Aha, the Sept. 8 blog!

Yo, I found the Sept. 8 blogs. Guess where? On the site of the newspaper where I work.

It has taken me weeks to find them. I feel like a corporate lawyer who has found a little-known codicil (is that how you spell codicil?) referring to double-secret internet site stuff.

Yeehaw.

Remember, the first items are later in the day. The lower items were written earlier in the day. Actually, I didn't write any of them. I called on the satellite phone and dictated off the top of my head. And it reads like that.

The photo above is from Upper Lamarck Lake. We got there in 90 minutes from North Lake. Piece of Cake. That's the last time we had a mellow stroll on this trek. The rest was straight up. Slippery rocks. Boulders that were in motion. Absolutely terrifying rockfall while we were on the glacier. This was one tough, scary trip.

Without further whimpering and complaining, I give you Sept. 8:

3:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8: I heard a whoop and a splash. Bee photographer Mark Crosse had dived into Darwin Lake No. 5. Icy-cold water made him surface and climb out quickly. But he's a polar bear.


The jagged peaks of Mendel and Darwin are directly above us now. It is ominous out here. The wind howls, clouds go overhead, and smoke comes up the canyon from some fire in the national park.
We'll be on the glacier in the morning. If all goes well, I will call and blog from there.

Our destination has shrunk
2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8: I'm in front of Lake Five in Darwin Canyon, almost directly in front of Mendel glacier. The glacier is smaller now than last year, and you can hear the rush of melting ice in the background.

This morning we went over Lamarck Col at 12,880 feet, and we had to boulder-scramble class 3 boulders, which is fairly difficult. We didn't go across the ice. It was frozen solid and too slippery. The canyon headwall is an intense downward descent of about 1,000 feet. We're looking for camp sites.

Good morning, wind
8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 8: The wind is an alarm clock here at 12,500 feet just below Lamarck Col. I'm remembering that last night, Peter Stekel told me he had scoured all the military records he could find.

There is little to tell us how the AT-7 crashed on Mendel. He said Mortenson, Munn and Mustonen were picked to fly that day as part of an alphabetical rotation. The trio may have even bunked together. Today we will climb the col and work our way down the Darwin Canyon headwall. It should take two or three hours on the other side. Mendel Glacier awaits.