WELCOME TO ALASKA – MAY 21 DENALI WEST BUTTRESS TEAM

Members of Mountain Trip’s May 21, 2018 West Buttress team: (from back row left) Niclas, Wyatt, Jesse, Thomas, Martin, Greg. (and bottom row, from left) Gearoid and Don

Mountain Trip appreciates the trust and support of our climbers and another team of adventurers have chosen to join us in Alaska, to fly in to the stunning, heavily glaciated Alaska Range to attempt the West Buttress route on North America’s highest peak–Denali–which soars to an elevation of 20,310 feet, a full 18,000′ above the surrounding landscape.

Our May 21 team represents the diversity of climbers who are all attracted by the siren song of big, beautiful mountains.  Though they come from widely different cultures, they are united by the common bond of a love of wild places and a desire to see those places from a very high perch.

Let’s meet the climbers!

Thomas Vincze, from Austria.
Martin Zoechling, also from Austria.
Don Cash of Utah, USA.
Geariod O’Murchu, coming from Ireland.
Greg Virtue, traveling from New Zealand.
Niclas Perrersson, of Sweden.

The Mountain Trip guide team will be led by Ben Adkinson, Jesse Wright and Wyatt Mayo.

Today, they all assembled in Anchorage, where the guides checked everyone’s gear and helped each climber select and pack lunch snacks for the planned 22-day expedition.  Afterwards, they ran around Anchorage to pick up last minute items or upgrade bits of personal kit.

From Anchorage, the team drove a couple hours north to the little end-of-the-road town of Talkeetna, Alaska.  They will be treated to another orientation by Climbing Rangers from the National Park Service before loading all their food and gear onto planes for the flight to the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, courtesy of our friends at Talkeetna Air Taxi. They will fly in sometime today, May 22, and their weather looks great at the moment and all clear for flying into the range.

The team will try to call in updates each night, but often, work and/or conditions could easily prevent them from connecting via satellite phone, so please enjoy the posts, but don’t fret if they miss a day or two! Keep in mind that NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS.

Good luck to all the climbers!