Well, perhaps “party” is not the accurate term, but several Mountain Trip teams spent the night at Base Camp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, awaiting the weather to improve so they can fly out to verdant Talkeetna. One flight made it into Base Camp yesterday, and a handful of our climbers clambered…
Lead guide Rob “Durny” Durnell called in from the team’s new home– the beautiful basin camp at 11,200 feet. It sounded like the team had a tough go of it today, moving up through whiteout conditions, navigating by GPS and the occasional wand that they could see from their carry up through this stretch of…
Kurt Wedberg called in after the team carried loads up the fixed lines and onto the ridge that will eventually lead them to High Camp. It sounds like it was an exciting and tough day, with snow and wind buffeting the team as they worked their way up the fixed lines and onto the ridge…
The team called in from 14,200′, enjoying the protection of their cook tent, as the wind outside whipped past. They hiked over to a pretty spectacular spot known as The Edge of The World, at the edge of the broad basin that makes the camp site. The name comes form the fact that when you…
We’d like to welcome Rich Ward to Alaska! Rich will be joining senior Mountain trip guide Eric Larson, Keith Garvey, and Krista Garvey, on an attempt of the West Buttress of North America’s highest peak. The West Buttress is a classic mountaineering challenge that climbs 13,000′ from the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier to…
Here is our final dispatch for the May 16 West Buttress trip! We are all either back in Anchorage, or have headed home. We have been sitting around reflecting on our last three weeks, and we all agreed that this was the most cohesive group of climbers with whom we have had the pleasure of…
We’ve not heard from the May 22 team in a few days, as they were busy managing themselves in some pretty rough weather up at the 17,200′ High Camp after moving high on Friday. Saturday they made the decision to “get the heck outta there,” as the rough weather looks like it will continue through…
We haven’t heard from the Simmons team in a few days, but they have been busy. On Saturday, they pushed up to the broad basin camp at 14,200′ and established what could be viewed as their “Advanced Base Camp,” because they will spend a number of days at this camp, preparing for their next move…
Scott Talmage called in after the team carried a load of supplies to about 15,600′, and cached them at the base of the fixed lies that lead up the steepest part of the route, a section called the Headwall. The weather was not cooperative today, so they dropped their loads and did a quick practice…
Pi called in to let us all know that the team did, indeed, take the rest day that they had planned today. After carrying high on the West Rib, they opted to give their bodies a bit of a break and take it easy today. From the sound of the food menu today, I suspect…