The climbers called in a nice, clear post this evening. They moved up from their home for the past week at 14,200′ (4328m) and climbed the moderately steep snow slopes up to the part of the route known as the Headwall. This is the steepest section of the climb, and has long lengths of rope fixed along its length, to which the climbers attach themselves using mechanical ascenders. After negotiating the Headwall, which tops out at 16,200′ (4940m), they still had a thousand feet (300m) of technical terrain to climb before reaching high camp.
The ridge they climbed is often described as the most fun climbing of the route, as they weaved in and out of rocky sections, and tread thin, airy stretches of knife-edged snow. This all makes for one of the hardest days of the ascent, and it took the team about 8 hours to get themselves up to high camp.
This is a very descriptive post that really captures some of what it is like to work hard on a big, cold mountain like Denali.
Here’s the team!
