Denali: Going Down

The next day we moved back down to the 14K camp.  It was going down the fixed lines with such heavy backpacks.  The entire way up the mountain we had been carrying our food and gear to each camp in two separate trips.  On the way down, we had it all in one trip....although it was much lighter than 20 days ago, it was still really heavy.  We didn't eat much of our food at high camp.  We had taken six days of food up there and probably only ate two days.  Your appetite just diminishes up there.  On summit day we didn't even eat dinner.  When we crawled into the tent just before midnight, all Andrew could do was to make two liters of water and fix soup for everyone.  So another reason the day after, when we moved back down to 14K, was so hard and tiring was because we had no energy from not eating.

Retrieving our cache at 14K (with BIG grins).  We decided not to really anchor the tent that night at 14K (except for the vestibules) because it had not been windy the other seven days we were at that camp.  Well, we woke up to 30mph winds, the most we had experienced so far on the trip.  We managed, but we witnessed two tents blowing away down the glacier.  One of them had actually blown off the ridge from the 17K camp and landed in the 14K camp.

As you can see, big lenticular clouds on Mt. Foraker.  Meaning danger!  We figured we should get down past Windy Corner asap.

Leaving the 14K camp, tossing the poop bags into the crevasse.

Headed down......ahh...the joy of sleds....NOT!

Windy Corner wasn't too bad, but the closer we got to the 11K camp the more fresh snow we were getting into and it sucked!  For going down with heavy sleds that is.  The sled is tied into the rope behind you, but the person behind you has the most control over it.   They keep the slack out of the rope so it doesn't slide past you or into you and that keeps it from rolling over too.  Andrew, number 2 on the rope, was in control of my sled.  It and gravity were pulling him downhill while he is pulling back trying to keep the sled off me and deal with his own sled behind him at the same time.  Arnaud, number 3 on the rope, had no one to control his sled!  It was a big pain in the rear...literally!

At the 11K camp (camp 2).  Dug up our cache and got our snow shoes back.

The guys did not put them on right away even with all the fresh snow.  We figured they got about 3 ft. of snow in the 10 days since we had been there.  They quickly found out that the crampon thing was not going to work anymore.  The crampons were caking up with snow and weighing them down.

Ok, snow shoes on, good to go.

"But wait!  I forgot how to walk in my snow shoes!"  We all fell down (face-plants) a couple times that day!  We only got pictures of Andrew though!  HA!

Poor visibility again around Kahiltna Pass.

You could barely see one wand ahead at a time.  The tracks in the snow and the rest of the snow seemed to blend all together.

Down on the lower Kahiltna Glacier now with Mt. Foraker trying to break through the clouds.

The lower glacier had changed so much in the past two weeks since we had seen it. When we left base camp 19 days ago, the glacier was completely level and solid.  We had record high snow falls in most of Alaska over the winter and many of the guides were saying the Kahiltna Glacier was in the best condition they had ever seen it.  However, when we walked out, the warming weather had caused snow bridges over the crevasses to have sank.  There were a few open spots and a few depressions that we walked around.  I am glad it was still early June though and not July when you have to zig zag your way across the glacier, walking around all the open crevasses.

The patchy evening light that night was incredible.  That is Mt. Hunter over base camp in the picture.

11:30PM....base camp at last!  The "tee-pee" tent in the picture is glowing either from a headlamp or someone cooking inside it.

Our last camp

The next morning/afternoon waiting on a flight out.   When we first woke up the weather was beautiful and the first planes landed about 9am.  Then the weather turned, it started snowing huge flakes (that melted immediately...blah!), and the base camp manager said all flights were cancelled.  She also said that is was supposed to snow like that for five days!  I was not happy about that.  I was prepared not to fly out that day and maybe have to wait two or three days....BUT 5 days!!!  

Cooking more chocolate chip pancakes!

Finally, around 6pm the weather cleared just long enough for some planes to come in and pick up the 20+ climbers waiting!

Sheldon's beaver! Dave had actually flown out twice that day and was turned around because of weather.

As we flew back to the "green and brown" world, Denali gave us one last show for the books.  Although it will never be the same again when we see that grand mountain.

Almost back to Talkeetna now at about 8pm, Tuesday, June 5th.
Once back in Talkeetna, we had to say good-bye to Garret and return him to the park service.  We gave them a trip report and found out that we were numbers 208, 209, and 210 to reach the summit.  As of today, June 14th, 234 people have reported to reach the summit.  You can see the stats here if you wish.