I write this goodbye as I prepare to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary with my family. I would like to shout out a big congratulations to them for passing this milestone. I would, also, like to shout out a big congratulations to the members of the Traverse team. It is a Very Big accomplishment…
I write this goodbye as I prepare to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary with my family. I would like to shout out a big congratulations to them for passing this milestone. I would, also, like to shout out a big congratulations to the members of the Traverse team. It is a Very Big accomplishment…
The river crossing went well and the team met up with the MT van and ate watermelon and ate huge sandwiches before getting on the road to head to Anchorage. Right now they are in between McKinley village and Talkeetna.
Right now a raft should be drawing near the traverse crew, who are still stuck on the wrong side of the McKinley, which is still swollen by sustained rainfall. Once they make it across and walk the 2.2 miles to Wonder Lake they will catch a bus to the Denali national Park entrance where our…
Rain is keeping the McKinley river swollen, so the traverse crew has arranged for a raft team from NOLS to ferry the team across the river braids instead of negotiating the water hazard on foot. Much thanks to NOLS for their assistance in this last crucial leg of the traverse. This will happen tomorrow in…
The team is hiking on tundra less than 24 hrs. from their pickup at the Denali National Park gate. If everything goes smooth they should be in the Mountain Trip van headed to Anchorage by 3pm tomorrow.
Chris Kerrick called to give a report, saying that the team was camped on the Muldrow glacier right next to the Flatiron. He spoke of difficult travel due to a funky thin Continental snowpack and technical terrain. They moved for ten hours yesterday and were feeling tired and worked. Their plan for today is to…
The descent out to the north side of Denali is always much more arduous than descending the West Buttress, and this year, the conditions are more challenging than in recent memory. The team checked in early this morning while lead guide Chris Kerrick was in the process of lowering climbers down one of many very…
Kerrick called to report a successful and safe descent from the summit of Denali. The entire team is in their sleeping bags waiting for the first round of hot drinks, I could hear the sounds of the stoves melting snow into water in the background. Congratulations team, have a good night’s rest.
We received a call from Kerrick’s team at 5:22pm, and they were on the summit of Denali! All sounded well from the traverse team, and I’ll update when I hear more.