May 20 Final Blog Post: Joe Butler reporting The team decided to descend from 14K camp on June 6. With our food supplies dwindling and a very rough weather forecast pending, the team decided to leave for lower elevations and try to outrun the incoming storm and get a flight out of the range. Easier…
Apologies for the delay in posting about the May 20th team. We had a bit of a perfect storm of communication challenges for the past couple of days. The team decided that their time was running too close to the end of their food and supplies to continue attempting to move upwards. On Saturday, they…
Jorge Luis Decurgez called in on behalf of the May 20th team, who have spent their third weather day in a row, camped at the 14,200′ basin on the West Buttress route of Denali. The team is doing well, but their food and supplies are dwindling with each passing day, so Jorge has asked for…
The weather conditions prevented the team from moving up to High Camp, but they are keeping busy reading, listening to music, and in general, relaxing. The team will be monitoring the weather carefully over the next few day. Here’s John, with a special hello to his friends and family: recording
Alain called in a post from a chilly, snowy Camp 3. He reports that the team had a cold night, with temperatures hitting -15C. Winds on the ridge above them prevented the execution of the today’s plan, which had been to climb up the steepest section of the route to their next camp. They have…
Dmitriy called in the team report tonight. The climbers had a rest day at the beautiful 14 Camp. Rest days are important for climbers to relax, hydrate and prepare for the upper mountain. The team did spend some time reviewing skills, as well. Weather permitting, the plan is to once again ascend the Headwall and…
Kevin Jones called in from the broad basin camp at 14,200′. The team is doing great and it sounds like they are having fun as well! Today, they carried loads up the steepest section of the West Buttress route. This section is alternately known as the “Headwall” or the “Fixed Lines.” The latter moniker comes…
Today this team carried loads from their cache near Windy Corner back to their camp in the 14’000′ basin. After that, they took time to practice skills required to climb fixed lines and the ridge to Washburn’s thumb. The next section of the mountain is one of the most technical in terms of climbing and…
This team has made steady progress uphill. Today they completed one of the hardest days of their trip. After seeing rain, wind and snow our friends got a beautiful day for mountain travel. You can hear the joy in their voices. Today they got to climb Squirrel Hill, the Polo Field and around Windy Corner…
Alain Tardif called in from 11,200′. The team carried a load of supplies up and around an iconic feature known as Windy Corner, to cache it all at about 13,500′. As they got higher, they faced some rather biting wind, but they were able to get their task for the day completed. The climbers donned…