Morning had us camped on the ice in a small channel connecting Glacier Lake and Summit Lake overshadowed by a small snow covered moraine that incidentally served as a pretty cool toboggan run the night before. Mornings always start the same – Scott or Angus are first up, get the stove going to put a bit of heat in the tent and get the water boiling for a hot drink and yet another oatmeal breakfast. Everyone’s bathroom routines are a bit different I think we’ve all come to appreciate the fact that a well shaped snow cone is a fine substitute for toilet paper. Kind of like a Scandinavian ice bidet.
Todays trek was 8 km across Summit Lake to the emergency shelter at the south end under bluebird skies and a balmy -3 C. It was almost too hot as we’re not used to delayering that much during the day. We had been hoping for hard blue ice to make the crossing easier (less friction for the sled) but the snow from a couple of days ago and some old snow made for a bit of light slogging although the snow lessened as we reached the south end of the lake. Trekking over the ice is a bit surreal as there are huge cracks even though the ice is probably over 2m thick and in some places it’s so clear you can almost see the bottom while elsewhere the ice is full of trapped bubbles.
We arrived early at the Summit Lake shelter around 1:30 and took advantage of the warm weather and hot sun to dry our bags and do a little sunbathing out front of the tent in our camp chairs with a front row view of Thor, Odin and the rest of the Norse gods these mountains are named after at our feet. The ranger cabin here is perched on a beautiful stretch of sandy moraine. There are fox prints everywhere so I’m sure we’ll have a visitor to our camp in the night. As long as he doesn’t pee on anyone’s sled bag. Time for a hot drink and dehydrated dinner as it’s almost 4:30 and bedtime is usually around 7:30 unless we’re in a rowdy mood and then it’s 8pm. Out.
