Morning cleaning up camp. Chelsea and Eric are going down to base camp with Marc and flying out. Before they head down, Kai, Marc, Xav and I make a little trip to the Edge of the World, a scenic point about 20 minutes walk from our camp. This scenic point feels like it overlooks the entire Alaska range. We can even see camp 1, 2000 meters below us. It is very cold, we wear our down parkas, a far cry from 2 years ago when we enjoyed a warm and sunny moment.

Xav and I move into the red ‘luxury’ Hilleberg tent that has been used by the guides so far. It is a much friendlier tent then the Mountain hardware trango 4 that we have had so far. It’s a round, tunnel shaped tent with a large front vestibule and small back one.

In the afternoon, the sun is beating down on the camp. We take a walk through the temporary village that has become camp 3. We run into Melissa, one the of Denali rangers that we helped with Gilles’ rescue at the start of the expedition.

We talk to Gangaama, the first Mongolian woman to complete the 7 summits and to climb K2. I jot down her contacts in case we ever want to go climbing in Western Mongolia. It’s her 4th time on Denali and she has summited only once – puts things in perspective

We talk with Peter, Xav’s photographer friend from the netherlands who also climbed Denali 2 years ago. They are running out of time and have to head down the mountain disappointed with not having pushed over camp 3.

We chat with Goulven, a French mountain guide from Chamonix and John his Irish friend. They are also heading down the mountain due to mild HAPE problems.

We run into a group of Polish climbers at the edge of camp. That take a selfie with Xav and I. One of them has his face completely burned by wind and cold. Apparently he spent 2 hours stuck at Windy Corner, one of the most brutal parts of the mountain known for freezing cold winds.

 

As we go to bed and start falling to sleep, a serac rips and falls down the mountain in a gigantic noise. Kai rushes to our tent’s window to identify the noise and assess potential danger, my heart beats like crazy, we are fine. Nature shows us it’s strength and power. 

NOTES

3 W on the mountain

Wind

Wet (cold)

White out

1 of the 3 ok

2 of the 3 not really ok

3 out of 3: in trouble – danger