1 2 3 4

July 31, 1998 Day Six and Seven of Michael Townsend's mountain climbing adventure. Day six involved the the ascent up two mountains and day seven was the last day with the descent from the base camp to their initial starting point. These events took place on July 10 and 11. If you would like to communicate with Michael about these articles I am certain he would pleased to hear from you. (mtownsen@cln.etc.bc.ca) Day 6 would prove to be the biggest test of all. The night before we laid out a plan by which we would get in two peaks, Mount Olive and Nicholas Peak. I was subtly suggested to me by the guides that I might want to back out of this day and rest the knee as the following day we would be leaving and the trek down could prove quite hard on it as we would once again be carrying everything we brought in. If they had of told me that they didn't want me to come I would have stayed but as the final decision was left up to me, I was going. However I did consider the possibility to interfering with the group and denying them the thrill of the ascent because of the need to bring a lame member back to the hut. But I thought I could prepare for it. I put the brace on my left knee and a tensor bandage on the right. With the aid the oil rig rescue worker I then put a large amount of duct tape overtop the brace on one knee and the tensor bandage on the other. Those knee caps were not going anywhere. Because of amount of support on the knees I was not able to put on the inner layer of clothing on my legs, being restricted to just the water proof outer layer.