Chloe called in with the May 8 team last night! Today the team had what we call an “active rest day”. Today was a significantly shorter day than when they move camps, allowing them to get out and stretch their legs, get some of that lactic acid flowing and moved out of the body, and then return to camp to rest for the remainder of the day. The team went down to their cache site at 9,800′ and dug up the supplies they had buried there a few days ago. On their return they spent the afternoon refreshing crampon and ice axe technique to prepare for the big push up to their next cache below Camp 3 (14,000′).

At the end of the day they enjoyed some amazing pizza made by the guides in their snow kitchen (cook tent) at 11,000′! Part of making camp at each destination is digging out snow counters and snow benches in the kitchen and atop that goes the tent. This allows for some protection from the elements while cooking and eating, and gives the team a space to put their cook stoves. Teams also dig out a latrine area and build snow walls to protect the tents from the wind. The need for snow walls is more of an upper mountain necessity where the winds are much higher and are known to damage tents.

Soon the team will be caching at Windy Corner at 13,000′ feet and moving on up the glacier!

Here’s a cook tent photo from the Denali archives.

Here’s Chloe:

recording