Bad News on May 9th, 7800' Camp
The slog up to this camp was long and hard for the "old guys" (me included!). The 20-somethings (Andy and Kerisi) and Jimmy buzzed steadily ahead and got there first. I was not doing too badly but Dick was suffering under the heavy load and Duane did his best to help and encourage him. At 70 he was the oldest and once we reached the camp site he had a long talk with his son Duane. Later that day it was discussed that Duane would escort his dad back to the 7200' camp and fly with him off of the mountain. The remaining four of us worked really hard on Duane to try to get him to come back after that. We even volunteered to bury most of the gear and go back to 7200' and wait for him to fly back in.
We could see it in Duane's eyes that it would be tough to make sure that his dad made it safely back to Anchorage and not be worried about him. We sadly saw him off the morning of the 10th and later that day decided to push up to 9600' and stay there a night in hopes that Duane might hook up with another group and come back up. This created a mini-nightmare in figuring out how to divide up food and gear for seperate 2-man and 4-man teams as there was group gear as well as combined food menu items.
On the 10th we arrived at 9700' and set up camp. Notice the fact that we are virtually alone up there. Truly wide open spaces.
Later that day two NPS rangers, Gordy and Brian came into the area and set up camp near us. They seemed to be unduly concerned about our welfare, as if we were already in over our heads. After talking about it at length they came to realize that we were indeed quite experienced. So we finally got them to 'fess up. It turns out that on our application for the climbing permit that we listed Duane as "Team Leader". When the NPS saw that he was checking off of the mountain with his dad that were worried that he was "abandoning" the four of us to potential injury or death. Gordy and Brian were on their way up to the 14k camp to work with the other rangers there and decided to swing by and check us out.
This event proved fortuitous as we really liked those two rangers and later received key advice from Gordy. He is one of the few climbing rangers paid year round to be on the NPS staff.
After spending the night we talked to the rangers in the morning and they radioed in to see if Duane was back on the mountain. They were able to verify that he had to leave for Anchorage with his dad.
With that news we decided to get back on course and head up to the 11k camp. Here is Kerisi with a typically overloaded sled and pack. Probably well over 120 pounds combined weight.
