The team on our June 23 West Buttress expedition made quick time descending from the 17,200′ high camp and they arrived at the 7,200′ base camp this morning. It was cold at all elevations last night, making for very solid conditions for traveling. They collected supplies that had been cached at 14,200′, 11,200′ and 7,800′…
The June 23 Team spent yesterday watching wind load snow onto the steep, rising traverse above high camp known as the Autobahn. They had hoped for a calm day, with sunny skies, so that the snow that had fallen on the Autobahn would have an opportunity to settle and stabilize. At such cold latitudes, it…
Adam Smith called in from high camp, following a long night of maintaining their tents under the relentless pressure of Mother Nature. It “snowed and blowed” last night and the team awoke at regular intervals to dig their tents out from the accumulating flakes. The sun came out in the morning, however, and they enjoyed…
Most of the team moved to high camp today, while some are planning to remain at the 14,200 ft camp with Mt Trip guide Blaine. They did great on the move, and the weather cooperated for most of the day until the afternoon when winds picked up, but they are all settled into high camp…
Denali is a fickle gal and she certainly threw a few curve balls our way. Record high temperatures in Talkeetna made for dangerous rockfall conditions around Windy Corner and on the fixed lines, causing us to travel at night even on the upper mountain. We could also smell and see the smoke from wild fires…
The weather finally cleared just enough for planes to reach base camp today and our friends at Talkeetna Air Taxi swooped in and picked them all up. Special thanks to those guys for working hard to get our climbers out safely today in challenging conditions. After a short time in Talkeetna to get some food,…
The team rested today at the 14,200 ft camp after summitting a few days ago. One team member tweaked a knee coming down from high camp, so they spent a day resting before continuing the descent. They’ll take off early in the morning tomorrow and head towards base. Here’s Pablo checking in with an evening…
It was a day for the team to rest up and acclimatize before moving up to high camp and pushing for the summit. They hope to push on up to the 17,200ft high camp tomorrow. Here’s Eric with the evening dispatch. recording
The team is at base camp for another night tonight, waiting for the clouds to clear so planes can fly into base camp and pick them up. The planes can only fly into the mountains when there is visibility, so the low cloud layer has prevented them from reaching base camp for the last 2…
The climbers packed up camp at 17,200 ft this morning and started down the hill. They stopped at the 14,000 camp for a rest and some food, and plan to continue on down to base camp tonight and should be there some time tomorrow.