Hello everyone! This is Joe Butler with the final post for the May 12 Denali expedition. I want to congratulate all the members of our team! Although everyone did not make the summit, I strongly believe the expedition was a success as a whole. The team worked great together and everyone returned home safe and…
The May 12 and May 15th expeditions have all flown off the glacier and are in Anchorage getting dropped off at various B&Bs, probably jumping in the shower and enjoying such things as running water and indoor plumbing. Stay tuned for a wrapup blog entry from the guide teams, maybe with some photos!
Markus, along with guides Karen Kingsley and Nick Shepherd, left high camp early this morning to attempt the summit, and I just received word that the rope team has made it safely back to high camp, having successfully summitted Denali! They are all well and plan on descending the mountain to basecamp over the next…
Joe and the team made a bid for the Denali summit, but were turned down by increasingly bad weather conditions. They descended safely to camp and are now gathering their strength for one more shot tomorrow. Tomorrow is their “up or down” day, the last day an expedition can attempt the summit due to limitations…
Joe and his team have made it to high camp after a tough but satisfying move from 14k. Joe reports everyone being fed and in their warm sleeping bags, about to start a good night’s rest. They plan on taking a rest day tomorrow and waiting for their summit attempt.
Markus called in after a good, hard day of carrying loads up the steep Headwall and onto the beautiful ridge that leads to the 17,200′ high camp. This is the steepest part of the entire route, and the team employed the use of ascenders, or mechanical rope clamps, which they affixed to 600′ of rope…
We just heard about another accident on Denali that occurred last night. This was not a Mountain Trip team. All our climbers are doing fine at this time. Details are not clear at this time, but apparently four climbers roped together fell while descending from Denali Pass. Two of the climbers did not survive. We…
Lead Guide Joe Butler called in yesterday to report that winds were still too strong to make the move from their camp at 11,200′ up to the 14,000′ camp. However throughout the evening weather improved and the team is optimistic about their chances for today. With any luck they will be packing up their camp…