The four members of Mountain Trip’s June 21st team descended from 14,200 feet the evening of June 3rd and arrived down at the 7,200 foot base camp early the following day. The glacier was very soft and they determined that it would be imprudent to try to land a ski plane on the soft, heavy surface. The team therefore packed up their kit and added what supplies they had left in their base camp cache and hauled sleds up the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier to a higher elevation where they snow was more consolidated. This is fairly common as we get later into the season.

They set up camp and awaited our partners at Talkeetna Air Taxi to launch planes to take them back to Talkeetna. Unfortunately, the crew missed the Fourth of July celebrations because of low clouds that prevented planes from landing on Independence Day. The weather the following day was intermittently cloudy and the team at TAT was able to sneak in two flights that picked up the team and delivered them to well-earned showers and a hearty meal.