Emmons #2The next day I woke up feeling fine but shortly found myself growing a bit queasy from the altitude. We moved camp up 400 ft to Emmons Flats and went through the whole shoveling and setting up camp thing again. Following that, I felt really punk and did not seem to bounce back.I found myself in a major battle with the fear that altitude could be my downfall this year despite my preparation. I tried to rest as much as I could and forced myself to keep eating and drinking every hour or so even though my body felt like it would never keep it down. By late evening, I got at least a partial deliverance, and hope began to return. I believe God also reminded me that this has always happened to me every time I had ever climbed above 10,000 feet yet, with the exception of last year, it never stopped me from succeeding.Sadly, my buddy Garth had suffered a pulled groin muscle or something painful in that general area and decided it would not be a good idea to proceed on with the climb. We went to bed after dinner and arose at midnight to fulfil the vision. I woke up with a rush of emotions. I was totally excited that the day I had worked so hard for was here, yet also found myself attacked with a fear of what might lie ahead. All the "what ifs" and all the thoughts of impending victory swirled in my head as I tightened my frozen boots and strapped on my crampons. Our rope teams were formed and off we went in the dark with headlamps lighting the way -- that is, except Kirk's, again (guess he didn't realize what a big deal it was to not have a working headlamp and just did it anyway). I kept struggling to find the steps of those ahead of me and realized there weren't any because the snow was so hard that we could only stick the side spikes of our crampons into the snow. To make things even worse, there was a huge freeway of tracks going multiple directions from everyone who came plunge stepping down in the heat of yesterday's sun. I was also experiencing incredible pain from my once little heal blisters. Hour after hour passe -- step, breathe, step, breathe. Rhythm and pace were the keys for me to stay focused. However, things began to get a bit disjointed with our rope team. Jessie, awed by the emerging view as the sun came up, kept breaking pace to take pictures. He also found it necessary to make several gear adjustments. Along with this, Carl began to struggle and needed to stop more often. This really created a struggle for me personally because my focus and rhythm thing began to get all disjointed and that seemed to mess with me mentally and physically. I've got to say though, as the sun came up, the view and atmosphere was breathtaking. It seemed to be worth all the pain. The sun turned the glacier many shades of orange and illuminated all that we had climbed in the dark. So anyway, as our rope team struggled a bit with stops and starts, sadly, the other rope team left us behind. We could occasionally reach them by radio but soon lost sight of them. At this point, Carl announced that he could go no further. I was overcome with emotion. Did it all come down to this! Was I now to reap what I sewed the year before? I was soon to learn again that God is never surprised. He already had a plan in place and provided two climbers who had summitted and were on their way down. Maybe they were angels -- either way, I believe they were sent by God. They welcomed our appeal for help and took Carl into their expert care and off we went to finish the ascent. As we neared somewhere around 13000 feet, I realized I was not eating enough and could feel a drop in my strength and attitude. Jessie noted that there was a plateau coming up and that we could eat there. Minutes turned to hours and the plateau never appeared nor did I replenish my diminishing blood sugar. I soon found my self plummeting into a horrible "bonk". In fact, things started spinning in my peripheral sight and I was starting to stumble. I declared to Jessie that I had to stop and eat or I would die -- at least it sure felt like it. Jessie kept saying that we were almost to the crater and we could stop there! Yeah right. I had heard enough about the plateau that never materialized so I thought he was jerking my chain again. This time though, it was the truth and I could not see it in my current state. Jessie handed me half a Cliff bar and proceeded to begin jerking the rope to make me move. No mercy -- I think he thought I was quitting and being a good friend, refused to give me that option. Praise God for friends who care about you! We reached the crater minutes later and simultaneously, I nearly went into shock. I wolfed water and energy bars as my body literally quaked all over. Within minutes the sugar hit my system and I began to feel human again. With this also came the realization that I had made it to the crater and the summit was only a few more minutes of climbing away! We dropped our gear there and walked up to the summit! As I hit the last few steps cresting the top I literally sobbed with emotion. To want something that bad, face so many obstacles and defeats and yet achieve it is a life changing experience. It was worth every sacrifice that it took. Larry who was behind me all the way (both positionally and figuratively) and Jessie who was determined that I make it, were flanked at my sides. That moment will forever bond me to those two. The decent was long and painful but a lot easier than it would have been if we had not summitted. When we reached the rest of our gang at base camp, I ran into camp celebrating with anyone I could find and got a big hug from Chri -- thanks man, that meant a lot to me! It was a long haul back to the car and a painful one. I also experienced by far the longest sitting glissade of my life -- basically the entire Inter Glacier. My Gore-Tex pants will never be the same! I also learned a lesson about alleged short cuts after requiring the help of Larry and Jessie to free me from hanging nearly upside down in some thick brush and downed trees. |
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