Trip Reports
The Northwest Buttress team has summitted the north summit of Denali at 19,470′. They left their high camp at 16,400′ yesterday and finished climbing the last section of the Northwest buttress to the north summit. They were out of communication but contacted a Mountain Trip team camped at the 17,200′ camp on the West Buttress…
The team is considering going for the top today, and judging from the Talkeetna Air Taxi webcam, it sure looks like a beauty! We have three teams poised to summit today, so maybe they’ll have a Mountain Trip party on the summit. We’ll keep you posted as the day unfolds.
It sounds like Qobin, Pi and Zach Quine had a pretty nice day as they moved up to high camp today. From their description, the weather was a bout as good as it ever gets up there today! They left the comfort of the large 14,200′ (4328m) camp and climbed up about 400m of moderately…
Markus called in after a good, hard day of carrying loads up the steep Headwall and onto the beautiful ridge that leads to the 17,200′ high camp. This is the steepest part of the entire route, and the team employed the use of ascenders, or mechanical rope clamps, which they affixed to 600′ of rope…
The crew sounds great after enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner! They moved up from 11,200′ today, which is a long, hard push. They had to climb up and out of the basin in which they were camped and onto the first steep slopes of the route. They donned crampons and worked their way up two long…
We just heard about another accident on Denali that occurred last night. This was not a Mountain Trip team. All our climbers are doing fine at this time. Details are not clear at this time, but apparently four climbers roped together fell while descending from Denali Pass. Two of the climbers did not survive. We…
Eric Larson’s expedition took a rest day at high camp yesterday, and reported a change of plans. The expedition is now attempting to climb the upper West Rib, which means they can leave from 14k camp on the West Buttress instead of descending to the Northeast Fork and starting the route from there. This means…
Jared called in yesterday to report that the group had moved up to their high camp at 16,400′. This means that they can possibly attempt the north summit today if weather is favorable.
Mike reports that the weather continues to mandate staying in camp. They got prepared to leave yesterday morning before the guide team decided that conditions weren’t favorable enough for a summit attempt. Let’s all hope for better weather for this team, they have put in a good amount of days at high camp.
The team moved strong from 7,800’camp to Kahiltna Pass to leave a cache of gear. Lead guide Chris Kerrick was impressed with the strength of the team, reporting that they had made the best carry of any of his 18 Denali expeditions. The mood sounds optimistic and the weather is seeming to cooperate, so if…