June 18, 2012
Welcome to the expedition dispatches for Mountain Trip's June 17th West Buttress Expedition. We'll be following the progress of the climbers on their 2-3 week journey up the West Buttress of Denali. We'll typically post dispatches every day and often we'll embed a recording of the phone call from the
June 18, 2012
Duncan Stewart calls in from Camp 2 with a recap of the day. Sounds like the day went well with a cache now put in around the infamous Windy Corner just below Camp 3. With little wind and warm temps it seems that Windy Corner did not live up to
June 18, 2012
They've had quite a journey, and more than their share of bad weather, but they are all safely down to base camp and expect to be flying out to Talkeetna in the next hour or two. Great effort, bad luck.
June 18, 2012
Peter Inglis called a bit ago to let us know that the June 3 team is leaving for their summit bid! They should have left within the last half-hour and it typically takes 8+ hours to reach the top. The weather looks very favorable and we will keep you posted
June 18, 2012
We received a call from the team from Camp 1 this evening. The weather wasn't great, but they were able to move up the glacier about 5 miles up to Camp 1 at 7,800 ft. It's not a lot of vertical gain, but the loads were big and they covered
June 17, 2012
It was a snowy, stormy day on Denali today so the team got a day of rest. They ate a big breakfast and spent the day relaxing a bit, ready to go tomorrow. The weather forecast called for light winds and partly cloudy, so it just goes to show you
June 17, 2012
The team is heading down the mountain, but the weather continues to challenge them. It's been a windy and snowy couple of days and they spent today just above windy corner waiting for the winds to calm so they could continue their descent to base camp. The weather forecast has
June 17, 2012
Bill Dwyer called in to remind us all that weather forecasts on Denali are about as reliable as my old, 1970 VW Microbus. That is to say... NOT! The forecast called for a beautiful day today, but with dawn came reality, in the form of winds and drifting snow. The
June 17, 2012
The team battled a bit of wind and snow today, but were able to get the job done today. They slept in a bit this morning and had a relaxing start to this relatively short day. The job was to go back down to the cache that they left at
June 16, 2012
The team had a day at camp to practice with their crampons and ice axes, which they'll need further up the hill. A team of guides carried a load of gear up around "Windy Corner" today in preparation for moving up tomorrow. Here's Gabi calling in this evening from 11,200
