Father's Day on the Mountain

A beautiful sunrise on the upper Kahiltna.

Journal Entry No. 4

Location: 9500 foot Camp, writing after our cache-and-carry day up to this elevation. It was a big day to haul all of our gear up here, even stashing some of it around 10,000 feet. In the rest of the journal I'm going to talk a lot about food. We bought our food through a service called Exposure Alaska and they put together 20 days worth of food packaged in five-day bags. They have been providing their service for quite a while now and through the feedback they get from clients have dialed in their quantities and a variety of meals that are easy to prepare and are pretty tasty. I was excited about going through them to get a “taste” of what expedition food is like and know in the future what to prepare and how much of it. My family has never really enjoyed “gourmet” food while even car camping let alone while backpacking or climbing. The preparation is certainly more than boiling water and pouring into a freeze dried meal bag, but it's almost a nice chore to get to do other than sitting around in the tent waiting for the next morning. Even at home I like to cook and preparing good food while out on a glacier is a particular pleasure. Thankfully Dad is a willing guinea pig and will pretty much eat anything that I put in front of him. He's also a great sous chef and is more than helpful in our kitchen.

Hauling loads in our sleds for the second trip up to
9500 feet. 

June 19th—Happy Father's Day!

Since the last time I wrote we've eaten a lot of food, and because I wanted to document the meals that we've eaten on this expedition I'll try to catch up.

Dinner Saturday: Salmon Carbonari Pasta

Dessert: Reese's Stix

Breakfast Sunday (at 9500 ft camp): Power Oatmeal! (3 packets, powdered milk, nuts, raisins, granola, butter...)

Dinner Sunday: Pasta w/ soup mix, cream cheese and cracker apps

Dessert: chocolate pudding

Today was a big day. We got up early and shuttle half our food and some gear up to about 9800 ft. Our intention was to cache it at our camp location but we misjudged the distance and blew by it. We'll just have that weight that much further along for tomorrow. After the cache, Dad and I skied roped-up back down to our tent at Camp 1. It was the most amazing ski run of my life. Not because the snow was incredible (it was hard and stiff but relatively easy) but the exposure and the view for miles and miles down the Kahiltna Glacier was breath-taking! Just that ski run (down “Ski Hill” mind you...) made the whole trip worthwhile, and we still have a possible two weeks more!

Dad is all smiles at 9500 feet!

After that, shaking and giddy with excitement, we broke camp and hauled the rest of our gear up to 9500' “Camp 2.” We've had a really nice exchange with a guided group through RMI. Mike, lead guide, is the friendliest guide we've run into yet. The whole group is interested in chatting and learning names and exchanging jokes. Our camp is right next to theirs tonight and I am pleased. It will be fun climbing the rest of the mountain with them.

Posing with our mascots while enjoying the amazing views
of the Kahiltna Glacier, snaking its way for miles into the
valley below.

Speaking of food...we have so much! We've gorged ourselves today and are still finding food and drink mixes in our first food bag. It's good though: we need the calories to stay strong for the rest of the climb. And...it's fun to cook. We're already scheming about a cheesecake to celebrate the Summer Solstice!

I have two favorite memories from this camp. First, I was trying to film a “tour” of our camp for documentation and 'K', one of the RMI climbers came over and literally demanded that I film him. While I was frustrated at the time that he in effect ruined my tour video clip, what he said regarding Father's Day and being able to spend an expedition like that with my dad still rings in my ears. It is an incredible honor to be sharing a tent on a glacier on North America's highest peak with my best friend, who also happens to be my dad.

Second memory: the sky was clear all day and the sun was particularly brutal. At some point, I think I was whipping up the pudding for dessert, I heard Dad say something about being hot. The next time I turned around he was gone, nowhere to be found, until I spotted him stripped to his scivys sprawled out in the tent. Temperature management was a difficult thing to deal with the whole trip. We were warned by some friends too, but it's different experiencing it first hand: when the sun is out you can stand around in 5 degree weather in a light shirt, but when it goes behind a cloud it gets frigid and we have to scramble to get another layer on.

Dinner is served!