Climber Myra called in an update on the June 17 West Buttress Trip! First off the team gives a Father’s Day shoutout from the glacier. The team spent the day placing their first cache on the route at the top of Ski Hill, near Kahiltna Pass. With 22-days worth of supplies in tow and on their backs, caching supplies along the way to lighten their loads is an essential part of the expedition. At each cache site, the team will dig a deep hole (in this case it seems like the team happened upon a hole that had already been dug, saving them some work), mark the cache with flags and on gps, and return down to it (a.k.a. “backcarry) to retrieve the cache. Each time the team moves camp, they will repeat this process.

The views from Camp One offers the best vantage point for seeing Denali in it’s near entirety, a view that can certainly be a bit intimidating. Tomorrow the team will likely head up to Camp Two on the route at around 11,200′.

View down-glacier of a Mountain Trip camp at Camp One.

Here’s Myra:

recording