Day 2

The view down the lower Kahiltna glacier from 9,000' elevation - the throne room of the mountain Gods

Up at 4:30 again, and off at 7 again. It just takes that long to break camp. Things went a bit quicker to the 7,800' cache today, even though we were carrying heavier loads. We didn’t stop there for long, but continued up the glacier. It was a little cooler today, and the clouds would blow in and out of the valley. The last 4 miles seemed harder than the first 5 ½. They were steeper. We gained 4,000 vertical feet in those 4 miles. The route would climb a hill, then the terrain would level off for a while, then another hill. The last hill was steep enough that traversing with the sled offered the chance for it to roll over sideways, so that took some attention. The stick, yank, lurch of the sled was still a pain, but now it was a familiar one. At the last hill before camp, I slowed down. Went into very low gear. The others were at least a quarter mile ahead of me, except Punches. He was moving slow also. Later we found out why.

In very low gear, the hike was a pleasure. I looked at the clouds and the immense blocks of ice that had once been seracs higher on the mountain. It was a beautiful place. Inspiring. I could feel the energy all around me and I felt connected - to the land, to the soaring heights, to the flying clouds, to the brilliant, if intermittent, sun. I felt good, happy to be here, at peace with myself. A good day, winding down, or so I thought.

When I finally arrived at the campsite the others had picked out, I saw them busy with shovels. The 11,200' camp was crowded. The only campsite they had been able to find was badly in need of repair. So we had to shovel snow and cut blocks of snow with our snow saw to build the walls higher. Walls are a necessity at all the camps on Denali. Tents have been known to literally blow away. Sometimes with people still in them. The walls get you out of the wind and can be the difference between comfort and desperate survival.

Up glacier (north) to Kahiltna Pass

The altitude was getting to me. It was really hard to shovel snow. A few shovelfulls and I had to stop and just breathe for a while. We didn’t get the sites really well done, but done enough to get the stoves started and the tents up. Everybody was dehydrated, out of water, and dog tired. 9 ½ miles, 4,000' vertical, and then digging. It had been a long day. Still, it was good to be at 11,200.’ We had skipped a camp. The "suggested" schedule would be to double carry to 7,800, then double carry to 11,200. That would mean we first would sleep at 11,200 on day 4. By "leapfrogging" we were there on day 2. Tomorrow would be a rest day, and hopefully I would acclimate. Then the next day we would go back to 7,800' and retrieve our cache.