Trip Reports
Lead Guide Aaron Diamond called in from Genet Basin, a broad bowl perched above a hanging glacier and below a rocky ridge that leads up to High Camp on the West Buttress and the steep snow slopes that lead up to the West Ridge route on Denali. They moved up today in much kinder conditions…
Manish called in from the huge basin camp at 14,200′. The team has been waiting for a break in the weather to move up to high Camp, but waves of precipitation and wind have thus far not given them the opportunity to push high. If anyone can provide a translation of Manish’s report, I’d sure…
Lead Guide Sebastian Grau checked in from Genet Basin, a giant bowl in which they have made their third camp as they continue to acclimatize. The team moved up from 11,200′ today in much nicer conditions than the maelstrom in which they turned back from yesterday. Patience paid off! Everyone is doing well and in…
Denali, “The Great One,” rises a full 18,000′ (5486 m) from the surrounding landscape in southcentral Alaska. At 20,310 feet (6190 m), it is the tallest mountain in North America and one of the famed Seven Summits. Despite being the third highest of the Seven, it has more vertical relief than Mount Everest, and many…
A group of climbers from different hemispheres have gathered in Anchorage to forge themselves into a team that will attempt to climb the highest peak in North America. Denali, at 20,310 feet (6190 m), is arguably the hardest of the famed Seven Summits, due in part to it’s location just south of the Arctic Circle,…
Climbers cross a 5-ladder bridge over a huge crevasses in the Khumbu Icefall. Terry Kelleher called in a nice update from camp 2 at about 21,500′ today. Terry climbed up two days ago with most of our team, and Jacob Schmitz, our Lead Guide for this joint Mountain Trip / Mountain Madness Everest Expedition, caught…
Jay Patry called in a report from the basin camp at 11,200′ this evening. He was in high spirits, perhaps due to the Alaskan King Crab legs that they had for dinner tonight? Wow. Just. Wow… The team dropped downhill a ways this morning, in order to retrieve the cache of supplies they had left…
Our May 11 Denali West Buttress team called in from the basin camp at 11,200 feet (3413 m) after the team pushed through some strong, cold wind to put in a cache of supplies on the far side of the notorious Windy Corner. That name was well-deserved today! They set out in the morning, carrying…
The members of the DSUSA/Warfighter Sports Challenge team called in to answer a couple of questions posed to them recently. The three veterans on the team are climbing in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Disabled Sports USA as part of the Warfighters Challenge. They are pushing themselves in a manner that they might not…
Gustav Deuss called in from the team’s home for the last week or so at 14,200′. They carried supplies up onto the beautiful ridge above camp, which gave them a chance to experience the steepest section of the West Buttress route. They used “ascenders,” a climbing term for a clamp that will allow one direction…