Trip Reports
Zach reports that all is going great and the team is adjusting readily to the higher altitude. They backcarried to 13,500′ yesterday to have all their supplies in camp, and today may be the day the team moves up the fixed lines to carry their gear to the last cache they will make at 16,200′…
Hello Everyone, Sorry for the delay, but we feel we owe it to all of you to present a summary of the events of the April 24th team’s summit day. To this end we have interviewed the guides and many of the climbers who were on the upper mountain that day. We also have most…
[audio:http://mountaintripdenali2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/audio-post-2011-05-26-04-16-47.mp3|titles=Audio Post] This post is a little garbled; 11 camp is notorious for making communication difficult. It sounds as if everything is going well, they cached around Windy Corner yesterday.
Chris called in tonight’s post from high camp. They did not go for the summit today, as high winds prevented an attempt. The post is a bit garbled, due to the challenges of calling via satellite phone from such norther latitudes, but most of his message is clear. I had to chuckle at his “Groundhog…
Joerg called in tonight’s update in English, French and German (show off!!) J’ai oubliez mi francais, but I hope he is providing similar reports…! I think “pizza” must be the same in all three languages! Here is/ Voici/ Hier ist Joerg: [audio:http://mountaintripdenali2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/audio-post-2011-05-26-02-02-37.mp3|titles=Audio Post]
Lead guide Eric Larson called in last night to report that the team had made a strong carry up to the bergschrund camp of the West Rib from 14,200′ camp on the West Buttress route. Many groups ascend the West Buttress route to put a cache of gear on the upper Rib and acclimatize to…
Zach called in to report that the group had made a great move from 11k to 14.2k yesterday, so they are now sleeping in at a higher elevation this morning and planning on travelling down the trail to pick up some gear they have cached at 13,500′. Everyone reports feeling strong and healthy so let’s…
Dave Ahrens reported a windy summit attempt on the Kahiltna Dome yesterday. The team made its way to approximately 11,000′ on the Northeast ridge of the Dome before increasing winds necessitated a retreat to camp. Now the team is in camp preparing to travel down the Kahiltna glacier to the southeast fork where basecamp resides,…
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…