Denali Journal, Day 17: Camp IV (Holding Pattern)

[3:00 p.m., Camp IV Day 8]  The wind battered our tent all night long, although we were "heads-down" deep in our sleeping bags with the draw strings pulled to keep warm and to muffle the noise.  Every time I popped my head out to drink or pee in my pee bottle, I could see frost build-up everywhere in the tent, thicker than normal.  We slept in until about 10:15 a.m., when we got the call for "hots."  Shortly after breakfast (when I actually got served my first cup of real coffee in 3 or 4 days, thanks to Billy!), we got the new forecast for high on the mountain (Camp V and higher): 40-60 mph winds on Monday, increasing to 60-90 mph through Wednesday; today is supposed to be even worse, with winds up to 110 mph!!  Walter talked to several other guides and the ranger early this morning.  There is a lot of concern for those at Camp V (High Camp).  They are in for an even more serious beating today and it's turning into a serious survival situation.  There are also high winds at Windy Corner, so no one is moving up or down today.  We are, in a sense, pinned.  To the left, the LAMA on the day we arrived at Camp IV, picking up a Korean HAPE victim.

We have group food through Sunday, but Walter is working out solutions, including getting our cache at 16,200 ft and some unofficial assistance from the rangers, with whom Walter has great relations.  The high winds may prevent a cache run, so we'll see what happens.  "Tell your kids not to become a guide," Walter said, indicating to me that he is bumming and/or a bit stressed out by the situation (he handles it really well though).  

There is a Japanese team of 2 climbers that is 4 days overdue--they were climbing the Cassin Ridge, a technically challenging route, and no one has heard from them.  We found out today also that on the day that we arrived here (Saturday 5/17), the helicopter that we saw (the LAMA, a stripped down lightweight chopper) was here to evacuate a Korean climber with an advanced case of HAPE; the Korean teammates failed to tell the rangers until late in the game, but thankfully, the climber was able to be evacuated.  They had simply gone to Camp IV too fast!  

The mood around here isn't the super greatest but the team is holding out and making the best of it!  If we hadn't stayed at Camp II so long, we would have already made the summit and been in Talkeetna drinking beers!  Hindsight is 20:20, and I would venture that our guides would have a different opinion.  

I don't know how this is all going to play out, but for me, the window for a summit bid is gone and I need to get off the mountain.  Hopefully Walter can come up with something.

[9:16 p.m.] Walter arranged for me to depart with one of the AAI teams tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.  He will come and get me in the morning just to confirm and than make me a quick breakfast (yeah, Mike Walter rocks!).  I have most of my stuff packed right now and Walter will give me a freeze dried meal just in case we need to spend the night at Base Camp (heaven forbid!).  I will have Hudson Air Service call me as soon as they have an ETA for the group in Talkeetna and then drive back up to meet them for Ice Axe ales!  

We heard that there are still 25 people at High Camp getting battered and that a German team lost their tents in the wind and are now huddling with other teams.  It just sounds fucking miserable up there!  Also, no word on the Japanese Team yet either; it doesn't look good for them, unfortunately.  Their friends are waiting for them in Talkeetna... it's been a rough week on Denali!!

Denali Journal, Day 16: Camp IV (Forced Rest)

[Camp IV Day 7] High winds started at around midnight last night and have been getting steadily stronger all day--supposedly the max wind speed here at Camp IV was 50 mph today.  Several of our snow block walls fell over and our tent vestibule completely filled up with snow (as you can see from the photo of Dan--the vestibule is normally about 2 feet deep so that you can stand up in the vestibule).  So we went and dug ourselves out and fortified our walls and sealed off our entryway from the wind.  We also tightened the wind-raped tent flies.  

The wind at Camp IV would come in huge gusts.  It was so bad that I had to put on my goggles and balaclava to deal with it head on.  During short respites, the sun would warm you up, and you could hear the wind scouring the mountain up higher--it sounded like a loud waterfall.  The nearby slopes were turned into nearly naked and glaring ice above the bergschrunds--like big mirrors, they reflected the blue sky.  The snow floor at Camp IV was scoured and drifted in interesting forms.  The woman climber "scupture" that Wes made (Helga) had a nice drift around it, making it look more like a Virgin Mary.  The penis sculpture was completely vaporized (go figure!).  

We thought of the teams at High Camp at 17,000 ft that are locked down and in survival mode.  These teams ignored all warnings--even the rangers left that camp.  That should be a red flag for anyone!  Winds up there are probably upwards of 70 mph today.

Above: Quick video of the gusty winds up above today!

Denali Journal, Day 15: Camp IV (Rest)

[Camp IV Day 6] Today we are still in a holding pattern.  It is nice out today, but the forecast is calling for high winds again tomorrow and Saturday (50-70 mph with higher winds up higher).  This is our sixth day at Camp IV and we are stretching to find things to do to occupy our brains other than the eat->sleep->hot drinks->dinner, etc. routine.  Some of the guys spent the afternoon building an igloo, which is really quite impressive!  To the left is Wes, one of the lead igloo instigators, inside the structure itself.  The front of the igloo has the letters "RMI" engraved on it--pretty styling for Camp IV!  

I talked to Walter about my schedule difficulties and the trials and tribulations that I was going through in my brain.  He could sense that something was up, and just asked that I keep him informed of my decision on what I want to do.  The right thing is for me to be  back at work by mid-week at the latest. 

The high wind forecast has the entire camp fortifying their tent snow walls--it almost looks like a war zone here, with everyone dug-in!  Two other RMI teams arrived today and they built their walls right up to the igloo, which looks pretty cool.  I'm 2/3 done with "The Odyssey" already.  There is a big lenticular cloud hanging over the summit and you can see spin drift all along the ridge.  We are bracing for a nuclear winter!

Denali Journal, Day 14: Camp IV (Rest)

[Camp IV Day 5]  This morning, Walter woke us up to a breakfast of freeze dried eggs and real bacon!  He announced that it was too windy on the ridge leading to High Camp to make a move.  We dubbed it "Disappointment Morning" because it meant at least FOUR more days at Camp IV (today, Thursday, and 2 predicted 50-70 mph wind storm days).  That would put our earliest summit day at Monday, Day 18, with a fly-off on Wednesday (throw in a weather day and it will take the entire week).  This doesn't look good for my schedule, since I had expected to be back in the office by mid-week.  Billy said that they could hook me up with another guided group to get me out if I needed to get back sooner, but I will have to think hard about this.  In the big picture, is it better for me to extend or go back?  

Wes and company built some sculptures today, including a woman climber named "Helga," complete with a climbing harness!  Since there were no women on the climb, they created one!  

The LAMA helicopter flew in today to get the Spanish women that had frostbitten toes.  I hope that she doesn't loose them all, but it will nonetheless change her life.

Above: Video of the LAMA rescue.

I started reading "The Odyssey" by Homer today.  I'm getting tired of Camp IV and all the sitting around!  Another day in paradise! 

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!

Denali Journal, Day 12: Camp IV to High Cache at 16,200 ft; Hike to the Edge of the World

Above: Me at the Edge of the World.

Above: Dan in "anchor position" en route to the Headwall from Camp IV.


Above: A quick video shot of our approach to the Headwall.

Above: Approaching the Headwall at about 15,500 ft.

Above: A video glimpse into our Headwall approach, with lots of heavy breathing!

Above: Dan, the Photo Nerd (but we love him for it!).

Above: Fede's rope team arriving on the ridge at 16,200 ft, above the Headwall.

Above: Video of another happy climber on the ridge.

Above: Curtis with his back to a great view from the ridge.

Above: Billy's team arriving on the ridge at 16,200 ft, above the Headwall.
I opted out of the group hot drinks tonight in the mess tent in order to have some hot tea with solitude and finish today's log entry.  Sometimes group talk can degenerate into useless banter, while the sun dips further below the ridge, sending the temperature plunging--by then, you have to write all bundled up and with liner gloves on or your hands will loose all writing dexterity.  

It was day twelve today!  Talkeetna seems so long ago!  My makeshift beard is becoming annoying and I miss my alone time, my friends, my bed, good beer, a movie... you get the idea!  Long outings are good for the soul though, giving you time to think, reflect, experience, push your boundaries, enjoy the smallest of life's little pleasures, and shut the door on the rat race of the big money economy that has stolen so much of our free time and given so little in return!

We woke up this morning to a frigid but clear and cloudless morning.  The wind-polished white caps of Mt. Foraker and Mt. Hunter were clearly visible as well as the lower Alaska Range and the Kahiltna.  Wes woke up to about a half inch of pure icy fuzz on his sleeping bag.  

We were all roped up and ready to go by about 11:00 a.m., with our ascenders, poles, avalanche transceivers, a backup sling with a carabiner, and our cache loads.  Mike had given us a refresher yesterday on what to do on the Headwall, a 500 ft, 50 degree wall of hard ice.  Your ascender is clipped to the rope on  your left hand side, and your backup sling is clipped below the ascender (the ascender grips the rope in the downward direction but allows upward movement).  Your partners are short-roped to you and that rope should be taught or nearly taught since it is your backup to the fixed line system.  The leader is the guide.  

Going down is a different story.  You wrap your left arm around the rope, clip your sling behind your arm, and pigeon-walk slowly with small steps, keeping your weight forward and directly over your crampons.  The guide is last and uses a backup ascender for safety.

So, at around 11:00 a.m., we headed up the 30-40 degree snow slopes that lead up 1,500 ft. towards the bergschrund, where the Headwall starts.  It was a hot and sunny day and there was a slight breeze.  Once we got to the headwall, we dropped our poles and loaded up on the fixed lines to start our ascent up the 500 ft. wall.  It was hard work and often it felt like a push-pull motion: "push" in that you would push your ascender forward and then take a step up and "pull" in that your partner below would keep (by necessity) his short rope taught such that your right leg would run into it while taking a step up and you felt like you were lending a bit of a hoist to the person below.  The pace was hard but we would get short breather points at the anchors while each of us was getting around them.  The ice below our crampons was brittle and hard but there were small ledges (about 2" deep) kicked out in most places, which made the footing a bit more stable than I expected.

At the top, Walter anchored us to a picket, told us to be careful not to drop anything, and after the rest of the teams arrived, he had a "huddle" with Billie and Fede to decide if we should cache at the top of the fixed lines or go further, possibly to Washburn's Thumb.  The decision was to cache at the fixed lines.  We hung out there for about 30 minutes and enjoyed the awesome view from 16,200 ft. while Fede, Billy, and Walter dug the cache.  

The previous RMI guide from the first expedition had left a can of fuel for us at the RMI cache site.  One of the Mountain Trips guides, who was a total ass, almost stole it from us.  He would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for Walter intervening.  I've heard more bad stories about these Mountain Trips jokers on this trip to know that I'll never use them!

Coming down was uneventful and easier than it sounded--except when Yury sat down for some reason (he was on another rope team).  The guides just coached him up and everyone made it down without incident.  

Total Time: 5 hrs, 45 min.

Total Gain: 2000 ft.

Total Loss: 2000 ft.

After we came down and had a 30 min. rest, we roped up again to traverse the crevasse field to the east to the "Edge of the World," a rock platform that hangs 6000 ft. over the Kahiltna Glacier and the Valley of Death with near vertical exposure.  You could see for miles!  We took a great group photo with Dan's camera . 

Dinner was turkey and stuffing with mashed potatoes!  Tomorrow is a rest day and hopefully I will kick this cough.  I also polished off my first novel today!  Time for bed!

Denali Journal, Day 11: Camp IV (14,300 ft)

[4:00 p.m., Entry for 5/17] If you are reading my journal, you'll notice that the entry from yesterday (5/17), was the move from Camp III to Camp IV, conspicuously missing. It was, for me, the hardest day so far. My pack, was big, bulky, and heavy (with stuff like the tent fly, group food, my food, parka, sleeping pads, -40 degree bag, 3 liters of water, and lots of other stuff that needed to be hauled up). Since we had done the carry to the cache site at 13, 700 ft yesterday, I had the leftovers of a small side ache still (from the pack position more than anything), but no headache or other unmanageable ailments; my cough was still around and bothering me a tad though but no big deal. It was promising to be very gusty, and that meant that it was possible that we would freeze our nuts off along with any outlying extremities, so I wasn't about to mess around--so I grabbed my big Mountain Hardware mits for upper Windy Corner and the lower part of the route ending at the 13,700 ft cache site, where we knew we would be stopping for a break. To the left, a lenticular cloud hangs over Kahiltna Dome, as seen from Camp IV.

The hike up Motorcycle Hill from Camp III was very manageable and fun, and even the first part of Squirrel Hill to the first break point was pretty descent. We had a crystal clear view of the Peter's Glacier that was pretty stunning from our rest vantage point! From there, we stashed one ski pole and took out our ice axes for the steep and rather icy part of Squirrel Hill.

We slowly ascended that part, and then switched back to using both poles on the flatter part of the route leading to Windy Corner. At that point, I was really starting to feel worked to the upper edge of what I felt was a manageable pace for me (and I was wishing I'd left a ton more stuff that I really didn't need in the cache at Camp III!). I was in the "anchor position" on the rope (last in line, carrying the rope coil), and one thing that irritated me was when we would have these "surges," speed-ups that would mysteriously start on the upper parts of inclines when the lead climber would reach a flat spot, ripping me clear out of any rest step rhythm or any possibility of maintaining that, lest I be drug up the slope like a pack mule. A rest step pace, combined with some pressure breathing, is important to success. I could not maintain either, and that worried me a bit!

We stopped and rested below the final corner leading to Windy Corner, and after that, I felt completely recovered and ready to go, but damn it was frigid! I wore my parka during the rest period, and then donned my balaclava, mitts, and my helmet for Windy Corner. We headed up at a blistering pace--we even passed teams! I thought to myself "what, is this a race?" I couldn't understand the rationale behind it, nor the surges, and so once we were clear of a frigid and windy Windy Corner, where my eyelids wanted to freeze shut and where the exposure could send you to the Kahiltna via the "express route" should you fall, I mentioned my complain to Fede, our rope team leader. He agreed to work on a more steady pace for the hour or so left to Camp IV, but at this point, I already had a huge headache, a bad side ache, my shoulders wanted my beast removed, and my left hip bone was bruised from the pack strap. I could not believe I was falling apart like this! I sucked it up, got back on rope after the break, and the fast pace returned to my dismay, whereby we passed every team that we saw on the way to Camp IV. I just put myself in a 3 foot by 3 foot box and tuned out all unwanted misery by focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, matching speed with my rope mate John in front of me. No time to enjoy the crystal clear views of Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter, and Denali!

We arrived at Camp IV and all I could for a while was just to relax, unclip, breath, and make my headache go away. I really felt crappy for a while there. I did less than I had wanted when we were building camp. Wes and Dan were easy going about it, and really, they were rock stars getting everything in place! I really appreciated it!

Once I had a chance to "take it all in," I took some photos of Denali--you could see the rest of the climb from here! We also had clear views of Kahiltna Dome, Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter, and the lower Alaska Range. It was absolutely beautiful! Camp IV has a ranger station and a designated area to use as a helicopter landing pad. It also has two full latrines--a luxery, to be sure!

The NPS rangers are friendly guys. One stopped over to our camp today to tell us about a French climber who, because he wasn't taking care of himself, had to be flown out with frostbitten toes--he will likely loose both big toes; he had started the day dehydrated and with wet socks!

I caught Walter in the mess tent working on dinner and hots, and he asked me if I was feeling OK. So we chatted about my cough and about the pace. He wanted to make sure that I was communicating with him, especially if the cough got worse or started to degenerate into full-blown HAPE (heaven forbid that from happening!). He's a great lead guide!

Dinner was beef stew (still frozen in some spots, a total bummer!) and ramen with veggies! Ramen never tasted so good! Not since my college days!

Total Time for 5/17: 4 hrs, 45 min.

Total Gain for 5/17: 3,100 ft.

Total Loss for 5/17: 0 ft.

[8:45 p.m.] This morning, we got up late after a great sleep. I guess Wes was cold for most of the night and so was Dan (I luckily was in the middle sleeping bag slot, so I was generally always warm). I suggested pushing the sleeping bags closer together to the center of the tent and borrowing from Ed Viesture's spooing rules: spooning is allowed, but forking is not. We chuckled about that but really, why be cold when you have two warm bodies lying next to you on their own "islands"?

We headed out mid-morning with nearly empty packs and a partly cloudy sky to do a back-carry from our cache at 13,700 ft. to Camp IV. It took us a mere 16 minutes to get to the cache site and another hour or so to get back to Camp IV. Easy! Since it was our "active rest" day, everyone took it very easy going back to Camp IV.

I feel a ton better today! No headache! I'd say I'm on the up-and-up and looking forward to what comes next! Tomorrow, with the possibility of some pretty bad weather on Tuesday, we will probably climb the Headwall and get our high cache of supplies in place at 16,200 ft. or higher (even possibly to High Camp at 17,200 ft.). It would be nice to get one more rest day in, but we have to work around the bad weather forecast! Git 'er done!