Guide Mike Poleto leading the charge
The May 11th team has officially come down off the mountain! After a conversation about their options, the team made the decision to descend from 14 Camp back to Basecamp, traveling through the cold, stable hours of the night to make the long journey down the lower glacier. The team flew off the glacier and is now safely back in Anchorage, where we’ll be sitting down with them tomorrow to debrief, hear their stories, and celebrate everything they accomplished on Denali.
The decision to descend came after a lot of careful consideration. The team weighed the conditions on the upper mountain, the time remaining in their schedule, and what the path forward realistically looked like, and ultimately decided that heading down was the right call. These kinds of decisions are some of the hardest parts of climbing a mountain like Denali, but they’re also some of the most important. Responsible mountaineering is about reading the conditions honestly, knowing your team, and making the call that best matches the day. The May 11th team did exactly that.
It’s worth pausing to recognize just how much this team accomplished. They navigated weather delays in Talkeetna, worked their way through the lower mountain, pushed through Windy Corner, and made it to 14 Camp at 14,200 feet. They climbed hard days, weathered storm holds, and looked at the upper mountain with their own eyes. That’s a tremendous undertaking on any Denali expedition, and the experience they gained up there will stay with them for a long time to come.
Denali asks a lot of everyone who steps onto it, and the summit is never a given. The real measure of an expedition is the climbing itself, the resilience shown through long days and hard decisions, the trust built between teammates, and the experience of standing in one of the most spectacular places on the planet. By every one of those measures, the May 11th team had a meaningful and successful climb. They showed up, supported one another, made smart and thoughtful choices, and came home safe, which is always the most important outcome of all.
We’re proud of this group and looking forward to sitting down with them tomorrow to hear their stories. Congratulations to the May 11th team on a hard-earned and well-deserved expedition on Denali.
May 11th team working across the glacier
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