Trip Reports
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…
Lead guide Eli Potter called in the first post from our June 5th team, who have adopted the moniker, “Japan 8 8 Expedition.” As Eli describes, their is 8 years of age difference between the climbers and the number 8 is both considered lucky in Japanese culture, as well as somewhat resembles a mountain, when…
Lead guide Rob “Durny” Durnell called in from the team’s Camp 1 at 7,800′ on the Kahiltna Glacier with an update on the team’s progress. They carried all their food, fuel and supplies about five miles up glacier to the junction with the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna. This site is at what is known…
Ryan called in from the 14,200′ camp after the team back carried the cache that they had placed at about 12,500′ a couple days ago. They now have all their food and fuel poised at 14,200′ and just need a decent weather day in order to push their next cache up onto the ridge above…
The team pushed hard to get supplies up to the high camp on the Upper West Rib or “Riblet” today. They skied up most of the elevation gain, as the initial slopes to high camp are moderate and afford fantastic skiing opportunities. It sounds like then took some advantage of those opportunities on their descent,…
The members of our 2014 Denali West Rib Team are in good spirits, which might well be the secret behind their tenacity! They just moved up to the traditional Camp 3 on the West Buttress, after having been thwarted in their attempt of the West Rib by a serious storm that sat on the Range.…
The team had a busy day today, ending with setting up tents at 7,000 ft on the South East fork of the Kahitlna Glacier at Denali base camp. After a meeting and gear check yesterday, they met early this morning in Anchorage for the 2 hour drive up to the little town of Talkeetna which…