Day 9 - Trek Day 7
Tuesday, September 15
School Camp —> Crater Camp 2.5 BRUTAL miles
15,600 —> 18,800 3,200 ft. up (of course there was some down in there as well)
4:20am —> 5:30pm 13 hours 15 minutes (that was my time - the slowest of the group)
3:00 Coffee Call - 3:20 Breakfast & bags packed - 4:00 Ready to go - 4:20 Hiking!
Today was the longest, coldest, and most brutal day so far. We were told it would be difficult, but I was really tested both physically and mentally. We began in the dark with headlamps, going straight up the slope from behind the camp. It was rocky and very loose gravel.
When the sun began to rise it painted a stripe of light on the horizon, and we stopped to take some pictures.
After the sun came up, we put our helmets on because the route we were taking up was the same route that others were taking down and there was the possibility of falling rocks and gravel.
The whole morning was up and up and up…. We saw a couple people being escorted quickly down (straight down - not the switchbacks we were taking) with a person on each arm nearly carrying them. These were likely people who were suffering from altitude sickness and needed to get down to more oxygen asap.
At some point in the day, a porter, Obe, took my pack from me which helped a lot, but I was still weary and slow. The first half of our group (the “rabbits”) were well ahead and out of sight, and I was starting to get discouraged. Often when having to take a big stop up onto a rock, I needed him to give me a push!
Finally we got to Gillman’s Point (2:45pm) for lunch. It was a small place on the rim of the crater and there were others there besides our group. Our chefs had prepared a small lunch for us and handed each of us a tray of food wherever we happened to sit down. Lunch was noodle soup, and bread with vegetables. I could only eat a few sips of the broth and a couple bites of the noodles.
At Gillman’s Point we could look down into the crater for the first time; and we could also see one of the glaciers in the distance. It was so vast!
From Gillman’s Point we traversed the rim for a bit to Stella’s Point.
Sad Note: Just below Stella’s Point we saw a red sleeping bag on the hillside not too far down the path, which we later learned was the body of a man who had just died having just summitted. One of our porters have given up his sleeping bag to cover him so that people wouldn’t have to see his body lying there.
As we slowly descended into the crater, it was just two guides, my porter, Mike and me - the caboose of the caboose - for another 2½ hours. Going down and flat stretches were a relief from going up; however, they did not recharge my battery at all. And I could feel the slightest incline in my body and I would slow and feel the weariness immediately. And the last hour or so we were walking directly into the sun, so I couldn’t look up and ahead to see where we were going! At one point I asked our guide how much farther we had, and he gave some vague answer. I said, “NO - I NEED TO KNOW!” He told me, “20 minutes.” I could walk 20 more minutes. I was so grateful for the patience of our little caboose as we stumbled into camp which was already in full shade as the sun was going down.
We collapsed into our tent, made a quick turn around for dinner (which I didn’t write down and don’t remember what it was!) We were so cold and tired, that we didn’t even brush our teeth before going to bed!
Here’s AllTrails’ version of our day:
Tomorrow is summit day - another predawn departure - another long day. I’m a little worried….