Trip Reports
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…
It was a nice day for climbing in the Alaska Range today and the team took advantage of the beautiful weather to climb up to 16,200 ft on the ridge leading to high camp where they left a cache of food and fuel. They are now ready to move up to high camp, with the…
The “Riblet” team called in after a relatively short day of dropping down about 700′ below camp to retrieve the cache they left at 13,500′ a couple of days ago. They plan to move up onto the Rib tomorrow. The “Riblet” is a reference to the route these guys are attempting. There is a steep…
Fernando Larrain called in a post from the big basin camp at 14,200′ (4328m). He sends happy birthday wishes for a special someone and then recounted the hard work it took to reach this camp, from where they can see the summit. Everyone is doing well and they are looking forward to the coming days.…
The rest of the team finished the call from Base Camp, and Jason, Nungshi, Tashi and Caroline left nice messages for their friends and family. Supporting your climbers is very important, and thinking of you all is often the extra energy that climbers need to take that one… more.. step. Here is the team! recording
Yoshiko called in from Base Camp, after a quick hike down the Kahiltna. They are due to fly off the glacier shortly, but wanted to make a last call from the glacier. Jason got cut off prior to leaving his message, so stay tuned for Part 2! recording
Lead guide Ian Nicholson give a recap of the team’s progress to date. It’s pretty cool to hear an update in his words! recording
Lead guide Yoshiko Miyazaki-Back called in from the team’s Camp 1, down in the relatively thick air of 7,800′ on the main body of the Kahiltna Glacier. The team descended almost 10,000′ today, stopping for breaks at both the 14,200′ and 11,200′ camps. They had left caches of supplies as well as their garbage at…
Lead guide Ian Nicholson called in from the big, bustling basin camp at 14,200′. The team pushed hard to reach this camp, climbing up through almost constant snow, which was unusually wet for this time of year and at the elevations through which they climbed. They did great and rolled into camp late in the…