Cason Crane called in from Base Camp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, but was unfortunately cut off after making the claim that they are “definitely the best looking team on the mountain.” Well, it never hurts to be freshly showered!
The team spent the day reviewing glacier travel and climbing skills and finalized their packing in anticipation of a very early start up the glacier in the morning. The day was HOT at Base Camp, and so the guides want to travel during the wee hours of the morning, so as to take advantage of any freezing to the snow surface that might occur in the shade of the short Alaskan night.
The trip to the site pf their planned Camp 1 is about 5 miles, and gains a bit over 1000′ of elevation (after dropping down out of BC). Reports from a Mountain Trip team that hiked down glacier yesterday were that the glacier is in really good shape, so the crew should make relatively short work of this first day on the trail.
They will follow the broad Kahiltna Glacier north for about 8.5 miles before making a hard right to climb up into a beautiful basin camp at about 11,200′. The image below shows the route from just below this camp.
Here is Cason!