Our guide Travis Williams called in on behalf of “Team Fubar,” but unfortunately his transmission was cut short by tricky satellite service at this particular camp.  The team moved up glacier and established themselves in the small, stunningly pretty basin camp of 11,200′.  They moved well today and earned tomorrow’s active rest day, during which they will hike down glacier for about 30 minutes and retrieve a cache of kit that they buried yesterday a thousand feet below camp.

Their current camp is sort of the transition from the approach part of the expedition to the climbing portion.  Above this camp, they will most likely don crampons as the terrain steepens.  Each day hereafter will cover less linear distance, but gain several thousand feet of elevation, meaning each day gets tougher and tougher.

The steep terrain to the south of the 11,200′ camp makes any communication from camp difficult.  Satellites generally pass well to the south of Denali, and the 500 meter snow and ice walls to the south side of camp make connecting with those passing satellites an intermittent thing…

The lads are up for the challenge, for they have been training hard for this adventure.

Here’s a very brief, truncated update from Travis!

recording