What a night. We left 14,280' camp at 6:45 p.m. last night and only stopped to eat and drink every little while. We made it all the way down to 11,000' camp in only two hours. We had no problems getting through Windy Corner.

At 11,000' camp, while the others rested, I spent about 30 minutes digging up our group cache that we had left there because I needed my snowshoes on the lower glacier. Unfortunately I did not get much time to eat, drink or rest and it would cost me later in the night as we descended.

After twelve straight hours with only short breaks to rest, we pulled into 7,200' camp. I was totally exhausted. Luckily the weather was good and we were able to arrange for planes to pick us up. Not everyone would fit in one plane so I volunteered to wait on the second one. The first plane landed about 9:00 a.m. The next plane did not arrive until around 1:00 p.m. I spent the time sleeping, reading and eating snacks.

It was wise to walk the lower glacier at night because it had become much more broken up in the 2 1/2 weeks since I saw it last. Evidence of collapsed snow bridges littered the route, along with signs of climbers punching in. Fortunately we had no mishaps, although there were some tense moments crossing suspect bridges.

Finally another plane showed up and I got a ride back to Talkeetna. The thought of a hot dinner and a real bed, not to mention a long shower, were cheering me up.

The flight out was uneventful and it was great to get back to the "real" world with its hedonistic pleasures. It had been a hard 16 days but I was sad to leave.

When I got back to Talkeetna, Alan from AAI met me and took me back over to the Roadhouse which fortunately had a room to let. I'm sure I was a dirty and haggard-looking sight because all the tourists stared at me. I probably also frightened small children and bruised fruit as I passed. I proceeded to take a long shower to try and scrub clean. Then for the first time in almost three years I shaved my beard off.

Having cleaned up I went across the street to devour a large pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pies and lots of cola before calling Maggie to let her know I was back down and safe. Then I crashed for the night and had my first good night's sleep in a few days.

Click on a picture to see it full size.

I got lucky on the plane ride out and snagged the front seat again.