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Entries By mike walter

Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Making Great Progress

Posted by: Mike Walter | May 15, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'

We had a great day yesterday, and moved our camp up to 11,200’. The weather was perfect for climbing, and we made swift progress up the Kahiltna Glacier towards Kahiltna Pass. We arrived in camp and spent a few hours establishing our camp, as we will be staying here for a few nights. With all of our gear moved in to the 11,200’ camp, we are in a great position, and we will spend the day resting and acclimating. We are planning to carry a cache of supplies up to Windy Corner (13,600’) tomorrow, so we’re looking forward to a lazy day today. The weather looks great the next few days, and our team is feeling strong. We’re right on schedule as we start staging on to the upper mountain.

We’ll be in touch again soon.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Move to 9,600’

Posted by: Maile Wade, Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer | May 13, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 9,600'

This morning we awoke to our first views of the Alaska Range. After sitting out the storm in Talkeetna and flying on with clouds still in the area, we were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful sunny day. Our first big hill of the trip greeted us right out of camp, but even with this challenge we moved well up to camp at 9,500’.  The Kahiltna Glacier is in great shape which made our travels nice and fluid. Base camp received 3 feet of snow while we sat in Talkeetna, but this just made for great navigating and smooth sailing for us. As we moved into the steeps of Ski Hill, there was a perfect trough to keep our sleds in line and upright. With our first challenges behind us, we rolled into camp around 5:00 and made a yummy birthday dinner for Carl…61 today!! Now, we’re resting up for another big push tomorrow to 11,000’ camp. Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms! Goodnight.

RMI Guides Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer & Maile Wade

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Spend First Night at Camp 1

Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Mike Walter | May 13, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 7,300'

Hey all! Our previous two day’s waiting game turned to hustle and bustle yesterday as the skies opened and allowed the planes to fly. Our flights left right after breakfast, and we landed at basecamp, resplendent with a new layer of snow. It’s still early in the season, and basecamp was quiet, with just a handful of climbers waiting to fly off, or start their climb uphill.

After a couple hours spent packing, rigging sleds, and digging our cache, we were on our way, dropping down the SE fork of the Kahiltna Glacier to begin our ascent up the main fork. The skies quickly closed and it began to snow, obscuring the views and dropping the temperature significantly. We made camp in light snow last night, but this AM woke to sun and clear skies! The plan is to make a move to our next camp at 9,600’ today.

Happy birthday to team member Carl Devendorf, and everyone would like to wish their moms a Happy Mother’s Day!

We’ll be in touch soon.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer and the gang

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Enroute to Base Camp

Posted by: Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer, Maile Wade | May 12, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

The May 8th Mt. McKinley Expedition led by RMI Guides Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer and Maile Wade is now en route to Base Camp.  The weather in Talkeetna was clear this morning and the team headed for the K2 Aviation hanger.

Good luck on your expedition!

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Make Most of their Talkeetna Time

Posted by: Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer, Maile Wade | May 11, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

We spent the day waiting for our weather window to fly on to the glacier, but two feet of snow at Base Camp last night and continuing snow through today have so far prevented us from making it on. Rather than idly twiddling our thumbs, we decided to make the best of a warm dry hanger and practice our crevasse rescue skills and self rescue systems. Everyone is feeling better about their systems after a lot of practice and playing with knots and tricks. We still have one and a half hours to go before the planes are grounded for the night, increasingly it is looking like tomorrow morning is more likely for flying. Hopefully our next post will come from there glacier!

Best,
RMI Guide Peter Van Deventer

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us today, and we were unable to fly in to Base Camp once again. While it seems as though the weather is improving, the conditions were not conducive to flying; no planes left Talkeetna today with the intention of trying to land at Base Camp. We took advantage of the down time today and did some dry-land review of crevasse rescue. There were also some pretty competitive games of ping pong going on this afternoon in the Hangar as we waited on standby for the weather to clear. We’re all eager to fly, but we understand that climbing Denali requires patience. Hopefully we get a break tomorrow and can fly in to Base Camp and establish ourselves on the mountain. In the meantime, we’re enjoying Talkeetna.

Cheers,
RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Mt. McKinley: Weather Keeps Team Walter in Talkeetna for Another Day

Posted by: Mike Walter | May 10, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

Good evening from Talkeetna. The weather didn’t cooperate with us today, and we were unable to fly in to Base Camp. The snow and clouds never lifted from the Kahiltna Glacier, making it impossible to fly planes into the Range.

We were all suited up and ready for show time this morning, but our plans got put on hold. We waited around all day, hoping that the weather would lift and let us begin this adventure. We have all spent countless hours training and preparing for, and dreaming of, this climb. And we’re all excited to see this adventure start and our dreams come to fruition. But we also know that this is a long expedition, and we must be patient. For now, we’ll enjoy the creature comforts of life for another night…a good dinner, a warm bed, and a hot shower.

We’ll touch base again tomorrow.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Mt. McKinley: Mike Walter & Team in Talkeetna

Posted by: Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer, Maile Wade | May 10, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

Yesterday was the first full day of the 2012 RMI Denali season. After a great team breakfast at the historic Talkeetna Roadhouse, we headed to the National Park Service for our pre-climb orientation meeting, followed by a full day of packing and sorting our gear at the K2 Aviation hangar.

We’re all excited for this trip to start, and optimistic that we will be able to fly on to the Kahiltna Glacier today. There are some clouds in the sky, and a little precipitation in the forecast, so we’ll see if the planes are able to fly or not. Hopefully our next dispatch is sent from the glacier…either way, we’ll keep you posted.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Mt. Rainier: July Climber Recounts His Experience

Posted by: Mike Walter | October 06, 2011
Categories: *Mount Rainier

With the summer climbing around here over and the leaves starting to change colors in Ashford we are taking a look back at this season’s climbs. Check out this newspaper article about climber David Cox’s 4 Day climb of Mt. Rainier. David reached the summit on July 27th with RMI Guides Mike Walter, Andy Bond, and Cody Doolan.

Congratulations David, nice climbing and thanks for sharing the article!

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