From Lead Guide Caitlin Hague: Well, Denali is a fickle gal and she certainly didn’t take it easy on us. This expedition put up with some of the worst weather I’ve seen in my 8 years of guiding up there. We had weather days at every camp, including at the end of our trip just…
Well, they say that one thing you can count on with the weather is that it will always change. The stormy, snowy weather that has taken up residence over much of the Alaska Range has released its icy hold and planes are flying! All of our teams that have been stuck at Base Camp are…
Well, perhaps “party” is not the accurate term, but several Mountain Trip teams spent the night at Base Camp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, awaiting the weather to improve so they can fly out to verdant Talkeetna. One flight made it into Base Camp yesterday, and a handful of our climbers clambered…
We’ve not heard from the May 22 team in a few days, as they were busy managing themselves in some pretty rough weather up at the 17,200′ High Camp after moving high on Friday. Saturday they made the decision to “get the heck outta there,” as the rough weather looks like it will continue through…
It was a nice day for climbing in the Alaska Range today and the team took advantage of the beautiful weather to climb up to 16,200 ft on the ridge leading to high camp where they left a cache of food and fuel. They are now ready to move up to high camp, with the…
Amy started off the conversation from the basin at 14,200′, before passing the satellite phone off to Daniel and Rob. The team was pretty much snowed in today, although they tried to push up to the ridge above them at one point. The route above camp climbs about 1400′ of moderate snow slopes before it…
Dan Khouri called in from 14,200′ (4328m) to lets us know that the team took it easy today, letting their bodies further acclimate to the thinner air of above 4000m. They also spent part of the day practicing the skills that they will need to employ in the coming days. The guides set up a…
The May 22nd Team called in a nice report today, but unfortunately the satellite connection wasn’t very good and the report ended up garbled. This happens a lot in the mountains, where there is lots of big obstacles interfering with the satellite connection. That being said, we are able to discern that the team arrived…
Dan K called in from our May 22 West Buttress Team. Finally, the tough weather that has been hammering the team has broken and they resumed the hard work of moving their food, fuel and supplies further up the mountain. Today, they carried supplies up a moderately steep slope called Motorcycle Hill, which climbs immediately…
Well, this is a first for us… The May 22 team is camped at 11,200′, where they have been hammered with tough weather of late. They received two feet of snow overnight, along with high, cold winds. They were again unable to move from their camp, but they have plenty of food, and have been…