This expedition reports backcarrying yesterday, so now they are sitting within the confines of a solid camp, gathering their strength to carry a load up the fixed lines to around 16,200′. Rest days generally involve sleeping late, eating huge meals and going over technical skills that will be used in the more technical terrain above…
Salamat Pagui! The three members of Qobin’s West Buttress team called in from 14,200′ (4328m). They had to battle some wind as they passed the notorious feature called Windy Corner, but they made it and are enjoying life in the sun at this big, well supplied camp. [audio:http://mountaintripdenali2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/audio-post-2011-05-24-01-02-58.mp3|titles=Audio Post]
Pi called in from their new camp at 14,200′ after moving strongly from their last camp at 11,200′. Windy Corner lived up to its name, but once the team moved around the corner itself the winds slacked off enough to allow the group to travel up the final stretch of the day to camp. The…
Pi signaled that all is well yesterday, and the team took a half rest day in order to travel down the glacier to pick up the remainder of their gear and bring it all back to camp at 11,000′. Half rest days involve a few hours of work and then a lot of drinking water…
Yesterday, Qobin, Peter Inglis and Zach Quine departed Anchorage, Alaska en route to the small town of Talkeetna, where they spent some time being briefed about some of the challenges of climbing Denali by Rangers from the National Park Service. They were fortunate in that the weather was cooperative and they were able to board…