May 28th Team

The May 28th team is officially on the mountain! The team flew into Basecamp earlier in the expedition and wasted no time getting moving, making the push toward Camp 1 to kick off their climb on the West Buttress.

Since then, the team has continued working their way up the route, getting a cache in on Kahiltna Pass! Caching at the pass is an important early milestone on a Denali expedition, helping the team start shifting the weight of their supplies higher up the route and setting them up for a smoother move when it’s time to relocate camp. It’s also one of the first real days of expedition-style climbing on the mountain, with climbers caching high and returning to a lower camp to sleep, which supports acclimatization while steadily moving gear up the route.

Communications with the team have been a little limited in these early days, which isn’t unusual for a brand-new expedition. After getting in touch with the team, we’ve now established a steady communication chain, so updates should be flowing more reliably from here on out. Setting up clear lines of communication early in a trip is one of those small, important pieces of expedition logistics that makes everything run more smoothly the rest of the way.

For now, the May 28th team is off and climbing, with a strong early start to their Denali expedition. We’re looking forward to following their progress as they continue working their way up the mountain.

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Interested in more information about conditions and happenings on Denali? Be sure to also check out the Denali National Park’s Denali Dispatches Blog where they post weekly Field Reports.