Logan Expedition Blog 2, The ‘Logan Effect’ Base Camp - Football Field Camp 3

Before the journal commences here is a quick weigh in of all of my kit that was flown onto the glacier:

• Me plus ski boots, camera and lots of ski clothing: 149lbs
• Small food bag: 13lbs
• Big food bag: 24lbs
• Rucksack: 61lbs
• plus pulk and share of tent and fuel (100g per day per person?): lots more pounds

Total: 117lbs personal kit and food, plus group kit and myself

Skinning up to Camp 1 from Logan Basecamp

Monday 9th May 2016 - Rest day (bad weather) at Logan King’s Trench Basecamp

Not much happened today, knowing the weather was going to be bad we had already planned to take the day off.  We spent the bulk of the day eating food, reading, sleeping, chatting and occasionally digging the tents out.  The weather today wasn’t awful, however four days of high pressure were forecast from tomorrow.

Setting off to move up to Camp 1

Tuesday 10th May - Basecamp - Camp 1

Today our daily routine of waking up at 7am (to bright glorious sunshine) and leaving by 10am began.  Rarely on the trip would we manage or need to make this less than 3 hours.

My feet got so warm in I nearly got blisters photo by Cathy O'Dowd

The long haul up to camp one began, and I was feeling really strong, slowly acclimatising and enjoying the views and weather.  We needed to break trail today, however due to the high winds it was only a couple of inches deep, and the crevassed corner posed no problems.  To be on the safer side, and for practice as a team we all moved roped up.

Arriving in time for lunch we made camp, dried out boot liners and sleeping bags and had a good rest before skiing down to collect our cache from 2 days ago.  For dinner I forced down 2 Mountain House meals (500-550cal a pop), soup, hot chocolate and chocolate.  Way too much food, and I paid for this by spending the night trying not to be sick, digesting it all.  This was my first warning sign that maybe 750g of food a night was 250 too much.

741m ascent, 10km, 4.5hrs

The start of the route from Camp 1 to King Col Camp 2, the steepest section being the ramp on the LHS

Wednesday 11th May: Camp 1 - King Col Camp 2 - Camp 1

Feeling grumpy for the first time this trip, and my stomach still feeling full I survived the morning on coffee and one ginger nut biscuit.  This was going to be a very long day.  Under the baking hot sun we hauled a load to cache at Camp 2, King Col Camp.

Tent city at King Col

Initially the terrain steadily rose upwards, we zigzagged our way up one steeper slope (no need for kick turns though) and soon saw our destination for the day.  This is when the ‘Logan Effect’ really kicked in.  The glaciers are so huge that perspective is challenging.  A small rise or depression can seem 10minutes away, but actually take an hour or more.  The last section seemed to go on for ever.  My mind drifted between thinking of nothing, pondering the vegetable patch at home, marching on, looking at my watch to see how high we were and trying to will my stomach into digesting it’s contents.  By this stage I couldn’t go more than 2km/hr and had to ask my rope team to slow down the pace, something I haven’t asked in years!

We arrived at the col to ‘tent city’ and lots of whooping Canadians as they skied down the powder fields from a saddle on King Peak.  No one had passed through the ice field yet this season and so most of the groups there had gone for a quick recce and acclimatisation day to check where to put the best route in.  As the technical crux of the route, and highly crevassed, this was a key step to the summit.

Thighs burnt as we skied back to Camp 1, and I arrived, less grumpy and a bit hungry.  Tomorrow would be another long day.

780m ascent, 9km, 4.5hrs

Most evenings produced stunning light and were still warm (ish) until 9pm

Thursday 12th May: Camp 1 - King Col Camp 2

Today I felt back to normal.  We packed up our entire camp, cached our rubbish (with GPS coordinates taken) and skinned up to King Col Camp.  Once again the forecast looked ok for a few more days and much of the remainder of the day was taken up discussing how many carries to make through the icefall, what other teams were doing and where the route went through the icefall.

780m ascent, 9km, 4.5hrs

The icefall, you can just make out a team of three moving up through the bottom central section

Friday 13th May: King Col Camp 2 - Football Field Camp 3 - King Col, Carry no.1

As we didn’t need to pack up our tents today we had a lie in until 8am.  Sun blazed onto our tents a couple of minutes later and we needed no other reasons to get moving quickly.  It was baking hot.  Beginning with ski crampons on, and pulks strapped to our rucksacks we began following the line through the icefall.  From camp it looked horribly steep and icy and we all presumed it would be horrific.  We decided to rope up, but if you fell you would probably take the entire team with you.  Countering this, if you plunge stepped or just slid sideways into a crevasse at least you might be saved.  There is something a little unnerving about being roped to people you have never been roped up to in that environment before, however I had seen everyone ski and skin and you have no choice but to trust them and keep focused on my own skinning.

Skinning beneath one of the big seracs in the icefall

So far, so good… the track was much better than expected, and despite the heat of the sun and cold of the night it hadn’t turned into an icy rink.  Upon reaching the first kick turn I suddenly realised that I still hadn’t done a kick turn on my new skis and here I was with a 20kg rucksack on, tied to two other people on a steep skin track surrounded by crevasses, on a pair of skis at least 10cm longer than I was used to!

Precarious kick turning in the icefall, there is quite a steep drop below Chris here aswell

First ski went around, I managed to place it at a good angle but a little bit further away from me than I would have like, the 2nd hung tentatively in the air and after a solid flick of the heel I brought it around, steadily to fit snuggly beside the first.  Phew!  Only a few more kick turns to go and we would be through the worst of it.

I spent lots of time trying to capture the steepness of the icefall on camera

The further up we went, the better the views became, we could see to the Ocean and across the Seward glacier to many other peaks beyond King Col.  Winding between stable looking seracs we made good headway up the steepest part of the day and soon we were high above the campsite and through the icefall.  The angle eased and we followed flags, maps and our noses to seek the best route up.  As it is so windy on the mountain, most older tracks are blown away.

Hauling pulks infront of incredible views towards Mount St Elias

Finally we put our pulks on the snow, giving our shoulders a much needed break, and we pulled them up towards camp.  After digging a cache and chatting to the other teams we skied back down, caching our pulks just before the icefall.

Skiing down in quite good snow Photo by Cathy O'Dowd

This was our best ski of the trip so far, steeper pitches, reasonable snow, slabby at times, but my new skis were incredible.  They made skiing bad snow with a rucksack on so much easier.  I can now say that all ski tourers should get fatter longer skis with a good rocker at the front!  Choosing the direct line to camp gave some great 40degree skiing on sun warmed snow.

770m ascent, 4km?, 4.25hrs

Skinning above the Icefall

Saturday 14th May: King Col Camp 2 - Football Field Camp 3 - King Col, Carry no.2

Another hot day, waking an hour earlier than yesterday and leaving at 9am made this easier to manage.  We skinned along the same route as yesterday in similar conditions, all making good time and averaging around 300m/hr upwards.  Upon reaching our pulk cache we opted to continue without them as our rucksacks felt heavy but acceptable.

Following the occasional wand along the route to the Football Field

As per yesterday we added to the cache (at 13:30) and skied back down.  Although this time the snow at the bottom of the descent was a little more crusty because we were earlier.  We were back in camp by 14:30.  Although the days were short but intense it was really pleasant to be able to sit in the sun and take time to melt snow, chat and eat before bed.  This hardly ever felt rushed during the entire expedition.

770m ascent, 4km?, 4.25hrs

Sunday 15th May: King Col - Football Field Camp 3, moving day

A huge pack for moving day

Despite the fact we were now functioning well as a team, and were getting slicker at organising ourselves we still took three hours between alarms going off at 7am and setting off from camp.  As the mornings got colder any pace we had gained on packing was taken over by the slowness of being cold, breathing harder and having to look after yourself more.  Just putting on your boots, skis, pack, harness, prussics, chest harness, rope, transceiver sorting out layering systems, gloves, snacks and water took time in itself.

For the 3rd time in as many days we set up the icefall.  We hadn’t had a rest day for days and the going was tough.  There’s nothing quite like doing kick turns on a steep slope when everything is starting to tire.  Our pulks were dug out with relief and packs immediately put on them.  The steeper sections were hard work, leg and bum muscles working overtime and it was a constant battle to keep making upwards progress.  Due to the weight of the pulks going straight up kept them in line with you but didn’t always keep the skins sticking (skins only stick to the snow up to a certain angle and with a certain amount of technique, which always fades as you become more tired).  Making zigzags was easier on your muscles except those counteracting the pulk as it tried to pull you back down the hill sideways!  What a great way to spend your well earnt holidays!!!

The heat of the day bore down on us, and general tiredness and misbehaving pulks got to us all.  Finally we arrived into camp at 16:30.  Relieved but with a lot of work left to do at the height of 4800m

770m ascent, 4km?, 6.5hrs

There's always time for a natter

Lessons learnt: 

• Don’t try to go to the loo with you pulk still attached to you.  This provided much entertainment for the group as I attempted this and narrowly avoided being pulled back down the mountain half naked by my pulk!
• Only eat as much food as you can manage (but eat something)
• Always try out your new skis before a trip if you can (I couldn’t, they arrived a couple of weeks before our flight!)