. I started getting tired at the very last part but soon we were at the ridge. The wind at the ridge was fierce and there was no way to get out of it. Some people were camped there but it really was an exposed place. Gorgeous views but not the campsite I would choose. The first rope team had already dug the cache hole and we waddled over to dump our stuff in. Froze my living butt at the top. We headed back down quickly. Clipped a biner into the rope and walked hand over hand down. Took about three hours to go up and one hour down stopping for a leisurely lunch. Camp 3 looked as if it was sitting in clouds from our lunch spot on the hill. Hopefully it will make a great photo.
Rest day again. The weather was bad last night but not too bad this afternoon. Probably should have gone. Looks as if half the camp went up the ropes. Slept much better last night except for all the strange dreams. Great breakfast of eggs and bagels. Stuffed myself as best as I could. Everyone is feeling good and has a good appetite. That will change by tomorrow. We decided to take a walk to the "edge of the world". Actually to the edge of this flat spot on the mountain. It’s a 5 to 6 thousand foot drop to the North East fork of the Kahiltna glacier. It is the way to the Cassin and West rib routes. Fabulous view on the edge and again it looks like a new world here. Ate a "lunch" of a Baby Ruth and hard candy. Luckily I saved by Poptart and granola bar for later. It was dry out day for everyone. Laid the sleeping bags out and the pads. We laid around and read books. I finished "Eye of the Needle" and am looking for a trade from some one.
Big climb tomorrow. Up those fixed lines again and over the ridge. The site is quite flat and large but with all the groups we will probably have to saw a lot of snow blocks for the tents. I imagine it will take around six hours to get up to 17,000 feet for Camp 4. If the wind is not too bad on the ridge the views should be spectacular. Weather reports show clear with light winds for the next couple of days. We are taking Diamox at half strength and suffer no side effects.
Loaded up the camp in cold, cold weather. (So what else is new?!) Headed out for the ropes to the headwall. It took a little longer than before but we made it OK. Really hard on the ankles though. We dug up the cache and ate a little lunch. Not much wind at all up here on the ridge compared to the other day. What a view! We headed out for Camp 4 along the ridge. Really neat climbing in spots. Took a couple more hours to get to the barren Camp 4. Just a wide open spot and looks very wind swept. First we had to build walls for the circle of tents. Back breaking work at altitude. We must have cut and handled over 200 blocks of snow. We left some of the tents down below and swapped tents to fit everyone in. Stan and I took a smaller tent and some of the guys put three in their tents. Gets cold quickly here. Most everyone was walking around like zombies with headaches but no severe mountain sickness to speak of. We ate dinner in the tents by passing the pots around.
Cold last night! Got up around 7:30 for breakfast. Everyone felt lots better. We decided to go for the summit. Clothing was the big decision. I wore expedition weight underwear under my sweater with Gore tex on top. I took along my down parka and pants, and my pile jacket and pants. I put my Camelback water bottle under my Gore tex to prevent it from freezing. I carried the fuel bottle and another water bottle. At some oatmeal and put a Powerbar and candy in my pack. We all took off at 10:25 and headed up the steep pass. We used a running belay to anchor ourselves in some of the steeper sections. My hands froze doing that part. It really slowed us down with all the clipping and unclipping. By the time we got to the top of that section I was cold. We stopped and I put on my pile jacket. The zipper on the Gore tex jacket wouldn’t cooperate and my hands froze stuff. Stan yelled at me to put on my loves. I should have drank more water earlier because I was already dehydrated and now froze. We took off after getting my jacket on and a little ways further I was really cold. Mark jumped into action and started to dress me in the parka and pants. Another climber helped undo and redo the harness. Someone gave me different glove liners to get my hands warmed back up. I really had hit the wall hard. I should have been drinking the entire time to prevent this from happening. Mark asked if I wanted to keep going and I said of course I’ll go. The route is really long and we slogged along best as possible at a snails pace. What effort it takes just to lift a leg and place it forward. We got to the Football field and could see the summit. We decided to leave the packs and take only necessary stuff. That helped greatly. We continued up some steep snow accessing the ridge of the summit. I wish I could have taken pictures. Roped in and freezing cold is not the time. The ridge was spectacular with drop off son both sides. It’s actually no that long but it seems to take forever. Finally at 5:26 we reached the summit. It had taken seven hours but we did it. Wow, what a spectacular summit day. It was crowded with our rope teams on the small area. Everyone took lots of pictures and we spent probably a half an hour on top. You could see 100 miles away with the crystal clear sky. Simply wonderful.
We headed back down in snail fashion. Mark belayed the group at Denali Pass because of the steepness and I think mostly because of our fatigue. Slowly but surely we got back down. Camp was a welcome sight after such a long day. I crawled into the tent crampons still on my boots and collapsed. Stan undressed me as I laid there dead to the world. I have never worked that hard in all my life. Total exhaustion overwhelmed me. I can’t believe we did it. Stan is the iron man. He didn’t seem a bit tired the entire day and was in great spirits when we got back to camp. What a trooper he is. Kathy and Mark made dinner in their tent and passed it from tent to tent. I was snuggled in my sleeping bag and Stan waited for the pots to come by. Mashed potatoes and gravy was the feast tonight. I never tasted anything so good. Poor Stan was really cold due to all the waiting for the food. I crawled into his sleeping bag and warmed him up. We really slept good.
Got up late. Really got warm in the tent when the sun came up. I think it was around 20 outside. Lots of frost all over the bags. Packed a little then went out to check out the rest of the team. Took the tent down slowly letting it dry out. I had to go to the bathroom which was designated over by "rescue gully". What a view from here! This has to be one of the best sites for crappers in the world. Of course we used our waste bags while we were here. From the looks of it most everyone else didn’t. I took many photos looking down on Camp 3. We all got packed and then roped up for the descent. Absolutely gorgeous day today. The ridge was spectacular. Helicopters were flying all over. I’ve never seen a chopper up that high. It took a long time it seemed to down climb some of the sections mainly because of the heavy traffic of people. Lot’s of climbers coming up the fixed rope today. We repacked at the cache and redistributed some of the heavy stuff. Going down the headwall was tough with the full packs. Every time you bend to reclip you almost take a header. My feet were hurting in the toes this time. I think everyone was tired by the time we got to Camp 3. Decision time approached; go to Camp 2 or stop here. We finally decided to stay since it would take a full two nights to get out no matter what. So tomorrow we got to base camp. Sounds like the plan for me. I was willing to go to Camp 2 but we already made a nice camp here at 14,000 feet with some of the tents up. Good atmosphere also with more people. Really today was the nicest day of all. I changed in Camp 3 to just a T-shirt with my Gore tex jacket and bibs.
Had tortillas for supper. Burned the shit out of my lips though. My nose and lips took a beating on summit day. Tomorrow we get up early and head out by 9am. Those sleds ought to be fun going downhill. Oh boy!
Oh yeah, another guy died on the South face. He fell in a crevasse or something. I think that’s seven now while we were here. Damn this is a wicked place if it wants to be.
I really feel good now especially because it’s quite an accomplishment for me and Stan. I rally had one hell of a hard time on summit day. I didn’t know you could push that hard. Bodies are incredible. Also a rush having all ten of us make the summit.
One of our climbers feet look like they went through a meat grinder. He had blisters on top of blisters all over his feet yet he didn’t say a word to anyone until we got here. I feel like a total weenie complaining about a little bruised heel. I don’t know how he walks now. I guess everyone was concerned about me getting so cold yesterday. They all made comments this morning. Mark estimated it was about -20 at the summit without adding wind chill. I can’t wait to see the photos. I know Stan had ice all over his face and he said I did too. No wonder our noses are raw.
Just about ready for bed. Everyone is in great spirits. I think a "Pizza. Beer." chant is the mantra for tomorrow. I know I’m ready for some.
Long day again. Up at around 7 for a breakfast of soup and tea. Packed up and got on the road at about 11. The sleds were hard to pull down the hills. It kept pulling me down the hill and bashing into my legs. Got to the top of Motorcycle hill in good time. We switched to the ice axes instead of ski poles for the hill. It wasn’t too bad and we went straight down. Got to Camp 2 and dug up the cache there and also ate lunch. It was good visibility on top but once we descended the hill it was icy and snowy. The temperature wasn’t too bad. We roped up and headed down the hill. Stan’s sled kept flipping and my glasses were icing up bad. Very hard to see anything. My feet started getting hot spots and forming blisters on my toes and balls of my feet. I stopped and did a quick repair job on them before they got worse. Zero visibility most the way back on the lower section. My shoulders & hips really were aching from the pack and sled. With the warmer temperature the snow was like walking through wet cement. I had crampons on instead of snowshoes and I’m not sure if that was wise. The damn sled kept running off the "trail" and started tugging on me or worse tipping over. The last part was the worst, Heartbreak Hill. Everyone said it was going to be but I really didn’t believe them. We were up a slight incline for what seemed an eternity just outside of the base camp. We kept falling in holes after a couple steps. I switched to snowshoes, something I should have done hours ago and that helped a bit. Took over an hour to get up the damn hill. Everything hurt by the time we got up to see base camp. I kept trying to think of different songs. I went from the "William Tell Overture" to the "Second Suite in F for Band" to Van Halen’s "Top of the World". Finally we pulled into camp. We took lots of photos of the group in front of Annie’s hut. Next we pitched our tents and got ready for supper. Kathy and Mark scheduled planes for us tomorrow morning. Yahoo were back home.
Slept fantastic and then got up early to leave. I’m ready for some real food so I only at a half a Poptart and drank some mocha. Packed and hauled everything to the area in front of Annie’s hut. The weather was kind of cloudy and looked like "delay city" to me and Stan. It was decided that we would reverse the order and we would be the last to leave today. A plane flew in through the fog and Kathy and a couple other climbers hopped aboard. Another plane popped through the fog and landed. These pilots really must know this mountain. Three more of our group headed out on the 11 o’clock flight. The weather then got really bad and all the planes stopped flying. That left four of us sitting on our packs waiting. Around 1 we got hungry and Stan pulled out the peanut butter and some bagels. Later Mark got out some Twix bars and dried fruit. We waited and waited and finally around 4pm the weather got a little better. At around 5 a plane finally showed up and we hopped aboard and took off. The owner of K2 aviation was our pilot. He gave us a great flight back showing us around the area.
When we got to Talkeetna no one was there. They had all gone to the bar much earlier. We got in a truck and a lady drove us to the K2 bunkhouse. Nice place. It’s a two story wood frame building with a kitchen, dining room and even a laundry room. The bunks are upstairs. We brought up the stuff and found a couple bunks next to each other. Next the shower! Wow, did that feel great to wash. We then put on real clothes and shoes for the first time in many days. Pizza and beer were next on the agenda. We stopped by the Fairview Inn where we had some brews first. A couple of the climbers were really drunk since they had been there since around noon. Stan and I got some pizza nearby and then headed to the bunkhouse to crash. What a great trip!
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