June 13, 2015 (Day 9): Move to Couloir Camp (11,000 ft)

We were up just after midnight to the sound of our guides prepping the stoves for breakfast.  Our objective for today would take us through one of the most dangerous sections of the trip, and that's the ice fall just below 11,000 ft camp.  If that wasn't dangerous enough, it also passed under the largest hanging glaciers on the route.  If successful, our reward would be a view of the Chicken Couloir and the next phase of the route.  The Chicken Couloir is considered to be the crux with steeper ice at the top approaching 60 deg.  We tore down camp and were packed and ready to go in just about 2 hours. I thought this was impressive considering our time off and this was only our second time tearing down camp.

We started up the fork at approximately 0200.  Our loads were pretty heavy as we slogged up the firm crust.  The guides wanted to maintain momentum and get us through the objective danger  as quickly as possible, so our breaks were spread about 2 hours apart.  This is twice as long as what I was used to, so when we stopped, it felt especially good.  Our second break was timed at the cache just before 0500.  At this point we got our second look at the ice fall.  Our path through the crevasses up to this point felt like five lane California freeway compared to the twisting mess of crevasses and snow bridges they laid ahead.

The elevation gain over the next stretch was much steeper than what we've encountered so far.  Josh did an awesome job of probing and safely navigating through the crevasse field when all of sudden he came to a dead end.  At this point Kai and Zach were behind us and took the lead through the next section.  Once they were past, we followed their tracks from behind.  Four hours after leaving the 9500 ft cache we arrived safely at 11000 ft camp.  It was a long day, but the team felt invigorated.  The Chicken Couloir was in front of us and it looked steeeeep.  The light and shadows towards the top almost made it look overhanging, which I knew was not the case.  Now having seen it, I wanted to get closer to put me at ease.  There was a small possibility that we would grab our cache today, but it was a long day and guides decided we would head back through the ice fall tomorrow to grab the cache.  We built camp and a potty area.  It was good to have the weight our packs on our shoulder once again.  Dinner was early at 1600 and we were in bed at 1900.