From L to R - Robert,John,Mike,Jon,Josh,Helen,Brady and myself.
Day 2 - We get up at 2 AM and leave basecamp at 4 AM to Camp 1.Camp 1 is across the Kalhitna glacier.We reach Camp 1 at around 10 AM and set up camp.Camp is at 7800 feet.
Day 3 - We get up at 1:00 AM and do a carry till 10,000 feet,cache the stuff on Kalhitna pass and get back to Camp 1 around 11 AM.
Day 4 - We get up at 1:00 AM again and pack camp and move to Camp 2 at 11,200 feet.We reach camp at around 10 AM and set up camp.
Day 5 - We have a easy day,leave camp at 10 AM go down to 10,000 to get back our cache and get it to Camp 2.We are back by around 1 PM.
Day 6 - We are up at 1:30 AM ,start at 3:00 AM climb till 13,500 feet and cache beyond the windy corner and get back to Camp 2 by around 9 AM.
Day 7 - We move to Camp 3 at 14,200 feet.Leave camp at 4 AM and reach at 10 AM.
Day 8 - We go back to 13,500 and get back the cache to Camp 3.Around 3 hour round trip.
Day 9 - We climb the headwall and cache stuff at 16000 feet and get back to camp 3 at 14,200 feet. About 6 hours round trip.
Day 10 - Rest day at Camp 3.
Day 11 - We move to High camp at 17,200 feet,on the way up we carry the cache stowed at 16000 feet.This was the hardest day for me. We left at 6 AM in the morning and reached high camp at 5 PM in the evening.
Day 12 - rest day.
Day 13 - We leave at 9:30 AM in the morning towards the summit. We reach the Summit at 6:06 PM in the evening.We spend about half an hour and return back to high camp at around 11:30 PM.
Day 14 - We start at 12 PM from high camp at 17,200 feet in the afternoon and descend back all the way till Camp 1 at 7800 feet.We stop at 4 AM in the morning and set up camp as Jon and John both are suffering because of the 16 hour push.
Day 15 - We rest at Camp 1 at 7800 feet.
Day 16 - We start at 3 AM and cross the heavily crevassed Kalhitna glacier to basecamp.We fly out at 7 PM from the glacier to Talkeetna.
2 comments:
Amazing timeline!
Why the rush to return so fast? 16+ hours is longer than the usual 10 hours a day you did.
Summit day looks crazy ... must have been exciting.
Probably this is Mountain Climbing 101 and you've told me before ... why start the climb @ 1 am?
Did your cache pickup "climb down and climb back up" also start at 1 am?
Well,We were all eager to get off the mountain.The cold and the altitude had taken its toll and everybody was suffering in someway or the other i guess.The prospect of a cozy bed,a hot bath and hot food was too exciting and alluring to get back to as fast as possible for everyone i guess. :)
Summit day was indeed long and tiring.See my previous entry for a sample of how summit day felt like.
The temperatures are lower at midnight and the snow is firm and easier to traverse,during the day the sun heats up the snow and it becomes soft and more difficult to climb.
Well cache pickup days were pretty less strenous and the cache locations were at non dangerous places.We left camp at around 9 AM and used to be back by around 1 Pm.
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