Hey there, it's, Billy calling just wanted to give you guys an update and let you know where the crew is. After our summit day we descended from 17 down to the 14 camp and ended up spending the night there. Then got an early this morning and made the march all the way to base camp. Right now, everybody is sitting pretty at Kahiltna base. We have set up the tents. It is kind of socked in and cloudy so we are just hoping for planes at some point tomorrow morning. Forecast is kind of iffy so,we’ll see. We may be sitting here for a couple of days. But everyone is down safe and sound. So, will call and check in again one more time when we get back to town and off the mountain.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from Kahiltna Base Camp.
Gibert:
I want to congratulate you and your team on successfully summitting Mount McKinley. No matter what hemisphere you are adventuring ... you seem to make it all the way to the top. Congratulations! What’s next?!
Fred Klingbeil
Aconcaqua (January 2012)
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on 6/6/2012 at 11:22 am
Hi- Bran and team..
U must have had been so thrilled when u reach the summit!! I know I was so thrilled and so was Dad, I think I txted and called everyone.. Now it time for u and the team to celebrate!!! Thanks Bill Nugent, u r a awesome Guide..
Love Mom & Dad
There is no better way to start a day than sleeping in. After some long days of climbing, we have earned it. This morning we slept late, had breakfast burritos and started the work day at a leisurely 11am. While 23.5 hours of sunlight a day is a bit disorienting at first, hard work has been a great sleeping aid for the team.
Our crew is getting stronger every day. After our leisurely morning, we completed a back carry from 10,000' with no problems. We now sit at our 11,000' home, hiding from the beating radiation and gorging ourselves on goodie bags of food we recovered from our cache this morning. This afternoon we plan to meticulously re-pack the kit for a cache at 14,000' camp. We look forward to caching and moving up in the next few days, if weather allows.
Thank you to all for your comments and words of encouragement.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Way to go everyone! Michael, I’m sure you are having the time of your life! Enjoy it and stay full! I will go run around my neighborhood while you climb!
Posted by: Scott on 6/6/2012 at 4:36 am
Thinking of you all. Team Snyder loves and misses you Rolf!
RMI Guide Andres Marin radioed from Camp Muir this morning. The Four Day Summit Climb teams were tucked safely in the bunks at Camp Muir after a windy night. The cold temperatures, new snow and wind prevented the groups from making a summit attempt this morning. At 8:30 a.m. they began their descent from Camp Muir to Paradise. They will return to Ashford in the early afternoon.
Hi, this is Brent along with Leon and Lindsay calling from 17,000’ camp on the West Buttress here on Mt. McKinley.
We have just gotten up to our high camp here today after a grueling but a great climb in which everyone climbed super well. Right now it’s about 10 o’clock and the guides are just getting into their sleeping bags after getting dinner and filling up water bottles and all that good stuff.
Currently the conditions are pretty good, a little windy just 20 mph winds. We are in a bit of a white out, a little snow blowing but not too bad.
We are up here now, the forecast isn’t for horrible conditions but not bluebird, perfect conditions either. And that’s ok for us because we wouldn’t mind a rest day after our big climb up from the 14,000’ camp this morning.
We’ll be waking up early to check the weather just in case we have a perfect day. If that’s the case and there’s no wind then we are going to go for the summit tomorrow morning. So wish us luck on that. Otherwise we’ll be here and we have plenty of supplies to last us through any storm that might come our way.
That is all from 17,000 foot camp.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
RMI Guide Brent Okita checks in from 17,000 ft on Mt. McKinley
17.2K so far! How quickly you’ve done this! SO proud of the whole group. Cant believe that you may actually have a shot at the summit so quickly! Wishing you the best of weather and warm sleeping bags for the night! Missing my nightly conversations with Pea! Enjoy the view from the top of the US Kristen and then come home safe and sound! Love you.
Posted by: Timothy Kelliher MD on 6/4/2012 at 6:55 pm
A well deserved rest day yesterday paid dividends today. The team moved efficiently to 11,000 feet where we set up a deluxe camp. The weather greeted us with a nice cold headwind with some fresh snow in the track, but that was not too much of an obstacle for our team.
We worked hard to furnish camp after arriving this afternoon. Our cook tent is especially posh and our tent platforms are perfectly flat with a 5-star covered rest area. We plan on enjoying the camp we have crafted for the next few days as we rest and shuttle loads.
We look forward to retrieving our cache at 10,000 feet tomorrow, a relatively short day, then rest and indulging on the treats in our currently cashed goodie bags. Eating well means feeling well in the mountains and this is something this crew knows well! Till tomorrow, the whole team says hi to all.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Rolf, Grandpa John celebrated his 92nd birthday this week by buying a new bike. Says he wished he had taken a trip like this and would have joined you if he were only younger.
Posted by: Martha Snyder on 6/7/2012 at 8:17 pm
Go Rolf Go!! We are thinking about you and following these blog updates with excitement. Up, up and away! Best of luck!
The Four and Five Day Summit Climbs turned above Disappointment Cleaver (13,000') due to poor visibility. They were en route to Camp Muir on their descent. After a stop at Camp Muir to re-pack and re-fuel they will begin their descent to Camp Muir.
We look forward to seeing them in Ashford this afternoon.
Hey this is Gilbert with the RMI May 15th expedition calling after a successful summit day here on Denali. We are back safe and sound in our tents brewing up some water and dinner. We left around 10 am under clear skies and very little wind. We had a great summit with eight clients and three guides.
Now we are back safe and sound. We are going to re-hydrate and re-fuel and beat feat down to basecamp and hopefully fly out in the next 24 hours or so and be back in Talkeetna.
So, that is all for now and we will keep in touch.
RMI Guide Gilbert Chase
RMI Guide Gilbert Chase checks in after a successful summit day on Denali.
Once we decided not to move for the day, the team slept late and gorged ourselves on a breakfast of toasted bagels with cream cheese and lockes. The rest of the morning was spent getting camp in order and digging out our walls.
Expedition life is a funny mixture of hard days of climbing and long days of sitting in the tents trying to avoid boredom. Today was the latter. We spent the afternoon avoiding the sun while we napped, read books and told stories. Being able to entertain yourself in the tent is a crucial skill on big expeditions.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we plan to make a push up towards the 11k camp for more acclimatization and rest before we push higher on this magical massif, Denali.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
"Its a miracle, I lit the stoves!" Exclaimed Roberto as he woke up the team this morning. When we entered the cook tent Roberto and Brent had laid out a spread of bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon. Roberto was quite the Italian gentlemen this morning running the stoves and serving hot water, while insisting everyone enjoy their morning coffee and cider, and even giving us a short Italian lesson. A big grazie to Roberto, our favorite Italian chef at 14,000 feet!
After a leisurely breakfast we took a walk out to the edge of the world. The edge of the world got its name because it drops away 6,000 feet below you. Allowing us to see our previous camp at 7,800 feet and giving us fantastic views of the Alaskan range.
That was our big event of the day, and now we are resting and preparing for our move to 17,000 foot camp.
Other exciting news was that RMI Guide Gilbert Chase on the McKinley May 15th Expedition checked in this morning as RMI Guide Billy Nugent and team were making their summit bid. We expect to hear from them later on tonight.
Sitting strong at 14,
RMI Guides Lindsay, Brent and Leon and team
Happy birthday Phil!! Meatloaf sandwich on me this time. Looking forward to the stories. Be well!
Posted by: mark deffe on 6/4/2012 at 8:30 am
Happy Birthday Phil, what a wonderful place to celebrate! We are inspired by you and your teammates, hope you aren’t tired of the poptarts. xox Suzy & John
Today the team succeeded in getting our cache all the way up to 17,200'. What an achievement! Another early start had us beating the madding crowds up the fixed ropes and allowing us to enjoy our climb on the Buttress with a peaceful solitude.
At Washburn's Thumb everyone was climbing well, but we decided to send one team on up to high camp while the rest of us conserved our strength and descended back to camp from 16,600'. After all, we had reached the highest point many of us had ever climbed to and were doing well. Our team of go-getters who went on higher even carried some of our personal caches with them so that all our cache would be together at our next and final camp. I'm still so impressed by how this team pulls together and helps each other out in times like these. It should be noted that seldom do any teams make the effort or have the strength to carry all the way up to 17,200' camp.
What we experience while climbing the terrain between the fixed ropes and 17,200' is nothing short of awesome. And for most of us this is the most exciting climbing we have ever done. Steep, exposed and beautiful. What more could we want.
Back at camp now everyone is resting well and looking forward to a real rest day. We'll sleep in and dine on smoked salmon, bagels and cream cheese. And maybe after that we'll get into something else. It will be a well deserved day of rest!
Until next time...
RMI Guides Brent, Leon and Lindsay
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Gibert:
I want to congratulate you and your team on successfully summitting Mount McKinley. No matter what hemisphere you are adventuring ... you seem to make it all the way to the top. Congratulations! What’s next?!
Fred Klingbeil
Aconcaqua (January 2012)
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on 6/6/2012 at 11:22 am
Hi- Bran and team..
U must have had been so thrilled when u reach the summit!! I know I was so thrilled and so was Dad, I think I txted and called everyone.. Now it time for u and the team to celebrate!!! Thanks Bill Nugent, u r a awesome Guide..
Love Mom & Dad
Posted by: beverly bailey on 6/5/2012 at 4:23 pm
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