Trip Reports
This expedition reports backcarrying yesterday, so now they are sitting within the confines of a solid camp, gathering their strength to carry a load up the fixed lines to around 16,200′. Rest days generally involve sleeping late, eating huge meals and going over technical skills that will be used in the more technical terrain above…
Our Northwest Buttress team is finding challenging, blue ice conditions on the route, but is making progress. They are currently camped at 15,400′ and will push up to their high camp at 16,400′ soon. This is a great effort on a huge and beautiful route, so good luck guys!!! [audio:http://mountaintripdenali2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/audio-post-2011-05-25-05-15-45.mp3|titles=Audio Post]
Not content to climb up and down the classic West Buttress, a handful of climbers have elected to climb up and over Denali to descend the wild and remote Muldrow Glacier route to the north. We call this our Denali Traverse climb, and we are the only guide service to run these trips year in…
Jacob called last night to report that the crew arrived yesterday afternoon at a their intended camp at 9,800′. The gang made good work of a challenging climb from their camp at 7,800′. At the same time, weather up higher on the mountain has been preventing many teams from moving, while the groups lower on…
Lead Guide Mike Burmeister called in last night. He had the stoves running and was making food and water for the gang while they built camp at 17,200 feet, what we commonly call “High Camp” on the West Buttress Route. This move is always a very challenging day–it involves a long day of climbing, including…
Jared called in yesterday evening to report that the Northwest Buttress Crew had made a move up the mountain and established a new camp at 16,500 feet. Jared says it’s a stunning camp, nestled among huge granite boulders. The team is feeling strong and ready for the next few days, in which they intend to…
Lead Guide Joe Butler called in yesterday to report that winds were still too strong to make the move from their camp at 11,200′ up to the 14,000′ camp. However throughout the evening weather improved and the team is optimistic about their chances for today. With any luck they will be packing up their camp…
Bill Allen, Kathmandu May 24th What a whirlwind… It’s only been a couple of days since we stood on top of Mt Everest, and here we are back in Kathmandu at the luxury of the Hyatt Hotel. Yesterday Ephi, Chris, Neal, and I flew here via helicopter directly from base camp. The rest of the…
Zach checked in to let us know that they made their carry around Windy Corner during the afternoon. [audio:http://mountaintripdenali2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/audio-post-2011-05-24-04-29-04.mp3|titles=Audio Post]