Entries from Mt. McKinley
Tuesday, May 21, 2019 8:43 pm PT
The winds from the previous day had subsided overnight an we woke up to mostly clear skies. You could see the south winds hammering the pipe
West Buttress from camp. By the time we made it through breakfast, the winds dropped and we were in camp. With warmer temps forecasted and only light winds in camp we opted to try for the move. Long story short, it was windy. The kind of wind that your walking straight into for hours. The team did well taking care of hands, feet and faces. We finally found a break from the torrent at 13,600ft. A long hard day brought us to our new home here at 14,000ft. With camp finally set up, we're all looking forward to a hot drink and a big dinner. Tomorrow we'll try and back carry to 13.6k to pick up our cached gear then enjoy the afternoon off to rest and recover. That's all for now, life is good!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Monday, May 21, 2019 4:43 pm PT
We're taking another planned rest day today in order to get strong and acclimate for our forays up higher. As it turns out, the forecast for high winds came to fruition and we would not have been able to climb higher today even if we had wanted to. Instead, we had another leisurely brunch and worked on fortifying camp with more snow walls. We also practiced fixed line travel for moving above here. Steve Gately's crew (RMI
Denali 2) just rolled into camp, so we're gonna go welcome them with some water. We hope the weather will let us put a cache up high tomorrow and then return back down to our current camp at 14,200'. We'll let you know how it goes.
RMI Guide
Mike Walter & Team
On The Map
Monday, May 20, 2019 10:59 pm PT
I was up this morning early to keep a close eye on the weather in anticipation of a potential move to
14k Camp. Puffy cumulus clouds clung to the surrounding terrain features and were lapping in and out of camp like the tides at about 6AM. Our forecast was calling for an 80% chance of snow showers and increasing south winds into the evening. I opted to give the weather an extra hour to show it's true intentions. I could hear the noises of other teams rustling around, presumably preparing for their own move to 14k Camp. I've seen plenty of deceiving mornings here in the Alaska Range luring you to trust that the forecast was wrong, as if so often can be. I ultimately didn't like the look of it. The team has worked hard for five days now and a full rest day seemed appropriate before committing ourselves to the higher altitudes of the mountain. So we slept in until about 9am and made a wonderful breakfast of eggs and hashbrown burritos that lasted nearly until midday. By then the clouds had overtaken camp and it began to snow lightly. By 1pm the snow intensified and the forecasted south winds showed up early and turned camp into a whirlwind of snow that made it hard to see across camp. Wrapped snugly in our warm bags we all felt good about our decision to take an extra day. It's not always you get such confirmation of a decision well made but today we did and it felt good all the while snuggled up in our warm bags reading and snacking the afternoon away. Tomorrow's forecast looks much more promising and we'll repeat the process of waking up early, sticking our heads out the tent and making another decision. Hopefully this time we'll like what we see and we'll get to move on up! Thanks for following along everyone!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
Monday, May 20, 2019 5:40 pm PT
We slept in a little bit this morning, enjoying our first full rest day. The weather was cloudy with light snow and strong ridge top winds--perfect for a rest day!
We had an extended brunch with substantial portions of hashbrowns, bacon, egg, and cheese burritos, and plenty of coffee of course.
Other than eating and resting, our team rallied a work party this afternoon to start building walls around
our camp to protect from any potential winds.
The weather forecast calls for sunny weather with strong ridge top winds tomorrow, decreasing by Wednesday. Right now the plan is to rest again tomorrow as our bodies get used to living at high altitude. Hopefully we'll be able to make a cache up high on Wednesday.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
We woke from our first day at 14,000' camp to beautifully clear skies and stunning views of the
West Buttress to our north and the rest of the Alaska Range to our south, punctuated by the other two massive peaks in the range, Mt. Hunter & Foraker.
After a modest breakfast of granola and hot drinks, we headed back down hill to retrieve our cache, just shy of Windy Corner. That trip involved just over an hour of moving, so we're enjoying lots of rest the rest of the day. Besides resting, eating, and hydrating, were doing some chores around camp, like improving our kitchen/eating tent by digging it deeper and wider and buffing out the seating.
We have a rest day planned for tomorrow. That usually means sleeping in and some form of bacon and eggs breakfast burritos for an extended brunch. We'll touch base again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Saturday, May 18, 2019 10:11 pm PT
We awoke to clear skies this morning and the team enjoyed the extra sleep and a leisurely breakfast of toasted bagels, cream cheese and bacon. Just before midday we put the ropes back on and traveled back down glacier to about 10,000' to retrieve our cache of gear. The weather stayed cool for us with high wispy clouds and filtered sun making the climb back to camp quite pleasant. The team then had the rest of the afternoon off and spent it snacking, napping and more snacking. Well earned time off after the long haul up the
Kahiltna. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will try and climb higher to about 13,600ft to place another cache of gear and further acclimate. This though we lose the sleds and snowshoes for crampons and an ice axe!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
We woke early to perfect weather this morning and decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to move camp up to 14,200' in
Genet Basin. The weather remained great for us all day, with some clouds building mid morning and a few scattered snow flurries, but no wind to speak of. Laden with heavy packs, we made slow and steady progress and after about six hours we arrived at camp. It's been a few hours now and camp is up, the climbers are resting in their tents, and stoves are cranking melting snow for water bottles and heating water for dinner.
Tomorrow we will head back down to Windy Corner to retrieve our cache. That will be a short day and we're happy for that. We're also looking forward to our first complete rest day the following day (Monday). It's time to lick our wounds, rest, and acclimate.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
This one is going to be brief, I apologize but its been a long day!
We were graced with good weather this morning and we rose early to break down camp and move to 11,000'. The team did a great job moving through the terrain. Light snow flurries kept the temps cool and good for climbing. The final hill into
11,000' Camp is a total butt kicker and the team styled it like pros. The team spent the afternoon building camp and setting up tents before enjoying a well earned meal and a good nights rest. Tomorrow we will travel back down glacier to about 10,000' to retrieve our cached gear and then enjoy having the afternoon free. All is well and the team is doing great!
RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team
We're on a roll now with another great day today. We woke to clear skies with a cloud deck slightly below our camp. There was some blowing snow visible up towards our destination, Windy Corner. So to drag our feet a bit and let it warm up and see what the winds were going to do we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of toasted bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon--not bad for breakfast at
11,200' on Denali.
The sun eventually hit our camp and the winds abated. So we followed suit and finished packing up, donned our crampons and off we went. We were loaded down with food and fuel in our backpacks, intent on establishing a cache around Windy Corner. The first obstacle out of camp was climbing Motorcycle Hill, which took us 45 minutes to climb. Next we climbed Squirrel Hill and crossed the Polo Fields. Before we knew it we rounded Windy Corner and arrived at our cache site at 13,600'. We dug a deep hole in the snow, buried our gear, then headed back to camp. We were psyched to see the second RMI Denali team, led by Steve Gately, building camp next to ours here at 11,000'.
The next stage of the game for us is to move camp to 14,000'. We'll see what the weather does and that will influence whether we try to move tomorrow or take a rest day.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Thursday, May 16, 2019
A few short waves of snow showers passed through camp overnight and we woke up to a fresh dusting of new snow. A quick breakfast of oatmeal, dried fruit and nuts got us ready for the task ahead today. The terrain ahead would be a bit more challenging then our first day and the team was eager to explore new parts of the range. A decent amount of recent climber traffic has resulted in a well kicked in trail and we were grateful for the easy travel.
From camp our first obstacle is
"Ski Hill". In any other setting this slope wouldn't make you bat an eye lash, but with Denali loads it poses quite a challenge. The team did fantastic with the increase in gradient. A short wave low pressure system was forecast to pass over the region today and we were greeted to a few intense snow flurries that reminded me of the Kahiltna Glacier that I'm more used to seeing. From the top of Ski Hill however, the terrain eases off quite a bit and we meandered our way to about 10,000' where we left a cache of gear to be retrieved later. A quick descent brought us back into camp in seemingly no time at all and the crew is currently taking a load off before an early dinner in anticipation of another long day tomorrow.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, our goal will be to move to 11,000' Camp. Its great to finally settle in at 11,000', build a fortified camp, build the best kitchen this mountain has ever seen and look forward to our first rest day of the trip. That's all for now, thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
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Kelby,
We have returned from Hawai’i. It was quite a bit different than these photos. 8-) Hoping for calmer weather for all of you in the days to come.
The Tidds
Posted by: Steve and Tina on 5/24/2019 at 4:08 pm
Good luck to the team and Tom Mulvey! May you find favorable weather.
Posted by: Jerry Suyderhoud on 5/22/2019 at 7:15 pm
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