Hardwear Sessions

The early week was cloudy with a little drizzle on the Brady Icefield. With packs and sleds, the four mountaineers continued to make progress toward their base camp objective. They are still gaining elevation . With several hundred pounds of gear, progress has been slow, but steady. After traveling straight across the glacier, the team has now turned in a easterly direction. At the end of the day after making this directional change, they got their first look at Peak 8290 from the ground. "Striking!" is Farmer 's description. "An 800-foot perfect rock pyramid at the top!"

Jim Wickwire, who saw this peak some 30 years ago while climbing in the Fairweather Range, said that's how he would describe it , as well. When the team did their flyover in February, Kevin Mahoney was excited about all the snow. All he could think about was what a great ski run it would be. When the team went in this week, Kevin suddenly remembered what spring can do the mountains. "There's a lot of rock up there," he said.

Revisiting their encounter with the bear, who they haven't seen since, Farmer said the only other wildlife to be seen so far was a marten, a weasel-like furry animal with a long tail. This one was loping across the icefield alone, probably looking for something eat.

Tomorrow, the team's objective will be the base of the saddle, where they will ultimately put their base camp. There they will set-up all their tents and gear and begin identifying their route to summit of Peak 8290. They're getting close.