Entries from Expedition Dispatches
May 26, 2015 - 11:13 pm PT
We woke to a swirling cloud cap above, that left little doubt that it was unpleasant in the
West Buttress. We decided to wait the day yet again and see what tomorrow brings. We did take advantage of a break in the clouds to walk to the "Edge of the World', where Genet Basin drops almost 7,000 feet to the Northeast fork of the Kahiltna. The views from here are unsurpassed and everyone took turns being belayed out to the edge to snap photos. We'll give another shot at caching on the buttress tomorrow. We'll let you know how it goes.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Josh Maggard, and team
On The Map
May 26, 2015 - 10:33 pm PT
We woke early again today, hoping for good weather to move up to high camp. But it was not to be. A large lenticular cloud, indicating strong winds, had formed over the top of
Denali, extending down beyond high camp. Winds were howling up high until a little afternoon today, when the cloud dissipated for a couple hours and then reformed in the afternoon. The winds were too strong for us to safely move camp to 17,200', so we rested again at 14,200'.
We took advantage of clear skies on the lower mountain to take a walk out to the "Edge of the World", a point south of our camp that looks down sheer cliffs about 5,000' down the the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. The views from the Edge are surreal, and the scale is nearly incomprehensible.
We're psyched to see what the weather brings tomorrow, and we're ready to take advantage of good weather when it presents itself. We'll keep you posted.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and team
On The Map
May 26, 2015 - 7:24 pm PT
I gave the team a general idea of when we might start breakfast this morning at dinner last night. I bet we get hot water started at around 8, then start pancakes and coffee shortly after that I said. I didn't even open my eyes until almost nine. While in the middle of working your way up this mountain day after day none of us realized how much we could use a rest. Today it became clear. We sat in the cook tent making fresh Pete's coffee and watching Andy flip flap jacks until almost noon. Then we took naps and soaked up the sun we haven't really seen clearly this entire trip. Now we are cooking quesadillas and packing up for our potential move to
14 Camp tomorrow. Everyone is happy to be caching dirty underwear, smelly socks and unneeded stuff for the upper mountain. It has been a beautiful rest day here at 11 Camp but after getting a great view of the upper mountain yesterday, the team feels super psyched to push this climb higher and see what unfolds.
Check in tomorrow for the outcome of our hopeful move.
Team Knoff saying goodnight.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
May 26, 2015 - 10:08 am PT
Today is Memorial Day. With the simplicity of life on this mountain taking charge, many of us don't even know what day it is. The process of get up, get dressed in close quarters, make your way to the cook tent dug into the side of the mountain, eat breakfast, pack you bag and climb, come back to the tents, eat dinner and go to bed is a process where days don't matter. So if birthdays are missed, anniversaries are forgotten about, we are not to blame. Despite having digital doohickeys with us, looking at calendars and keeping track of days becomes arbitrary. Today as it turns out wasn't Memorial Day up here, it was
Windy Corner day. This legendary gateway to the upper mountain is famous for its heinous wind, scary rock fall and tricky crevasses. We are happy to report our carry around the corner to 13,500 feet went as smooth as we could have asked for. Again we lucked out with weather because as I wrote earlier our early morning wake up calls got us going into clear skies but as soon as we arrived back in camp seven hours later it was snowing as hard as it has all trip. There is much to be said for walking into a camp that is waiting for you. We will rest tomorrow and eat pancakes and drink fresh coffee until nap time. We can't wait.
Hello to Mrs. Vradenburg's class at Lamotte School I hope Liam is behaving. Stay tuned.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
May 26, 2015 - 12:17 am PT
Just like Johnny Cash said, "that train keeps a rollin'." The winds were down, a cloud of sparkling ice crystals hung around, reflecting the sunlight and solar baking everything, and we returned to a dead calm Windy Corner to retrieve our cash. We are one step closer now with all of our food up here with us. The next step is to take a run at the fixed lines and cache some food in the
West Buttress. To prepare, we spent the afternoon practicing with our ascenders and getting prepped for that potential carry tomorrow. Mac and cheese with bacon for dinner to fuel us tomorrow. We'll hope to wake up with a green light to head up. For now, good night!
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Josh, and team
On The Map
May 25, 2015 - 7:16 pm PT
Hello Everyone!
This morning, hopeful to move to high camp, we awoke early and had breakfast and coffee in the chilly pre-solar hours, watching through dissipating clouds, as the wind whipped along the top of the
West Buttress leaving streaks of sublimated snow in its wake.
And so resumed another day of reading, sport eating, and exploring the tangled and winding pathways between the walls of surrounding camps.
We are all crossing our fingers today is our final rest and acclimatization day here at fabulous 14 camp. We are looking forward to getting some exercise of the physical kind...we have been taxing the mental reserves nightly by developing a now customary team activity of Riddles over Dinner, made possible by the greatest boredom banishing App ever, Brain Twister by Will Shortz. Tonight we'll be starting with puzzle number 47 if you'd like to follow along...but trust us, they're exponentially harder at 14,200'!
We are packed, prepped, and looking forward to making our move tomorrow morning, if the weather cooperates.
Hopefully instead of practicing patience and unscrambling anagrams, we'll be establishing camp at 17,200' and enjoying the ever impressive views from higher on the mountain.
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the team
On The Map
May 24, 2015 - 11:48 pm PT
Hello again from 11,000ft!
We woke up this morning to a fresh dumping of snow at camp, covering our tents and cook tent. First order of business this morning was getting everything dug out and reinforcing our snow walls.
The weather was still looking a little squirrelly afterwards, so we opted for a bit of a relaxed breakfast while we continued to watch what was going on outside. After a couple hours, our patience was rewarded and things cleared up enough for us to get organized and take off downhill to retrieve our cache at 9800'. We made down, grabbed our cached goods, and jammed back uphill in good time. This is a strong team! Everyone just keeps going and is having fun!
Once back at 11,000' with all our gear, the weather made a turn for the better. The skies cleared out, the winds died down, and the sun warmed us as we relaxed for the rest of the evening. If all goes well, we'll push up to 13,500' tomorrow to cache our gear around Windy Corner in preparation for our move to 14k.
Goodnight for now!
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and the rest of the team
On The Map
May 24, 2015 - 9:30 pm PT
The wind and snow continued through the night and into today. We spent the night listening to the roar of a freight train of wind above us on the
West Buttress. The max gust through camp, according to the NPS weather station was 52 mph. That wind and snow put a few holes in our posh tent, and knocked over a few walls, so we spent the morning stitching up holes and rebuilding walls. Otherwise we fared pretty well through the blizzard. This afternoon things started to subside, and by evening the sun was showing, sparkling off of the small snowflakes that are hanging in the air. Our hope is that that trend will carry through tomorrow, and we'll have the visibility to head back down and retrieve our cache from Windy Corner. Fingers crossed. The change in weather has also caused a change in the general mood of camp, and we're listening to laughing, joking, jovial voices all over camp. We'll let you know how things go tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Josh Maggard, Robby Young, and team
On The Map
May 24, 2015 - 3:35 pm PT
Well, there is not much new to report today. We're still waiting out the weather here at
14,200 ft on Denali. Last night was windy and snowy, with gusts up to 52 mph here in camp. There is lots of deep drifted snow around camp, so even just walking around is an exercise in trail breaking. The winds have let up this afternoon and it is still snowing lightly. Moderate snowfall is expected tonight and tomorrow, and with any luck it will let up by midweek.
We're all safe and comfortable, waiting for the weather to improve. When (if) it does, we'll have our work cut out for us; as a result of the new snow and wind loading, we'll be faced with trail breaking and evaluating the avalanche hazard of the steeper slopes above us. In the mean time, we're passing the time by reading books, chewing the fat, and the continual work of maintaining our camp's condition throughout the storm.
We'll keep you up to date with any changes in our current holding pattern.
RMI Guide
Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
Hello friends and family,
Apologies for the absent dispatches these last few days; Apparently clouds and Sat phones do not get along. We had a few eventful days on the Kahiltna so here is a quick wrap up. Our attempt on
Kahiltna Dome was thwarted by Avalanche conditions so we made a full retreat from camp II back to Base Camp under a blanket of clouds. The team set up a quick camp by the airstrip and started celebrating the trip with a few beers we stashed in a hole and some margarita's from a friendly neighbor. With some time to kill, a few folks wanted to know what the inside of a crevasse looked like so we set some anchors and lowered a few into the deep blue black holes that reach down under our feet. Doug perched himself at the lip for a photo session of folks climbing out of the abyss. Everyone flew off yesterday just before the weather shut base camp down and we enjoyed a fine dinner in Talkeetna and some drinks at the Fairview. A great trip with some of the finest people I've shared a rope with. Thank you all for tuning in and look forward to the pictures and stories headed your way!
RMI Guide
Leon Davis & Team
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Incredible photo!!, well done to all. Feels like you’ve been gone for a lot longer than 18 days renee, I’m sure it feels like a long time for you also :) , have been keeping an eye on your teams progress and letting everyone know updates including nan ron. she misses you like we all do but we are all incredibly proud and pumped for you to accomplish your goal! Cant wait to chat all about your trip. stay safe, loads of love xxx love leigh.
Posted by: Leigh on 5/28/2015 at 4:52 am
Team PRJ… wow sounds like mother nature is flexing her muscles. Hope you are keeping warm and well fed… especially Renee. I miss you so much! Work is not the same without you here! Each morning I read the blog to Cam in the car on the way to work… he is so impressed with your progress and is sending you his love and best wishes. Its Thursday arvo here in Oz and I have just had lovely Kenny’s for lunch (jealous much.. hahahaha) and Paul baked a Banana Cake (which will never be as good as Cameron’s let’s be honest) I hope that you are getting all these messages of support and cannot wait to get an email from you when you are off the mountain. Love you lots hunny bunny… stay strong, the final stages are now in your reach! Love Kath & Cam xxxx
Posted by: Kathy on 5/27/2015 at 9:28 pm
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