Storm Days for Ski The Big 3 expedition, May 6 2014
Here is a pic of our location and the truly intimidating first obstacle, the icefall.
In the tent, below Mount Hunter.
We’re on the Kahiltna Glacier at the base of the icefall leading up to our possible climb and ski route on the western and south reaches of Mount Hunter. Still laying here in my big blue sleeping bag, alternating between staring at the ceiling, reading, making hot drinks and snoozing. It’s hard not to notice the snow and wind lightly rocking the walls of our tent. Intuition liners, skins, sunglasses, hats, jackets, mugs, socks and more are hanging throughout the interior of our lair.
We figure we have enough food to feed a normal human being on a normal diet for over a year. Yesterday, after hauling sleds four miles across the Kahiltna, it wasn’t too hard to finish our assigned portions. Today, doing little more than laying in my sleeping bag, it is proving more difficult to consume mass quantities.
We are at the base of the incredible and burly looking icefall below Hunter. We can’t actually see it today but the glimpse we got yesterday showed a complex day ahead of us to skirt it. Back to sleep now.
Jordan White is a strong alpinist who finished skiing all 54 Colorado 14,000 foot peaks in 2009. He guides, tends bar, and lives the all-around perfect life in Aspen.
5 comments
Did Jordan really weigh 275 pounds the last time he came back from Denali?
Sounds about right (grin). It was rather funny, we planned the food for Denali 2010 with both meal planning as well as total weight. Using the total weight method resulted in the food pile getting rather small towards the end of our trip, as it should. The youngsters saw that and panicked, asked for free food from people leaving 14,000 foot camp, and we ended up with a huge pile of basically trash. I’m willing to bet that if the Skibig3 guys didn’t evaluate their food using weight, they brought too much. But that’s better than too little, and the pile will remain nice and large so they don’t stress (grin), and Jordan can keep his weight up.
Hope the weather clears up soon.
I bet the nerves are humming like the string section of an orchestra up there right now. I hope they are getting the weather info I lined up for them. My guess is that during the next window, they skin up to the icefall to get a glance at their opponent, and then the following day start making it happen. These aren’t sit around and eat type of folks. You can tell that JW is antsy already.
If you can read this fellas, remember my not so funny advice, patience. If you wait, those peaks will give you what you desire. Much thought, respect, and hope goes from our house to your little nylon love shack on the Kahiltna.
Skied some of the same storm snow in the Talkeetna mountains yesterday. Dry dry powder made for a good may ski day! Carry on
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