Day 9 - 14K camp, retreive cache from Windy Corner

Retreived cache from below Windy Corner - carried it twice in the backpacks. Very strong wind.

17K camp to summit temperature: -35°C

From Denali Dispatches: "..Windy Corner still in challenging shape -- icy and exposed. Lots of crevasse falls and self-rescue at 13,200 feet.  ..Patrol #1 was the only team at high camp yesterday, and in light of a poor weather forecast, they descended to 14 camp today in snow and wind.  No teams (NPS or otherwise) are currently above 14,200 feet."

TODAY'S STATS	Denali	Mt. Foraker
Registered Climbers	1,065	12
Climbers Currently On Mountain	369	9
Completed Climbs	40	2
Number of Summits	0	0
Summit Percentage	0%	0%

Weiwei writes:

Following the harrowing experience of traversing Windy Corner, it took us an entire day to recover and mentally prepare for retrieving our cache. Despite the favorable weather, we remained in our tent. The thought of having to cross the traverse again (four times!) was nerve-wracking and mentally taxing.

Today, we brought our empty sled and planned to leave it on the east side of Windy Corner and retrieve the cache from the west side in two trips, using our backpacks. The wind was particularly strong. While the Doctor was securing the sled with snow pickets, he left the main trail to avoid blocking the passage of other climbers. Despite the strong winds, there were still many teams passing through. As a result, he fell into a crevasse, but fortunately, he only dropped  waist-deep.

There was some snow over ice, and the Doctor said the ice was softer than the previous day, so it was manageable. Finally, we managed to bring all our stuff and load it on the sled, and pull it to 14,000 ft. Our supplies were finally in place. All that was left was to hold out at 14,000 ft. and wait for the opportunity to move to High Camp at 17,000 ft.