Congratulations to our June 20 expedition team!! We have been so fortunate to see a lot of Mountain Trip West Buttress teams stand on Denali’s frigid summit this year, and we are so stoked to be able to add this team to their ranks. Not an easy feat, this day requires a long and big…
Gustavo Ziller called in from Team Brazil’s camp in the broad Genet Basin at 14,200 feet on the West Buttress of Denali. The team rested today and organized themselves for moving up to 17,200 feet where they will establish their final camp of their ascent. Tomorrow, they will pack up camp and shoulder their backpacks…
Well, this was kind of cool! Each team member of our June 22 West Buttress expedition took some time to share his or her favorite experiences thus far from their climb. It was really nice to hear each climber’s voice and the warmth and comradeship in their voices was pretty incredible. Today the team took…
This is our last dispatch for the June 15 West Buttress Denali Ski team. The team has arrived back in civilization and everyone is doing well. They accomplished a pretty impressive ski descent, first from the summit at 20,310′ (6190m) to High Camp at 17,200′ (5242m). Then they descended through the Rescue Gully down to…
The Brazil crew took some time to work on technical skills that they will need to be proficient at as they move higher up the mountain. One of these skills is using an ascender. An ascender is a progress capture device. An ascender is used on a fixed line. In this scenario, the fixed line is…
Listening to this recording really warmed my heart. It is so nice to hear the wild rounds of laughter coming from a team cook tent. Everyone here is sitting on snow benches, probably wearing their down booties and down jackets. Not what your typically comfortable dinner looks like, but it is easy to tell the…
It’s not an easy day, moving from 14,200′ (4328m) to 17,200′ (5242m). But it sounds like our crew here did an excellent job and found themselves some nice conditions and low traffic. Yesterday the team left camp and first climbed up a somewhat steep slope known fondly as the Bunny Hill. After about 1,000′ of…
After bringing all of their supplies up to Camp 3 (14,200′ 4328m) from Windy Corner (13,200′ 4023m) the day before yesterday, the team took the opportunity to catch up on some well deserved R&R. This included a little field trip from camp to the Edge of the World, where Genet Basin drops an unbelievable 6,000′…
The crew was able to enjoy a nice day with good weather at Camp 3 (14,200′ 4328m). Kaylee reports they did a little team building activity known as “yoga”. While we are unfamiliar with this term in the context of expedition mountaineering, we have been informed it involves some fancy stretches meant to limber up…
The team was able to take some time yesterday to hike up towards the Fixed Lines and use the slope there to practice some of their technical skills. At this point, moving up the mountain requires proficiency in the use of ascender as well as running protection. Running protection is the use of snow pickets…