Protected: Bremner – Tebay Hike

Carl May 10, 2008

Hey Mike,

Great to hear from you, man, thanks for jumping in. The villa in Soller sounds awesome.

Regarding gear, here are 2 stores in Anchorage:

AMH

REI

They’re within a block of one another. You can get freeze-dried food there, and other backcountry staples. There is also a grocery store, Carrs, one block west on northern lights blvde. If anyone has a bearproof container for food, you can bring it along, if not, we can rent them from the bush pilot. I have 3, and will probably pick up another before summer, so unless you want one for further hikes, I wouldn’t worry about getting one.

If you only need a tent, I can loan you one if you want. If you want to pick one up in town, it depends on what size you want – I looked at the Mountain Hardwear Sprite the other day and am tempted to get one myself – it’s a newer version of the PCT 1, which I already own, but it’s nearly a pound lighter. Depends how comfortable you are in a small one person tent – some people like a larger 2 person tent. I also have a Mountain Hardwear Approach and a Skyledge which are small 2 person tents if you want one of those.

I laughed at your comments on the crampons – I know EXACTLY what you mean, I had a tent almost eaten by a pair of crampons one time.

Oh, by the way, to everyone, the bush pilots said they can’t fly us in on the morning of the 8th until 2pm, or we could fly in on the previous night, the 7th, at around 7pm. Normally what we do is drive all day to McCarthy (Mxy), stay the night there, and fly in the following morning, after breakfast. It’s about 8 hours travel time from Anchorage to Mxy. If you guys want, we can fly in that same evening, after getting to Mxy. It’d mean we’ll arrive, quickly pack the last of our gear, and fly straight in. Or, we can stay in the cabins that night in Mxy, and then fly in the following day around 2pm.

I’m easy either way. There is a public use cabin at Bremner Mines, though it’s not reservable, which means someone could be there, in which case we’d camp in the area. If the cabin’s empty, we could spend the night there. Either post your thoughts here or send me an email and let me know what you’d prefer. If nobody has a preference, I’ll just decide something and let you know.

Also, I have a pdf file of the route which I’ll upload and link to from here so you can guys and gals can read over it. Sergei already has it, but it’ll be good for everyone else to read it over.

I’m jazzed about this trip, and look forward to meeting you all – definitely sounds like a great group of folks (speaking of which, Sergei and Svetlana need to make a post about themselves here soon, or risk a fine – fines, for those of you who don’t know, are paid in chocolate – second fines also incur a weight penalty; 2 pieces of gear from my pack). I don’t have photos of Svetlana, but I can post a photo of Sergei if he doesn’t introduce himself soon. 🙂

I think that’s about it for now. Thanks again Mike, it’ll be great to meet you, and hike with an Aussie for a change – so far it’s been all Russians, Germans, and Texans. By the way, everyone, Mike will be our designated geology expert, so any and all questions pertaining to rocks can be asked of him. 🙂