Sunday June 21st, 1998
This was our rest day in the middle of the trip – no moving camp. The first thing that was interesting today was the giant lake that had formed when the ice tower fell and dammed the river. Good think we crossed when we did because today there was a lake 5 meters deeper and much wider where we had a small river the day before. It would have taken us a couple of days to wait for the dam to wear through or find a way around, so we got lucky.
We were going to hike up to Ekblaw Lake together. But not that far along the others wanted to climb up/over/around, not thinking there was a path in the rocks along the river. Loving the desert southwest (all rock), I wanted to go along the river. So I told the group I would back track before I did anything stupid but wanted to try this way.
I went along by myself, finding the going easy with rock hopping, shelves, and various stream crossings. Several times I could see people sitting way up on the overpass. When they sat for what seemed like an hour, I just kept going. It was a wonderful solitary experience, with more great views. I cam to a place where passage was rock on one side and a glacier on the other and water in between. I began scrambling up, building a couple of rock cairns so when I found the others I could point them to the easy way back. From below the route was obvious, but I wasn’t at all sure it would be from above.
As I climbed I could see a wonderful broken rock peak. It was calling to me – climb me, climb me. Maybe 300-400 vertical meters? So instead of going over to the lake to meet the others, I scrambled towards the summit. As the peak slowly approached, I realized it was more like 600-700 vertical meters and 5km – the deceiving distances and lack of perspective got me. The top was pretty flat, but I was able to determine one section was higher. I made the summit at 14:47. It was completely calm, beautiful views, and lots of sun to keep me warm. But I was beginning to worry that the others would be worrying about me, so I headed down. I met Tony about 150m down, who let me know the others had gone down to the lake and he was the only one up high. He was going to go across the glacier and back to camp, but I suggested he check out the views from the top.
By the time climbed down, the others had headed back to camp and apparently were a little concerned about me. On the good side, I found out later the others tried to stay lower and didn’t think the route went anywhere but found a few cairns that guided them. I retraced my route, removing the cairns as I went. I didn’t want anyone else exploring the area years from now to have his or her experience ruined by finding one.
When I got back to the area where I had rock hopped the stream a bunch, another dam had raised the water level about 30cm. So I had to find another way (or get wet, and I didn’t like that option). Then I accidentally caused a chunk of rock to fall that gave me a path thought the water. Just after going over the hill, an army helicopter flew over at maybe 50m altitude. I snapped a great picture of it against the glacier.
I got back to camp a bit tired, slightly dehydrates, a bit sore, but otherwise a great day. I apologized to the others for making them worry, and let them know Tony should be coming over the top of the hill in about an hour. I ate two dinners, deciding this was a great time to get rid of the extra weight. None of the others had seen any of the large snow hares (artic rabbits) that I had seen during the day high up on the mountain.
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