Duncan and his guides reached basecamp this morning and flew out to Talkeetna. They are already on their way back to Anchorage. We’ll ask one of the guides to do a final dispatch and trip recap when they recover tomorrow. Welcome back Duncan, Caitlin and Dan!
We just received word that the June 15th team is leaving high camp for the summit! The team reports great weather, calm winds and beautiful skies. Our thoughts will be with the team as they dig deep to find the strength to make it to the summit.
The team pushed up the NE Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier yesterday and reached the base of the W. Rib. The glacier travel to get there can be tricky, and there is a pretty interesting icefall to navigate, but the real technical climbing begins now. The route starts with the “Chicken Couloir” a steep, typically…
The team is at high camp enjoying a beautiful day and getting ready for the summit tomorrow. The weather up high has been perfect and they hope it stays that way for a little while longer. Here’s Kim with the call from 17,200 ft. recording
They spent the day today resting and preparing for the big move to high camp tomorrow. They’ll get one more night to acclimatize to the altitude before moving up to the 17,200 ft high camp. Sounds like they are doing great and getting lucky with the weather! Here’s Ian with the evening call from Camp…
Today the team did a “back carry” where they went back down the hill to pick up the cache they left a couple of days ago, and brought all that gear up to camp. Back carry days are usually relatively easy days and teams can sleep in and have a leisurely morning, with just a…
The team packed up camp and moved up to Camp 2 at 11,000 ft this morning. They are doing great and the views just continue to get better as they climb up the mountain. Here’s the evening call. recording
The team moved up to high camp yesterday and took the day today to recover, acclimate, and get ready to go to the top tomorrow. They sound great and we got some personal messages from most of the team tonight, so enjoy. recording
Duncan called this afternoon from back down in Camp 3 at 14,200 ft. They gave it a good shot yesterday, but got turned around when the weather came back in. They are running out of time and decided to head on down all the way to Camp 3 after the summit attempt yesterday. They are…
The June 15th team moved up to high camp today. It was a big day for the crew as they gained about 3,000 ft carrying big loads and negotiating the steepest sections of the route today. They are all doing great and settled in for the night and expect to take a day to recover…