Enjoy the silence

After a cold night we woke up to bluebird skies. Together we've endured 8 days of drifting snow, low cloud and winds backing from south to north to south and back again.

At Breakfast we took our pleasure and drank tea outside the megamid emerging like bears coming out of hibernation, our paws scratching bearded muzzles, That's the most hair you've had on your head in years Baker - quips Bracey. We watched the last team take the Talkeetna Air Taxi out of the gorge and silence with isolation returns to this veritable wilderness. But not for long: Helliker pipes up - Get some tunes on boys - so I slap on Ewan Pearsons remix of Depeche Modes Enjoy the Silence and Jon and Adrian start bouncing. We soon get a grip and pack our Osprey Mutant rucksacks with gear and food for a days recce down the glacier to take a good hard look at London Tower.

Despite a downhill ski it is heavy with powder snow on a shallow pitch, so we stick skins to the base of our skis to get the necessary traction. My job is to rope Adrian safely down the crevassed glacier so I sort out the rope and after tie-ing off coils around our chests we ski off - approximately 20m apart on the rope - chasing Jon and Matt who are already distant dots below the massive granite London Tower.

Finally we catch them up and under a burning sun in a lego blue sky I dig in a deep horizontal ski anchor as Adrian sets up his camera kit. We tie in for a margin of safety. There are sagging snow bridges all around us and I cant fully relax. Meanwhile Jon and Matt, totally in their comfort zone - are eyeballing THE line of London tower as it follows a curving roof. It's an option but I assume its not really their style. Minimum mixed climbing and maximum aid climbing says Jon.

To get a closer look they ski off and find their way though a maze of open crevasses and get onto the lower slopes about a kilometre away. They look tiny underneath the wall, which Adrian and I estimate is the height of 10 Cheddar High Rocks stacked on top of one another.

Soon they come back and after some grub we skin the 45mins back up the glacier. It feels like a good tempo run. Everyone is looking to the left of the glacier into the deep icy recesses of Mount Bradleys north face Ð there is more of the fire in Jon and Matt's eyes for this, and I too feel the familiar urge for this type of terrain. Tomorrow we will check this out, we still have enough time and its important that Matt and Jon choose their line and their time correctly without rushing into things.

Back at the tents its shirts off in the sun for a much needed bit of hygiene maintenance. In the heat we stink. So itÕs a wet wipe each and a splash of sanity oops sanitising - gel. Admin done the sun slips behind the South East ridge of Mount Dickie and the temperature nose dives so we dress for dinner and disappear into the megamid.