Trip Reports
The May 8 team is sitting in what probably seems like the inside of a ping pong ball right now, waiting on the skies to clear so a succession of planes can fly them and the many score of other climbers with them, off the glacier. If you have not already done so, it is…
The May 12 team called it and they are making their way down the mountain. Every team has what is known as an “up or down day,” meaning the day by which they need to move up to either high camp or attempt the summit, so that they will have sufficient food supplies to make…
Weather is the name of the problem right now: it has not been terrible but not good enough to move up the route. Visibility has been lacking due to snowfall; of all things that help make navigating an icefall on a glacier easier, vilibility is #1. Having cached a good amount of their food up…
Gerald Oxley and I believe Hamad called in a nice post from Camp 3! The team pushed hard through very challenging weather to make it up to the site of the 14,200′ camp. They had to climb up two significant, named slopes, the first known as Motorcycle Hill, and then Squirrel Hill. Both are physically…
Ray called in a nice post from the big basin camp at 14,200′. The team couldn’t do much, as the weather did not allow them to move up to the ridge above camp. Spirits sure seem high, and the team spent the day relaxing and playing games, including today’s trivia question regarding which of the…
Nothing interesting, the weather is keeping the planes from flying to basecamp. Lead guide Pi is keeping things busy, showing the team around Talkeetna and keeping the mood light with some stories from his times in the mountains.
Nothing new to report really, the team can’t be any more prepared to launch their Denali climb than they are now. They are all anxiously watching the weather, waiting for the same break as everyone else.
The UAE team gave a go at moving camp but were ultimately discouraged in doing so by the building winds and increasingly heavy snow that are the first volleys of a good solid storm system. They reestablished camp and are back in the pattern of waiting for the weather to clear enough to move up.
Word from the mountain is that the May 12 team has descended from camp 3 to camp 2, and pulled into 11,200′ just as a storm started to intensify. A Mountain Trip team on the way up the mountain welcomed them in and helped them set up camp. We’ll update once we hear from the…
The weather at basecamp continues to be nonflyable, so the May 8 team is hanging out and generally helping around camp, packing the runway and doing all they can to make sure the planes can safely land when the weather does eventually break.