Friday, May 31, 2019 2:49 PM PT
Nothing is easy about climbing Denali. Just ask any member of our team who worked hard for more than two weeks before standing on top of the highest point in North America 17 days after landing at Base Camp on the Kahiltna Glacier. But that doesn't even tell the whole story. Our team eagerly awaited the start of this expedition and spent three antsy days in Talkeetna waiting for good enough weather to fly into Basecamp as a storm sat over the Alaska Range. Now, after summitting, we have descended to the 14k camp and are comfortably nestled in to our old camp. We are socked in the clouds and it is snowing. This morning we spoke via radio with Robby Young, who is leading the 4th RMI Denali expedition. He reported heavy and wet snow on the Kahiltna Glacier between 7800' and 9600'. The weather forecast is calling for heavy snow to continue through tomorrow, hopefully tapering on Sunday. No planes are flying and we are at the mercy of the weather once again. This time we are eagerly awaiting hot showers, cold beer, clean clothes, and a chance to talk with loved ones. Oh, and also flush toilets. Not necessarily in that order.
Mountain weather is fickle and right now we are at her mercy. We'll take the good weather on summit day in exchange for playing the waiting game on both the front and tail ends of our expedition. And for now we're practicing our Zen patience in the comfort of our 14k camp.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
I’ve been following Tom M’s InReach and it looks to me like you’ve reached Kahiltna Glacier - Yahoo!! Welcome back. Congrats on completing the descent, hopefully the planes will be flying you off the glacier shortly. In the interim you’ll probably be digging up a cache of beer, perhaps a nice bottle of bourbon???
When you get back to Talkeetna enjoy: a cold beer or 2, a burger or 3, a looong hot shower, clean clothes, another cold beer, more burgers, perhaps a pizza, calls to loved ones -that’s my recommended order!
It’s after midnight here (and there) but since you’re all awake I’m going to join you in a long awaited celebratory drink. A toast to you all: TEAM WALTER 2019, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION, YOU ROCK!!
Cheers
Jacquie
Posted by: Jacquie Byatt on 6/2/2019 at 12:28 am
Wow, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to reach the top of the world. Stay safe and warm. I’m in 91 degree weather, maybe send just a little of the cold this way.
Friday, May 31, 2019 12:14 AM PT
Today we went back downhill to gather all of our cached food and gear. We got it all without any noteworthy event. With the rest of the day, we sat around, ate our new snacks, and practiced some techniques for the fixed lines. We’re hoping to carry to the top of the fixed lines tomorrow if weather allows. The forecast is calling for some snow, but light winds. As long as winds stay calm we can probably get it done. We’ll see what we get and check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide JM Gorum & Team
Thursday, May 31, 2019 12:11 AM PT
The team is know all safely back down at 14 camp and tucked in for the evening.
Summit day was a long hard fought battle but everyone did fantastic. The morning of our summit attempt we woke up in early in an attempt to beat the crowds up our first obstacle, the "auto bahn". This section often takes a couple hours to complete without a break and is steep and exposed. The exposure of this terrain requires us to use a form of running protection that protects the team against a fall but is quite time consuming. The end of this hurdle puts you at Denali Pass and our first rays of welcome sunshine. From here steep rolling glacier takes us up and around a swirled white and black rock feature known as "zebra rocks". At the top of this feature we were faced with a gentle but cold 15 mph wind. The terrain mellows out quite a bit as we meander through open glacier past a prominent rock point known "arch deacons tower" and into the football field, a flat depression just before our final slope to the summit ridge. Once on the summit ridge a short but dramatic climb brings us to the summit. The team took a few moments to take pictures and celebrate the ascent before our attention was turned toward getting back home. All in all the trip took us 13 hours round trip, all at elevations above 17,000 ft. With the summit behind us we turn our focus now to trying to truly get back home.
Cloudy and snowy weather are abundant in the extended forecast which means chances of flying off anytime soon are nil. Tomorrow we'll check the weather in the morning and make decision to further descend, or to keep the luxury of our fortified camp here at 14, or opt for better weather. That's all for now, it's late again as I'm writing this and I'm in need of some serious rest! Thanks for following along everyone!
RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team
Thursday, May 30, 2019 9:33 PM PT
Hello Loyal RMI Blog Followers,
Greetings from 7800’ Camp, aka Camp 1, here on the Kahiltna Glacier. We’ve made the move! After a 3am wake up, our team got up and attem and we were making the first steps of our expedition by 5am. It was an absolute perfect morning for the move up the Kahiltna Glacier. The route was in perfect condition after a solid overnight refreeze, and the temps were ideal for hauling 100 lbs of food and gear across the Alaska wilderness. We made it to camp 1 in great style, pulling in this morning around 10:45. An early arrival allowed us ample time to build camp, settle in for some afternoon naps and enjoy an early dinner of tortellini and the Denali delicacy, Grandma’s Cookies. We’re tucked in the bags now, and hoping for a carry to 10,000’ tomorrow. It appears some snow is on the way for the weekend and into next week, so any chance to make some progress we will gladly take. We’ll keep you in the loop!
RMI Guides Robby Young, Nick Scott, Joe Hoch and Team Parmesan Cheese
We see you.
Stay safe.
Dinner & golf when you are back!
Love Mo & Christine
Posted by: Rob & Christine on 6/9/2019 at 2:06 pm
Sounds great so far
Hope the rest of the climb is great
I thought you guys just ate dehydrated fake food but the menu sounds great
Love to stephen and God’s blessing to all
Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 8:03 PM PT
Today we had a more relaxing morning than the past few alpine starts. High camp was cold and breezy, and we enjoyed breakfast in the comfort of our sleeping bags. Blowing snow was evident on the upper mountain, reminding us how fortuitous we were to have a good weather window in which to summit.
We let the air warm up a bit and the winds abate and then we packed up camp and descended the West Buttress and the fixed ropes on the Headwall. We're now down in the relative warmth and comfort of the 14,200' camp. The air feels a lot thicker here now than when we left it a few days ago.
The plan is to get a good night's sleep and continue our descent tomorrow. The weather forecast is calling for a front to move in tonight bringing snow into Sunday. So we'll play it by ear with where/ when we descend, knowing that planes may not be able to fly into the Kahiltna airstrip until Sunday. We're all content and getting good rest for our long descent down the Kahiltna.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 12:56 AM PT
The team is all safely back at High Camp now. It was a long day for everyone and it's past midnight now and were finally killing the stoves for the evening. I'll try and put together a better picture of summit day tomorrow for everyone. Stay tuned!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 12:26 AM PT
Summit!
The weather was beautiful this morning with no clouds above us and no sign of wind. We got the stoves cranking again at 4:30 in order to beat the crowds (today was the busiest summit day of the season so far, as there was a backup of climbers that were delayed by last week's stormy weather. We estimate about 100 climbers went for the summit today.). We got rolling out of camp at 8:30 and walked into the frigid, shady slopes of the Audobon, which is a steep traverse for a thousand feet up to Denali Pass. We clipped about 40 snow pickets in a running belay to add security.
Around the corner from Denali Pass we stepped into the sun and began climbing south pass Zebra Rocks and the Arch Deacon's Tower into the Football Field. The last hurdle before the summit ridge was climbing up the strenuous Pig Hill up to the Kahiltna Horn. Then the narrow, corniced ridge brought us to the summit at 20,310'.
The climb is always challenging, but it was made more so due to cold 15-25 headwinds for most of the climb. We needed to wear goggles and face protection to keep from freezing our skin.
But we did it. And we're about to crawl into our sleeping bags at the 17,200' high camp for some well deserved sleep. Tomorrow we will start our descent.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Congrats Pieter! I enjoyed hearing about your trip on our airplane ride to Anchorage and am excited to see that your climb was a success!
Posted by: Mike Miller on 5/31/2019 at 10:09 pm
Huge congrats, Pieter, and to the rest of your team!!! We are in total awe and couldn’t be happier for you! Can’t wait to hear all about it when you’re back. Sending love and best wishes. xo, Marla, Mer & Kira
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 8:47 PM PT
This morning seems like weeks ago. We’re currently settled into our new home at 14 thousand feet, and life is good. Weather cooperated for us all day long, and the team moved quite well. For some reason this camp always seems to have the best weather. A lot of storms that hit 11 and the lower Kahiltna don’t make it this high, and winds that ravage the summit elevations don’t quite make it this low. We’re currently sitting in the sun looking out at a sea of clouds that are certainly covering, and snowing on, our old home. One more reason that we’re happy to be up here. It’s always a hard day getting here, and we’re all ready for dinner and an early bedtime. Tomorrow we’ll walk 500 feet downhill to retrieve our cache, and we’ll spend the rest of the day chilling hard. Until then, the team sends their best to everyone back at home.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide to go on a camping trip. After dinner and a bottle of wine, they lay down for the night, and go to sleep.
Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.
“Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”
Watson replied, “I see millions of stars.”
“What does that tell you?”
Watson pondered for a minute.
“Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.”
“Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.”
“Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.”
“Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.”
“Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.”
“What does it tell you, Holmes?”
Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke: “Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent!”
Posted by: skipper holmes on 5/30/2019 at 10:48 pm
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 7:19 PM PT
Greetings,
We’re in! Our pilots nailed a short lived window this morning and the team is all currently on the SE Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. Despite numerous cloud layers abundant throughout the Range, our amazing K2 pilots made it happen! With a little bit of a late arrival, we’ve opted to hang tight here at Base Camp today, and travel during the cooler hours of the night and early morning tomorrow, and hopefully make camp across the way at 7800’ Camp tomorrow. We’re excited to be here in the Alaska Range, and we’re stoked to get the ball rolling tomorrow as we begin a grand climbing adventure.
RMI Guides Robby, Nick, Joe and Team
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 5:00 PM PT
Hey all this is the Denali Expedition with RMI Steve Gately. The team and I are on the summit! 100% of the team made it so everybody's up. Everybody's doing well. We had a wonderful morning- blue skies, warm weather. We picked up a little bit of wind towards the summit. We had to work for it at the end there. We're all here safe and sound. We'll give a shout via email to the blog when we are back safe and sound at [17K] Camp. That's all.
RMI Guide Steve Gately
RMI Guide Steve Gately calls in from the Denali summit!
Steve! I’m so proud and happy for you for making the summit! I’ll give you a call when you’re on the bottom so I can tell you about the light indoor rock climbing I’ve been doing. Can’t wait to hear all about it.
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I’ve been following Tom M’s InReach and it looks to me like you’ve reached Kahiltna Glacier - Yahoo!! Welcome back. Congrats on completing the descent, hopefully the planes will be flying you off the glacier shortly. In the interim you’ll probably be digging up a cache of beer, perhaps a nice bottle of bourbon???
When you get back to Talkeetna enjoy: a cold beer or 2, a burger or 3, a looong hot shower, clean clothes, another cold beer, more burgers, perhaps a pizza, calls to loved ones -that’s my recommended order!
It’s after midnight here (and there) but since you’re all awake I’m going to join you in a long awaited celebratory drink. A toast to you all: TEAM WALTER 2019, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION, YOU ROCK!!
Cheers
Jacquie
Posted by: Jacquie Byatt on 6/2/2019 at 12:28 am
Wow, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to reach the top of the world. Stay safe and warm. I’m in 91 degree weather, maybe send just a little of the cold this way.
Posted by: Peggy Robertson on 6/1/2019 at 9:44 am
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