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A wand is a thin wooden stick with a little flag on top. We made our wands using 3 foot
green gardener's stakes, with a 1.5" x 2.5" flag made out of orange duct tape.
On each flag we inscribed the word "DOGBOYS" with a black magic marker. Wands are used to mark the route in case of poor visibility on the return trip. Due to the weight of all the supplies and equipment (we started out with 150 pounds each), each leg of the trip all the way to the 17,200' camp was actually climbed twice. We wanded the first trip up each leg, and retrieved them on our way up the second time. The wands enabled us to make progress in near whiteout conditions on at least two separate days. We placed our wands about a rope length (165') apart. The leader of the rope team on each day (we rotated leading) places a wand by sinking it into the snow so that it is secure, but leaving as much of the stick visible as possible, for heavy snowfall can bury the wands. The team then continues forward until the last person on the rope reaches the wand. The last person yells out "wand!", and the team pauses while the leader inserts another one. This sounds pretty simple, aye? It's amazing how many times the last person on the rope forgets to yell out "wand!". Maybe it's the elevation, or the monotony, but it seemed to require a lot of concentration to perform this simple mundane task. |
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