Trip Reports
The team called in from 14,200′, enjoying the protection of their cook tent, as the wind outside whipped past. They hiked over to a pretty spectacular spot known as The Edge of The World, at the edge of the broad basin that makes the camp site. The name comes form the fact that when you…
We’d like to welcome Rich Ward to Alaska! Rich will be joining senior Mountain trip guide Eric Larson, Keith Garvey, and Krista Garvey, on an attempt of the West Buttress of North America’s highest peak. The West Buttress is a classic mountaineering challenge that climbs 13,000′ from the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier to…
Here is our final dispatch for the May 16 West Buttress trip! We are all either back in Anchorage, or have headed home. We have been sitting around reflecting on our last three weeks, and we all agreed that this was the most cohesive group of climbers with whom we have had the pleasure of…
We’ve not heard from the May 22 team in a few days, as they were busy managing themselves in some pretty rough weather up at the 17,200′ High Camp after moving high on Friday. Saturday they made the decision to “get the heck outta there,” as the rough weather looks like it will continue through…
We haven’t heard from the Simmons team in a few days, but they have been busy. On Saturday, they pushed up to the broad basin camp at 14,200′ and established what could be viewed as their “Advanced Base Camp,” because they will spend a number of days at this camp, preparing for their next move…
Scott Talmage called in after the team carried a load of supplies to about 15,600′, and cached them at the base of the fixed lies that lead up the steepest part of the route, a section called the Headwall. The weather was not cooperative today, so they dropped their loads and did a quick practice…
Pi called in to let us all know that the team did, indeed, take the rest day that they had planned today. After carrying high on the West Rib, they opted to give their bodies a bit of a break and take it easy today. From the sound of the food menu today, I suspect…
Lead guide Rob Durnell called in after the team made a carry up to 11,000′ today. The team is traveling on skis, and so this helped them make quick work of their descent after making their cache, despite being roped together the entire time, as per NPS regulations. The team is moving well and having…
We have a multilingual phone call from Camp 1 at 7,800′! Lead guide Eli Potter gave us a nice breakdown of the team’s strategy for climbing this big, cold mountain, which involves “climbing high and sleeping low.” This is an old climbers’ axiom that means you climb high during the day to complete your day’s…
Juan Pablo Alcalde called in a nice post in both Spanish and English from the 4328 meter (14,200′) camp on the Denali’s West Buttress. The team is poised to move up to high camp as soon as they have decent weather to do so. Everyone is doing great and spirits are high, but they just…