Mummy's Tummy

Once we booked our Denali backpacking trip, we knew we'd need to train our bodies to become accustomed to many miles on the trail with packs up to 50 lbs. The best way to train for hiking with a heavy pack is to hike with a heavy pack, and since I'm assuming most of our miles in Alaska will be of the "fast-moving, easy terrain" type, I wanted a hike that avoided a ton of route-finding and scrambling. We settled on a repeat summit of Mummy.

As we are apt to do, we got a late start and Trail Canyon was busy and very hot. Things eased up until we reached the infamous scree slope, which I have to say, I'd forgotten how long it was. It really is a bitch. At the top of the scree slope, we met a party coming down from Charleston, who had taken the ridge rather than the North Loop, with the idea of skipping the scree slope. Oddly, they still ended up scrambling up a good part of the scree slope, so they must've come down off the ridge before the scree slope for some reason. 

We followed closely behind them over to the summit cliffs, then up through the chute to reach the summit. I was on the lookout for an "alternate chute" that both Bob Burd and Andy Zdon mentioned as being preferable to the normal chute, but never found anything that was obviously superior. Anyways, the normal chute is loose but short and mostly easy.

We jogged a bit on the way down, but Trail Canyon on descents is always brutal, as you lose about 1600 vertical feet in about 2 miles. At the end of a day, it never fails to grind my knees into dust. This day was no exception, but I was finally able to excel at hiking with trekking poles, and these greatly avoided stress on my joints on the way down.

It was fun to get on top of Mummy again, though next time I'd like to try a different route (probably the one from the East).

Stats were about 3900 vertical gained and 9 miles round trip.