Lead guide Sebastian Grau called in from the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier with introductions for our June 17 West Buttress team.

Denali is an iconic mountain for anyone with a love of wild places and the classic West Buttress route attracts mountaineers from around the globe.  This team emblematic of the international appeal of Mount McKinley.  We have climbers from four continents represented on this team!

Let’s meet the team, courtesy of Sebastian:

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The team met in Anchorage at the very nice Millennium Alaska Hotel on the 17th.  The guides conducted a team meeting in which they covered a variety of topics related to the expedition and then helped each climber with a final equipment check before packing up their bags in anticipation of their flight to the glacier.  Some time was spent packing snack food for the mountain, and our guides helped each climber pack sufficient, yet not too much food for their lunch/snack bags.

The June 17 Team packing lunch and snack food outside the Millennium Alaska Hotel, on the shore of Lake Spenard, which bustles with float planes landing and taking off!

Yesterday morning, we drove the team up to the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska, where they were treated to another orientation about climbing Denali, this time by Rangers of the National Park Service.  Afterwards, they made their way over to the local airstrip and finished their preparations for flying into the Alaska Range with our good friends at Talkeetna Air Taxi.

The team, almost ready for the glacier. Guide Jim Toman is not quite sporting proper glacier footwear!

Yesterday afternoon, the team flew into the Alaska Range in ski-equipped airplanes.  It was a spectacular day for flying, as the Range was crystal clear.  This is one of the more memorable flights you can take anywhere, as you start over the lush green of Talkeetna, pass over dozens of lakes and a couple of huge, raging rivers before the landscape rises up as if to meet the plane.  The mountains of the Alaska Range start relatively small with the Dutch Hills, but soon tower over the plane.  Glaciers, rock and snow dominate the landscape, and eyebrows raise as the plane passes through a narrow gap in a craggy mountain called One Shot Pass.  Yep- you only get one shot to make it through!!  (Don’t worry- it’s bigger than it feels!)

Skis down, the plane came to a bouncing landing on the airstrip known as Kahiltna International Airport, on the Southeast Fork of the massive Kahiltna Glacier.  Glaciers are somewhat like frozen rivers, with smaller tributary glaciers feeding into the main flow, and the SEF is one such feeder of the Kahiltna.

The team unloaded and set up camp for the evening.  The plan is to review some skills before heading up the glacier to the first of 4-5 camps that they will use to climb towards the 20,320′ (6194m) summit of Denali over the next couple of weeks.  Please check back as we will post regular updates form the team.

Cason Crane called in from Base Camp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, but was unfortunately cut off after making the claim that they are “definitely the best looking team on the mountain.”  Well, it never hurts to be freshly showered!

The team spent the day reviewing glacier travel and climbing skills and finalized their packing in anticipation of a very early start up the glacier in the morning.  The day was HOT at Base Camp, and so the guides want to travel during the wee hours of the morning, so as to take advantage of any freezing to the snow surface that might occur in the shade of the short Alaskan night.

The trip to the site pf their planned Camp 1 is about 5 miles, and gains a bit over 1000′ of elevation (after dropping down out of BC).  Reports from a Mountain Trip team that hiked down glacier yesterday were that the glacier is in really good shape, so the crew should make relatively short work of this first day on the trail.

They will follow the broad Kahiltna Glacier north for about 8.5 miles before making a hard right to climb up into a beautiful basin camp at about 11,200′.  The image below shows the route from just below this camp.

Here is Cason!

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Jean Francois Jenck called in a post from the expansive basin camp at 14,200′.  The team got an early start to beat the heat and pushed around Windy Corner at about 10 am local time, arriving at the 14,200′ camp several hours later.

Yes, it can be quite warm on a glacier at 14,000′ above sea level in Alaska!  Warm temperatures are not uncommon on Denali, but the reports we have been getting are really surprising.  A team that flew off the glacier this morning likened it to Africa!  The lead guide Caitlin adapted her travel strategy this morning and got a much earlier start than is typical, so that they could get up to camp before the glacier became too soft.

Here is Jean Francois, calling in in both English and French:

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Jonathan Sugarman called in from the beautiful basin camp at 11,200′.  He made two attempts to call, but the steep walls of the basin to the south make it very difficult to get a satellite signal from their location.  Our teams carry radios that enable them to communicate with other Mountain Trip teams on the mountain much more readily than they can using sat phones at this extreme northern latitude.

The team made a carry up and around Windy Corner today, which was the toughest day of their trip thus far.  Jonathan sounded pretty chipper, so I suspect they had a good day, and enjoyed wearing crampons for the first time on their expedition.  The day stated with a climb up Motorcycle Hill, which rises almost 1000′ right out of camp.  A couple more hills provide engaging climbing, with stunning views of some massive rocky faces that drop off the West and Northwest Buttresses, to the climbers’ left.

A long, gently rising hike leads to another steep climb up to Windy Corner, which was probably more like “Calm Corner” when the crew passed it.  Windy Corner is a steep ridge that drops off the West Buttress and tends to be a wind magnet for any breeze that passes near the south face of the mountain.  Just past this feature, the team dug into the snow and buried their supplies that they will retrieve two days from now, weather permitting.

Placing this cache of gear provides a couple of benefits.  It enables the climbers to move roughly half their total “stuff” up, rather than attempt to move it all at once, and it also helps their bodies ease into the thinner air of the next camp’s elevation, because they got a taste of it, yet dropped back down to 11,200′ to sleep for the night.

Here are two calls that Jonathan placed, neither of which is very intelligible, but I’ll leave them in the hopes that some of his friends or family will appreciate hearing even a snippet of his voice from high on that big, cold mountain.

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A view of the route from about 10,000′ to 13,500′

John Oldring called in a really nice post from the top of Denali!  The team moved up well and stood on top of North America on a beautiful day.  John expresses a lot of love and gratitude in his call, and, on behalf of all of us at Mountain Trip, we would also like to thank all of you back home who support our climbers.  It means a lot for them to know that you are with them, each step of their journey.

Here is John Oldring, calling from 20,320′ on the summit of Mount McKinley:

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The team climbed up to about 16,400ft yesterday and put a small cache of food and gear in the snow in preparation for moving to high camp soon.   Today was a day to rest and acclimate before the push to high camp and hopefully the summit soon after.   It’s been busy up there as many teams have been waiting for the winds to stop before moving up high, and most went up today.  The team hopes to move to high camp tomorrow and spirits are high!

Here’s Brian from Camp 3.

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Dave called in from the June 9th “Into Thin Hair” expedition this evening.   They’ve moved on up to Camp 2 at 11,000 ft and had beautiful weather so far.  The winds on the upper mountain haven’t stopped this team from being able to climb and move on up.   The forecast continues to look great for more sunny days ahead.

Here’s Dave’s call, it gets cut off part way through, but have a listen.

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