Denali Journal, Day 13: Camp IV (Rest)

Today we slept in until about 10:00 a.m. and all of us agreed it was probably our best 12-hour sleep we'd ever had camping!  In the mess tent, our guides fired up a breakfast of eggs and bacon, which was awesome!  It was another beautiful and sunny day, but the weather forecast is for high winds (50-70 mph) starting on Friday on the upper mountain (High Camp to the summit).  Mike announced this evening that, if the weather is good, we will move to 17, 200 ft High Camp tomorrow and then we will try to make our summit attempt the following day and come back down on Friday.  That would put us back in Talkeetna on Saturday, which would be perfect!  So, we've been working on separating our gear into what we will carry up and what wee will cache here at Camp IV.  My to-cache pile is about 15 pounds, so that's 15 pounds less to carry up the headwall!  In the photo (from left to right) is Dan, John, and Jerry in front of the ranger station.

Resting today has been great!  We napped, ate, drank, and recuperated!  My cough is slowly subsiding as is my big side ache!  Hopefully, tomorrow they will be nothing but nuisances!  

Today we also witnessed a few things that put our RMI guides into action.  The first was the rescue of a frostbite victim.  NPS rescue personnel met the Spanish team just below the headwall and then transported the female victim via sled tied to two skiers to the medical facility here at Camp IV.  Our guides assisted where requested by the rangers at Camp IV.  She will likely loose 3 digits on each foot.  Mike reassured us that he intends for all of us to go home with all digits in tact.  While it was interesting in a crude sense to watch the scene, it was also very sad to see another frostbite victim.  Her injuries will be quite life changing for her.  

The second thing that happened was that Jerry from MN cut his finger while doing some foot care--not a big deal in itself, but it won't heal up here.  And then, while Jerry was opening the mashed potato bag in the mess tent, he started bleeding all over the bag, which could be an obvious hazard.  Jerry obviously felt bad about it.  He was asked to leave the mess tent, and then Wes went to put his EMT skills to use with a liquid suture that he had in his first aid kit to seal the cut.  Billy sanitized the bag with Purell and life returned to normal, as normal as it can be here on Denali.  Billy (RMI) almost "lost it" for a second there, since we had overheard him explain to Jerry how important it was that we not get blood in the mess tent.  But everyone is human and we all make mistakes and we are all a team!

Time to crawl into my -40 degree sleeping bag and dream of the summit and an nice Ice Axe Ale!