19 July 2015

The adventure starts: Kelly Bay flies first my guide Jason to the landing strip at Lakina Glacier and then returns for me. He has been living in McCarthy in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park for about 40 years and set up the Wrangell Mountain Air Company. He is a real adventurer and tells me how he hitchhiked to Mexico when he was 19 and was shipwrecked on his way back.

In the pictures you can see Jason and me just before we start climbing up to our first day’s destination. You can also see where we set up after four hours scrambling up the mountain over lose stone, through bushes and with a heavy backpack (Jason had 35kg and I half of that). The hard work was made easier by the spectacular view and even a rainbow framing the toe of the glacier.

Jason brought us to a goat trail at midway, 2400 ft to 4500 ft (it’s a struggle with this feet business, but I am trying to learn. I believe this is about 800m to 1400m. Feet sounds more impressive, I will stick with that).

We set up tent in the most gorgeous place next to a crystal clear mountain lake. Obviously I had to make a point of having a quick dip into it (no worries, Diktator Schneider I had my underwear on – nothing revealed!). No swimming though since no wetsuit. My training for Chicago has to start another day.