After spending a night at Basecamp, it sounds like our May 11th team had a good weather window and was able to make the push to Camp 1. The trek from Basecamp to Camp 1 covers roughly 5.5 miles and gains about 800 feet of elevation, bringing the team from 7,200 feet at Basecamp up to around 7,800 feet at Camp 1. While the elevation gain is modest, the real challenge of this leg lies in the distance and the load each climber is hauling. Every team member is moving nearly 120 pounds of gear per person, split between a fully loaded pack on their back and a sled towed behind them. That weight includes everything the team needs to survive and move higher on the mountain: tents, fuel, food for weeks, glacier travel gear, group equipment, and personal climbing kit. The loads are heaviest at the start of the expedition and steadily decrease as the team caches gear and spreads supplies across the mountain over the coming days.

The route itself winds down Heartbreak Hill out of Basecamp before stretching across the relatively flat lower Kahiltna Glacier. Teams typically travel two or three person rope teams to protect against hidden crevasses, with sleds trailing behind each climber. The combination of soft snow, dragging sleds, and heavy packs makes for a long, grinding day, often taking anywhere from 5 to 8 hours depending on conditions. With a strong weather window working in their favor, the May 11th team made the most of it and got their first big carry of the expedition behind them.

Tomorrow, the team plans to take their first cache day of the expedition, carrying a load of supplies partway toward Camp 2 before burying it on the glacier and returning to Camp 1 for the night. This back-and-forth rhythm is the foundation of expedition-style climbing on Denali and sets them up for a smoother move higher on the mountain in the days ahead.

Stay tuned for more to come from the May 11th team!

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Interested in more information about conditions and happenings on Denali? Be sure to also check out the Denali National Park’s Denali Dispatches Blog where they post weekly Field Reports.