The May 20th Denali Mountain Trip Expedition is on the mountain!  They flew into basecamp yesterday and are already up in Camp 1 tonight.  The first day is a busy one, they meet at 6 am at the hotel in Anchorage to load up the Mountain Trip van and trailer with all of the expedition gear. They stopped for coffee and last minute items in Wasilla Alaska, on the way to Talkeetna, and arrived in time to meet with the Rangers of Denali National Park by 9:30 am.  After a safety breifing from the climbing Rangers, the team headed across Talkeetna to the airstrip and were ready to fly to basecamp.   The flight into basecamp is a beautiful experience as you enter deep into the Alaska Range where they drop the team off on the SE Fork of the Kahiltna glacier at Denali Base Camp.  The team set up camp, prepared for the next day, and had a bit of dinner before settling in for the first night sleeping on the glacier.

Early this morning they packed up camp and all of their supplies for 21 more days and set off up the glacier. They carried heavy packs and pulled heavy sleds about 5 miles up the Kahiltna Glacier to the traditional Camp 1 at 7,800ft. It’s a lot of work to get that gear up the glacier, but the day isn’t over yet, as they set up tents, dug out a kitchen, and started melting snow for water for the team. It’s a lot of work climbing that big cold mountain, but the team is doing great and they’re settled in for the night after a nice big dinner and they should sleep well tonight.

Here’s Ty G, the lead guide for the team checking in with the evening expedition dispatch from Camp 1 at 7,800ft

recording