Peter Stanley Mt. McKinley

Now we are getting ready to pack up our gear and glissade and hike on down the 5,000 feet of descent to Paradise. We've had three days in a row now of vigorous, vigorous indeed, athletic endeavor, and I am very sore. But I guess the only time I felt really washed out was in that last bid for the summit.

It's now 1:53 a.m. 27 June, Thursday and we're at the same motel in Seattle that we stayed at en route. Today we came down from Camp Muir. It was 56 minutes to Pebble Rocks and then another 56 minutes to Paradise at a pace that I think would be hard to duplicate if there wasn't (packed) snow. We were really moving down fast or kind of semi-skiing. So that was a hard two hours' and we all feel thoroughly tired. It's now almost 2:30 in the morning. We've got to make an 8:35 a.m. flight, and I 'm just about ready to turn in. I should have no trouble getting plenty of sleep or rather going to sleep -- I won't be able to get plenty... but... Driving down out of Rainier National Park... I began... my adrenaline really began pumping. It's a very "high" time. There is something compellingly powerful about pitting your all against a mountain. I just finished going over my gear. It's now 3:14 a.m. on 27 June... Thursday... we've got to get up at 6:00 a.m. to catch the plane. Shutting down.....

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