June 5, 2014
Fred Simmons called in from 11,200' to thank everyone who is sending well wishes, good energy and prayers to Kurt Wedberg's Sierra Mountaineering International blog. Kurt is a longtime friend of ours and a well-respected big mountain guide, with whom we are happy to be working with on this expedition.
June 5, 2014
Lead guide Scott Woolums called in a brief update from 11,200', before passing the phone to Volker. Unfortunately, the connection was abruptly lost before we could hear anything from Volker. Better living through technology, eh? The team plans to move up to the big camp at 14,200'. They put a
June 5, 2014
Jochen called in a nice post from 11,200' today. The team has been working hard, but their original route choice was thwarted by a week of bad weather, so they are now heading up the West Buttress, seeking fun climbing, and perhaps a nice view, as they climb higher. recording
June 5, 2014
Gerald Oxley and Major Hamad (I think!) called in a recap of the summit team's arduous summit attempt yesterday. The summit team was slowed by a large number of climbers, and forced to turn back when one of their party was suffering from Acute Mountain Sickness. They are all back
June 5, 2014
Amy started off the conversation from the basin at 14,200', before passing the satellite phone off to Daniel and Rob. The team was pretty much snowed in today, although they tried to push up to the ridge above them at one point. The route above camp climbs about 1400' of
June 5, 2014
The team has arrived at what could be considered their Advanced Base Camp, tucked in the broad basin at 14,200'. They made really good time moving up today, despite consistent and continuous snowfall the whole time they were hiking. They climbed up a sereis of moderately steep slopes before traversing
June 5, 2014
The members of the team of United Arab Emirates Presidential Guard who attempted the summit yesterday turned back at 20,000' (6094m), as one of their team had a severe headache that was apparently beyond the team's ability to mitigate. John Doyle, Hasan Al Naqbi, Ahmed Al Mazrouei and our guide
June 5, 2014
We'd like to welcome Joe Marinucci to Alaska! Joe will be joining senior Mountain trip guide Rob "Durny" Durnell and Chad Peele, a guide with Aspen, CO based Alpenglow Expeditions on an attempt of the West Buttress of North America's highest peak. The West Buttress is a classic mountaineering challenge
June 5, 2014
Our guide Rene Welty called in from the 11,200' camp to let us all know that they team made it to the beautiful basin and established themselves for the evening. She mentioned that it was HOT on the glacier today, which might sound like an oxymoron, eh? A hot glacier?
June 4, 2014
Dan Khouri called in from 14,200' (4328m) to lets us know that the team took it easy today, letting their bodies further acclimate to the thinner air of above 4000m. They also spent part of the day practicing the skills that they will need to employ in the coming days.
