Hot and a lot

After our first day of hiking we were already just barely above tree-line.  The good thing about that is no more bush-whacking for a few days!  We did take the next day, though, to hike back down just a little ways into the forest and string some ropes up into the trees in order to practice 'fixed line ascension'.  Fixed line ascension is when you use two pieces of cord that are tied with a prussik hitch and used for ascending a rope.  The primary purpose in the mountaineering context is to self rescue in case of falling in a crevasse while on a rope team.  If a person were to fall in a crevasse, the rope that they are tied to would prevent them from falling very far into the crevasse and then they could use their prussik cords to climb their way out.  Even in the trees it is a lot of fun to practice and it was nice to have a rest day after such a grueling first day of hiking.

Ben's night to cook..."hot and a lot"-- he also won the beard competition.

Our next travel day we moved up about 500 more meters into a basin that still had a couple of relatively small glaciers in it.  We camped at the base of one of them, but it was not snow covered down low.  We spend another day there learning to use crampons and walk around on bare ice glacier.  We also got the ropes out and went a little higher on the glacier where it was snow covered and practiced getting in rope teams, and roping up with our full glacier rigs.  With 18 people we had a total of five rope teams.  At the end of the day two teams hiked up to a high saddle to look out at the terrain we were thinking we would travel the next day.  Unfortunately the terrain out that way was not snow-covered enough and was too steep and 'slabby' to make travel reasonable.  We had an alternative path to take but it was also very steep, but less so... so we planned to go that way the next day.

We were now approaching our halfway point of the first ration... but we had a considerable distance yet to travel to get to our food resupply point.  The morning of day four we hiked in small groups to the west until we rondezvoused at a small glacier that led up to a saddle that we were pretty sure we'd be able to decend and continue toward our re-ration.

We did make it to the saddle without problem and Kevin scouted the other side looking for a good route to descend.  Once we were all ready to begin our hike down it was roughly 2 pm and at this time of year it is getting dark at 9 pm.  That means we had seven hours.  Plenty, right?  Not so fast.  The descent we were looking at was more than 1000 meters and about 3 kilometers.  However we had already travelled 3 kilometers and gained 500 meters in elevation--so we weren't exactly fresh when we started going down.  The first leg of the descent that Kevin had scouted went pretty well.  Eventually we got to the tree-line though and it took us a while to find the best way into the trees.  The trouble is that at the top of the tree line the trees' growth is stunted and inhibited by the annual snow pack, therefore the trees in that zone are kind of bush-like, intertwined and extremely stiff... almost impenetrable.  But, the time we spent scouting paid off and we found a gully that was bush free, albeit quite steep.  We descended that gully in small groups with five or 10 minutes of dispersion in order to avoid being below each other with the potential of rockfall.

A good looking small group of hikers.

Eventually all four small groups were in the trees and could travel a little more freely, but as we traversed and descended we ran into more thickly vegetated areas and even some cliffy areas that we had to find a way arouond.  The first group made it down to the lake where we intended to camp at about 8 pm, then 30 minutes later the second group, and shortly after that the third.  Where was the fourth group?  While we waited for them we got tents set up and some groups started cooking dinner. It was fully dusk and beginning to get dark.  Still the fourth group hadn't arrived.  Each day we plan for the potential that a group or two (or all the groups for that matter) might not make it to the "x".  So each hiking group carries a tent, stove, pot and food just in case they have to spend the night away from the others.  Those of us who had made it to camp this night were beginning to think the fourth group might have to do that.  Then all of a sudden we saw several white lights bouncing up and down in the distance.  Yes!  There they were... hiking the last few hundred meters in the dark with head lamps.  We were very happy to see them!

Once they got into camp we helped them set up their remaining tent and get dinner going.  It had been a long day and turned out to be a windy, rainy night--so it was good they made it!  That night was my night to cook dinner for the instructor team, and if I remember right, I think I made "hot and a lot."  That's the universal name for a any quick meal, usually with pasta and cheese, and enough to satisfy a ravenous hunger.