We rushed down to 7800′ without snowshoes and the walking was great. The moon was out, the light from the night was amazing and to know we were so close and climbing in the middle of the night with great tunes playing in my ears was wonderful We could see Venus in the distant horizon. I could not take any pictures as my camera was snug in my sleeping bad where I forgot it after keeping it warm there. But I got some good ones from Sam and Alex.

The last four hours from 2am till 6am were ENDLESS. With snowshoes on at this time, massive blisters were forming on my left foot especially which would still be there at least two weeks later. We hurried up Heartbreak Hill around 430am and got to the glacier runway around 6am.

We thought we would all be “rescued” soon but the mountain gods had different ideas. It was freezing here on the Kahiltna to start and I got out my last pair of hand warmers. We broke into the cold beer pretty soon thereafter and soon some of us were in a comfortable fog and resting on our duffel bags and packs.

Around 10am we thought we heard a plane, but NO.

We ate salmon from a cache on crackers with a bit of mustard we found. We ate some pinenuts, some jerkey and anything else we could find. Laine was in bad shape during the early part of the morning with some vomiting but he was fine later.

Joey and Sam were using one of the large AMS poles as a giant javelin and it was good fun to see them having a mini-Olympic trial.

Everyone is sprawled out during the day and we kept hoping for a plane to land. A number of tourist planes landed and people got out and looked at us like we were animals in the zoo but they got back in their plane and left us there.

The sun was out most of the day and we were all burning up, so we were covered from face to toes just waiting, waiting waiting. We were all frustrated as there was no radio contact. We played the Global City game that Sandra started and was the most competitive, I thought I knew a lot but went out early in a lot of the rounds.

Finally, after being on the glacier around 13 1/2 hours (!) we saw a plane circle (the right kind) and come in for a landing. We all got excited and started to get ready. Then we were all disappointed to see climbers in the plane until we realized that they were getting dropped off for a class and the plane would take us off the mountain!

The plane took us back to Talkeetna and then by the short bus ride to AMS. Most of us stayed at the Swiss Alaska Inn where I savored a celebratory cigar upon getting back and before dinner and talked to Linda at length. We had some great hamburgers and fries in the hotel restaurant just as they were closing and then watched Juno in the hotel room. I was able to change my flights again and get tickets on the Alaska Railroad and get a hotel room in Anchorage.

YAYYYYYYY!!

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