Although the West Buttress route is not considered a highly technical climb, the physical environment of Denali presents much of the climbing challenge: miles of heavily glaciated terrain, extremes of temperatures and weather, and climbing and living at altitude. In addition to extensive glacier travel on the lower mountain, the climbing is considerably steeper above…
Mountain Trip guide Yoshiko Miyazaki-Back called in an update on the private May 24 expedition, who have made the long trek down from 14-Camp at 14,200′ to Base Camp. The team walked all through the night, descending 7,000 vertical feet and crossing the lower glacier at the darkest point of the night, which allows for…
The Mountain Trip May 24 team has returned back to 14-Camp after a retreat from High Camp in worsening conditions. Winds blew at a steady 35 miles per hour on the exposed ridgelines, with gusts reaching even higher than that. With no signs of the weather abating any time soon to allow for a summit…
Brian reports that the Team had a big day, moving to 11 Camp through several feet of snow and breaking trail the entire way. That is hard work! The team was able to retrieve their cache on the way to camp. The plan is to put in another cache, higher on the mountain, tomorrow. Here’s…
We have just gotten word that the Mountain Trip May 24 West Buttress Team has loaded up all of their gear onto a Talkeetna Air Taxi plane, and is patiently awaiting the weather call before they fly in to Denali Base Camp on the Kahiltna Glacier. From their they will begin their ascent of the…