Hardwear Sessions

Instead of being overwhelmed with the task at hand, the team dove straight into the chore. We had so much stuff that each of us needed to carry 3 separate loads along the beach, across the streams, up the glacier moraine and onto the snow. We each loaded up our packs, popped in our ipods and began to walk up the steadily rising moraine. We traveled as teams of two to be "smart" about the bear. After 3 round trips we settled into camp one as the drizzle rain began.

Camp one was very exciting. With in the first few moments we had a few events that we thought were going to stop the show. First Kevin broke a ski binding in a way we thought was unfixable. As we himmed and hawed over the binding, I decided to duck on the other side of the rocks to pee. Just as I was undoing my belt, I turned to look down glacier and I spotted the Grizzly bear sauntering up to our camp. The bear was just 50 ft from me as I began to yell and get the attention of Farmer, Bayard and Kevin. We banged on shovel blades and shook our ice axes high in the air to look big and aggressive. The park service said that the bear would actually be more scared of us than we would be of them. We did not find this statement to be true. We continued to yell and scream at the bear. The bear slowly and casually wandered away, showing no concern for us. After eating a cold dinner of bars, we buried our food and all scented items 2 meters deep in the snow and went to bed with an ice axe in close reach.

The next day we woke to rain. We dozed back to sleep and a late start brought sunny skies. After a long coffee session, we made a plan to move our camp in two loads up the glacier. We wanted to make a cache of food, but we had to do that away from the bear. Once the coffee motivation kicked in we divided the gear into four piles. We each divided our own pile into two separate loads and packed our sleds and packs for the journey. The loads we carried that day seemed very manageable. We arrived at camp 2 and enjoyed our first real dinner.

Day 3 came, and after another long breakfast and coffee session we motivated for the day. From this camp on, we would move in a single carry style. As I had expected, the loads were very big and super heavy. My pack and sled combined were easily 100 pounds, if not more. I am not a woman of extreme girth, so I was moving a load that was close to 75% of my body weight. This proved to be the hardest part of the trip for me. Moving that amount of weight everyday for hours each day was very taxing on me mentally and physically. I tried my best to keep up with the boys, but that load simply slowed my speed to a crawl. With the help of my ipod, I somehow endured 3 long, arduous days of moving these loads. On the third day of slogging, we arrived at our base camp.

At base camp, we took a day to relax. We needed it. I needed it. I was tired and had a bad bloody blister on my right heal that was as big as a half dollar. We hung in camp sleeping and eating our way through the day. It was also a white out all day, so resting seemed like a very reasonable plan. Even after a long morning session of coffee, the motivation remained low.

The next day we wanted to go to the saddle and scope the possible route options on peak 8290. We woke to a white out, so we spent the early part of the day eating and drinking coffee. Sometime, late afternoon, the weather cleared and became bluebird. We strapped on our skis and grabbed the spotting scopes. We each skinned up the slope to the top of the saddle. The trip was under an hour to reach the top of the saddle. From there we could see our route, and see down into the other valley. The views were awesome; the mountains seemed to roll on forever.

After some deliberation, we picked a route up the northeast ridge to attempt the summit of 8290. The ridge looked doable. We made a plan to leave camp in the evening and climb through the night. We had spotted a bivy sight so that we could rest on the route during the heat of the day, avoiding sun baked slopes. A plan was made to climb the following night. Everyone got super jazzed and excitement filled the air. The game was on!

The next day we laid low in base camp. Again eating and sleeping the day away, to be ready for the summit bid that night. At 6:30 PM the stoves were fired up for dinner. We laughed and told stories over a de-hydrated dinner. After a desert of chocolate, we set off around 9:00 Pm for the climb. The weather was perfect. The skies were clear, winds calm and temperatures around freezing. It never gets dark in Alaska this time of year, so it was never any darker than twilight through the night.

Getting over to the climb was very interesting. Farmer set a skin track that traversed over to the ridge from the saddle. It was side hilling on a moderately steep slope. It was no fall terrain, with crevasse and firm snow slopes. Bayard and I skied as far as we felt comfortable. He and I then took our skis off, strapped them to our backpacks, and boot packed up to the moat that would begin the climb.

The first objective of the climb was to cross a gaping moat and get onto the ridge. Kevin led out and set a high belay for the rest of us to get across to our bivy ledge. Once at the ledge, we stashed all of our bivy gear. We could see the summit was about 2000 vertical feet away. It looked as though it would be an easy jog to the summit. From this vantage point it looked like moderately steep snow slopes and some scrambling. Nothing looked too daunting. We had planned to climb in teams of two. Kevin and Bayard, and Farmer and I would be the teams. Around midnight we began to climb away from the bivy ledge.

What looked like an easy scramble did not turn out to be as such. The snow slopes were a bit steeper, and only had a one inch supportable crust over it. Under the crust the snow was mushy and the underlying rock was really unstable. The rock was perfect granite; however it was not a solid wall. Instead, the rock was loose, unconsolidated and very unstable. It was like climbing a house of cards. Some pieces were tiny and others were huge. They all seemed to be defying gravity and some how staying stacked on the mountain. As you climbed rocks of all sizes moved and shifted. There was no way or no place to protect ourselves. There was nothing solid to put gear into, so everyone was essentially soloing the climb. No protection means no errors can occur. One slip could result in a fatal fall. It was gripping to say the least.

We pushed on for a few hours up this deadly terrain. Farmer short roped me to give me the illusion of safety. I knew that if either one of us fell, we would take the other down as well. Finally we reached a point at which the risk out weighed our comfort level. There was no way to provide safety to one another, and there was no reasonable way to manage the risks at hand. It was intense the entire night. The snow we were climbing had to remain frozen, or we would be in real trouble. If the sun rose, we would also have the problem of the rock thawing and becoming even more unstable. After a short discussion, the teams choose to turn around.

We still had to get back down, and that would prove to be no easy task. Reversing everything we had climbed would be even more dangerous on the way down. Falling rock and warming snow was a serious threat. A storm was also marching its way toward us, providing even more pressure on the team. It was not until we all reached the saddle safely that the sense of security returned. I felt as though we narrowly escaped a dangerous situation. It was a mixture of luck and wise choices that returned the entire team to camp. We arrived in camp at 8:00 am. We each knocked back some whiskey and then went to bed.

The route we tried did not inspire us to climb any other peak in the area. The overall rock quality was very poor. Rock fall and avalanches were a very common occurrence coming from the surrounding peaks. It seemed as though we missed our window for the proper conditions. We did not see any other reasonable objectives to try, so we choose to head out and back to the beach.

Traveling from base camp to our cache was a big day. It was down hill at first, so most of us would simply glide down the hills. I had very short approach skis on, so gliding was not really happening for me. It proved to be another very heavy and long day for me. After much frustration due to my struggles, I lagged behind. Finally, the team arrived back to our second camp site. We stayed at that camp for one full day as we waited to go to the beach and rendezvous with the Alaska dream. We opted to stay away from the beach, because of our friend the bear.

Finally after 11 days, Dan and Kit arrived shortly after 8:00 pm with the boat to pick us up. Everyone was very happy to see each other. We were happy to see the boat carrying cold beer, and Dan and Kit were happy to see us all alive and well. We loaded the gear and the duffle bags into the boat and headed back to civilization. This time the boat ride felt different. We shared the highlights with the crew and toasted our drinks over and over. We had accomplished something big, and we were celebrating.

On the way back to the lodge, Jim stopped the boat so that we could whale watch. It was amazing to see the whales. This whale watching experience was the icing on our cake. It was beautiful to see the Whales. They were so close; it looked like they were going to hit the boat. The sound the whales made when blowing out water, as they reached the surface, echoed through the night waters. It was a magical experience, and we were the only boat on the water that was out enjoying it. Sometime around midnight we headed back to the lodge.

Looking back over the trip I have mixed emotions. I am very proud to have been a part of this expedition. I could not have gone in with a better team of people. We gave the mountain our best shot, but came up short of the summit. It is always hard to turn around, and as a perfectionist, that choice is something I will always play over in my mind. I believe in my gut that we made the right choice, and feel that because of our good mountain sense we all made it back to tell our story. This outcome will be easier to live with than the alternative.

I am now missing my favorite part of these big trips. We had so much fun on this trip. Jokes and laughter were a part of every meal. The thing I miss most is the simplicity of life while on the mountain. I miss being 100% engulfed by Mother Nature, and all the feelings that come with that. We had a very unique opportunity to be so far into the mountains, so self reliant and miles away from other people. We spent time among a mountain range that few people will ever see. It was an amazing experience. This will truly be a trip that I never forget. We climbed a mountain for a good cause, and now we must each look toward the next mountain to climb.