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I awoke slowly in the dank dark forest to the voices of the other party packing
up and heading out. I recall looking over and seeing the big backpacks
heading out. I went back to sleep for a bit then got up. For the
most part, I awoke before Aidan or Michael and usually just lounged around until
they got up. After all, "men need their rest and the rest means prone!"
Once I heard them stirring, I went and recovered the food from the ad hoc bear
line. After the typical spartan breakfast consisting of a cheery bar, we
headed off. We knew this day would be another tedious day. Whereas
the first was a day of a lot of miles on a nice trail, this one was a only a few
miles on no trail, with the first mile or mile and a half consisting of a steep
bushwhack. We left the trail and followed our noses up. Lower down,
the hiking wasn't too bad. There was plenty of hiking through wet brush
but the blueberries at least made it pleasant sometimes. The brush yielded
to heavier timber as the way became increasingly steeper. The other party
was in front of us, within earshot, we kept pace with them, for the most part
until a most unfortunate account that I am loath to recall - Michael being
strapped to the pillory and whipped by the yellow jackets. Ug, it was
awful. It's unclear who stepped on them, Michael or me. I was in the
front and it's a common rural legend that the person in front steps on the nest
in the ground and the follower pays the price. Anyway, the problem was
that Michael didn't, or rather couldn't thanks to the incline, get away fast
enough. He must have been stung 10-15 times over the period of about 3
minutes. All Aidan and I could do was stand and listen. We did
supply him with 800 mg of Ibuprofen to help with the swelling. Mental
note: Benedryl for next time. I thought perhaps the trip might abort
at this point, but Michael, being the positive alpinist he is, carried on.
Pressing on, we arrived in denser brush again, much denser than below and we took to grasping of roots, a technique engrained after Johannesburg Mountain, to move ourselves up the steep terrain. After some scrambling, in which I nearly slipped, on some steep boulders, we caught up with the other group of five that had camped near us, although they had lost one member - he had hiked out that morning because he'd somehow lost a helmet on the hike in to Beaver Pass. They had heard Michael hollering below. We ended up passing them and pressing on through the sparse forest. We had finally arrived above most of the trees and the views were starting to open up. The sun beat down on us forced us into numerous rests. After our lunch stop, where we had our first excellent and sobering views of the north buttress of Fury, we stopped two additional times at small lakes to slurp water. The second one was most pleasant. Aidan and I dunked our heads and dropped our shirts into the water. We took a long break and headed off again. I think the distance on Wiley Ridge is only something like 7 miles or so, but the hiking moved slowly for us. We made the mistake of staying low and that forced us into a lot of cliffy downclimbs. The best approach would have been to stay on the broad ridge crest for the first part (except for the prominent sub peak (pt. 6955) that you see shortly after exiting on to tundra), and then drop down a dirt gully before Eiley Lake. The ridge is indeed block by sheer cliffs above Eiley Lake - we had to descend to it. A miscommunication in which Aidan and I became separated from Michael cemented the idea to not take any more chances on "shortcut" traverses. After Eiley Lake, we went high and stayed high and we were able to finish the hike to camp relatively quickly.
We arrived above Wiley Lake, which was still 75% frozen over. We moved on to the glacier on the right side and continued up the glacier making for another subpoint (pt. 7,374) just before the Challenger Glacier. It looked possible to pass the point on the left but the map doesn't show a prominent notch. The left side was sheer cliffs and we instead moved through a small notch on the left side of the subpoint. Through the notch, we went right and up (above picture) when finally led us to gentle slopes which we followed down to the Challenger Glacier. I dropped my pack and ran down the slope and found a pretty sweet spot for us with running glacier water. This would be our Challenger Camp.
We had arrived sometime around 7pm, if I recall. That was later than we'd anticipated but still with enough time to relax and enjoy the pleasant camp before the sun went down. I cleaned up in the glacier water, nearly frostbiting my fingers again after washing my socks! Dinner again was most welcome and delicious. Because we were on big granite glacial slabs, we all ended up sleeping under the stars this night; not just me!
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