Trip Reports
Mountain Trip guide Robert “Durny” Durnell called in with an update on the June 16 Denali West Buttress expedition. The team was rewarded with clear skies and good weather after a few bonus days in Denali Base Camp at 7,200′, due to poor visibility and blowing snow. The team is traveling on a night schedule,…
Assistant guide Taylor Pyle called in with an update on the Mountain Trip Gildor Upper Rib expedition on Denali. The team retrieved their cache above Ski Hill and moved up to Camp 2 at 11,200′. Tomorrow, the team plans to bring a cache up above Windy Corner at 13,500′ to ease the difficulty of their…
Hi guys! Assistant guide Aaron Diamond checking in with the final trip dispatch and a quick recap from the June 1 West Buttress trip. After meeting in Anchorage the team of Nick, Tony, Allen, Kate, Honglin, and Neil made our way to Talkeetna on the 2nd for our flight to basecamp. After a day of…
The June 11 team called in with another bilingual (and somewhat unintelligible, in parts) update on their progress on the West Buttress Route. The team spent another day at 14,200′ resting, preparing themselves for the upper mountain and waiting on the weather to improve. They plan to move to High Camp tomorrow, June 21. Here’s…
Mountain Trip climber Greg Johnson called in via satellite phone with an update on the June 5 Denali team’s progress on the mountain. Today, June 20, is the team’s 15th day on the West Buttress Route on their quest for the highest point in North America. The team had a 10-hour day today moving up…
Mountain Trip guide Sean McManamy and client Steve Smith called in with an update on the June 15 Denali West Buttress expedition, who have yet to leave Base Camp due to bad weather, a lot of snow and poor visibility. The team is hoping to take advantage of a clearing in the weather, and they’re…
With plenty of adventures, twists, turns (and way too many laughs to count), the May 28 Mountain Trip team returns to Anchorage happy and satisfied, having placed all 5 clients on the summit. The international relations of our team members provided plenty of banter and smiles along the way, often providing the catalyst for “solving…
Mountain Trip guide Karl Welter called in with an update on the June 5 Denali West Buttress expedition, who have spent several days now at Camp 3 at 14,200′. Karl reported that they’ve received about 6 inches of snow every 12 hours. With the wind blowing constantly, the team had to work to keep clearing…
Mountain Trip guide Bill Allen called in with an update on the Gildor Denali team, who took a weather day at Camp 1, 7,800′ yesterday. Bill reported that it snowed almost two feet total at Camp 1 at 7,800′, which is typically a particularly snowy zone on the lower route. Due to the lower elevation,…
Lead guide Sean McManamy called in with a trip dispatch yesterday evening, and provided an introduction for climber Fan Zhou, who gave us an update on the June 15 West Buttress Expedition. The team is receiving a little bit of patience training courtesy of Mother Nature, as they have been forced to stay in Base…