June 14, 2015 (Day 10): Retrieve Safe Camp Cache

The day started with an early wake-up at 0115.  The original thought was that we might be able to snag our cache and then possibly get on the Chicken Couloir for a quick scout.  We filled up on oatmeal and granola bars.  We were off to grab our cache at 0230 and it took us just under 1.5 hours to reach our destination.  Our gear was about 5 feet under the snow, and the team members took turns crawling in the hole and shoveling away.  I had one of the last turns with the shovel and eventually struck gold.  I must have been a little excited because once I hit the bags, I took a few more swings before pulling them out.  I handed the bags and fuel cans to the team members above and they began the process of sorting gear.  Upon pulling his helmet of of one of the garbage bags, Kai noticed his brand new Black Diamond Vector Helmet had a couple cracks in the shell.  I tucked my head between my shoulders like a dog in trouble.  One hit could be explained, but multiple hits to the helmet had us giggling a bit.  The team was packed and ready in about 30 minutes, and it took us just under 3 hours to get back to camp.

Everyone seemed a bit tired and any trips to the Chicken Couloir would have us back later than desired, so we decided to stay at the camp today.  We noticed two climbers that took advantage of our trail up the fork, but continued on towards the Cassin Ridge.  After we got back home from the trip, we found out they were the Smileys who were on a mission to climb the 50 classics.  They were able to successfully summit and more details of their trip can be found here.  I took some time to cut blocks and build a legit snow wall for the potty pit.  In the process I managed to slice into one of my fingers with the snow saw.  My worst fears were infection, so I quickly cleaned it up and got back to work.

The weather was once again perfect and the skies continued to be smurf blue.  The forecast predicted continued high pressure in the foreseeable future.  We had an early dinner of quesadillas around 1630 and began sorting some gear for our cache on the West Rib.  We took up 5 days of food, and I threw in a lot of my warmer expedition gear (down pants, expedition weight long underwear, down booties, etc...).  I was super stoked to start the technical climbing.  Nighty night by 1930.