Difficulty Leaving Base Camp

Journal Entry No. 2

Location: Base Camp

I am writing the day after flew in. We didn't leave Base Camp earlier that morning and you'll hear about why in the entry.

Scrambling to get sunscreen on, and wowed by the scenery.

June 17--Our adventure continues here at Kahiltna Base Camp as our hopes, dreams, and fears all mix together, churned like clothes in a washing machine.

We arrived yesterday around 12:30-1pm and setup camp for the day. After checking in, pitching our two tents, melting snow for drinking water, and eating some bean and rice burritos with guacamole (yum!), we set ourselves to the task of rigging our sleds and packing some of our gear. This took much longer than I expected and we didn't stop to crawl into our sleeping bags for a nap until close to 11 pm. As we were closing our eyes, one team was packing to leave.

We got up at 2:30 and pounded some granola with mild (and nuts and raisins for me). Coffee would have been nice but it was nicer not to have to think about heating water. By a quarter to 5 we were entirely packed up and ready to leave when Dad said he didn't think he could do it. He was struggling with anxiety over the stories we had been hearing about travel on the lower glacier, especially since we were a party of only two.

View of the Moonlight Buttress with several climbers chatting in front of the Park Rangers' tent.

I can't quite express the struggle within myself over my love for my Dad and frustration at not being able to travel to the next camp. I feel as though the snow was re-frozen well enough and we should take advantage of the good weather. After waffling for probably half an hour as two large guided teams packed and left we made the decision to stay, “resting” one more day, making sure our system was bomber, and leaving a little before midnight tonight. We setup the Allak tent again and slept for another couple of hours until being driven outside by heat and the need to relieve ourselves.

Lunch, then, was a solid batch of potato soup with reindeer sausage. We did some busy--work thinking about getting the sleds ready for whenever we decide to travel, and now we've laid around the tent for a long time. (We did try to learn how to play Casino, but we'll have to work through the rules small chunks at a time.)

To say that I was frustrated to not be moving camp would be an understatement. I don't think I handled the situation very well and struggled to maintain composure while sorting out the decision with Dad. He has said something to the effect of "Colter was freaking out, that I was freaking out." To be handed a "bomb" like that was totally unexpected. In the future, I need to remember sooner that group decisions are made while mountaineering based on the comfort level of any one of the team; an individual decision becomes the group decision in a hurry, and is usually the best choice. I forgave my Dad for the choice to stay put relatively quickly, and totally forgot about it when we were able to travel the following day. I hope that my attitude and body language reflected that. 

Our camp in the little tent 'town' they call Base Camp. Notice our guard-Poutingos.  

I've been asked several times recently (by strangers, mind you) about Why I decided to climb Denali. This will most likely be a subject revisited several times in the course of this journal. For now, I've come to the conclusion that I see Denali as a test of myself as a mountaineer. Sure, it would be a climbing resume builder and I wouldn't mind being able to tell people that I've climbed the highest point in North America. However it is more accurate, as well as “admirable,” to say I'm using the mountain as a training-testing ground. Perhaps that's why I like all outdoor sports: there is a certain amount of preparation that goes into it beforehand and the actual event tells you how well you prepared. (Cool metaphor of life maybe: every event and every adventure is a preparation for the next.)

Now I'm in the best shape of my life for mountaineering and I want to see if it's good enough to summit Denali. And, unfortunately I might not get to find out, since the weather isn't really cooperating. Mentally it would be okay to accept being prevented from the summit by storms, but it's a struggle to contemplate not making it off the South East Fork of the Kahiltna! I need to eat some humble pie...

Not exactly 'Humble Pie': enjoying a good breakfast on the East Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. To keep things in perspective: the views alone of the surrounding rock, ice, and peaks made the trip worth it. And at this point things are only going to get better!

*Note to self: I want to make sure and look up the Father/Son climbing team that put up a new route in the area as well as the Japanese pair that came in today. Rubbing elbows with famous climbers? More like breathing the same air...

I looked up some information from this past year's climbing season. I couldn't really pick out an oriental team that would have come back to Base Camp around the time we did, but I'm pretty sure that the Schmidt's were the father/son team that I overheard talking to the Ranger in Talkeetna and subsequently mentioned in my journal. It's pretty inspiring for an up-and-coming father/son climbing team like Team Poutine... The text below is taken from a summary of new routes done in the Alaska Range during the 2011 climbing season on Teton.Outerlocal.com--

Windy Corner/West Rim Wall, major new spur climbed

Marty and Denali Schmidt

June, 2011

Climbs the prominent buttress immediately to the left of the West Rim route (Morrow, Ehmann, 1977) and joins the West Buttress route on the glacier just above Windy Corner. Team descended to Basecamp at that point. The Schmidts- father and son- also summitted Denali by the west buttress, and Mount Foraker by the Sultana Ridge, and were the only team to reach the summit of Mount Foraker this season.

Difficulty: WI5, 5.10, A2

Source: basecamp ranger conversation with Schmidt