Black Rapids Glacier trip: Day 3

(All photos by Ryan Shackleton and Sean Bemis.  Click images to enlarge)

Starting out on Day 3.  Our goal was to camp somewhere near the base of Aurora, then climb Aurora on Day 4, ski back to the base of Meteor peak on Day 5, and climb Meteor the following day.	More glorious views of Mt. Shand.
Approaching Aurora Peak (left)	It was really beautiful, warm and sunny.  Here's a view down glacier with Sean: sleeves rolled up, showing off some chest.
Just about when you think things can't get any better....	....disaster strikes.  On the way up to our camp below Aurora peak Nate's binding snapped.  Here's Nate with his less than functional randonee binding (Fritschi Diamir Titania II).  Nate's holding up the bar that normally holds the heel clamp.  It snapped in two as we were skiing uphill over the sastrugi.
Luckily for Nate, we weren't too far from Aurora Peak, so Nate hiked a mile or so to our camp at the base of Aurora where we did our best to fix Nate's binding with an avalanche probe sawed in half and wired/duct taped to the bar that broke.  Nate had to strap his boots to the binding, but as it turns out, the setup worked great.  Unfortunately, Nate's semi-functional binding eliminated our chances of summiting Meteor Peak since it requires a good bit of skiing (Meteor is the tallest peak in the background).	Nate fixing his binding at camp.
Too bad our camp wasn't very scenic.  (Another beautiful icefall in the background.)	. Camp 3 with Aurora in the background.