Entries from Expedition Dispatches
We all turned in early last night with an anticipated 2 AM wake up call. The guides woke at 2 only to see snow, wet tents and zero visibility. Ear plugs back in and snooze until 4:30 AM. The clouds had thinned out, snow was drier and still falling but the saving grace was we could see the lower skies of Mt Francis and the airstrip markers.
The Team got ready to go after a quick breakfast and hot drink. The walk down heartbreak hill with big sleds and breaking trail through new snow went surprisingly well. No one broke down and asked to return to Talkeetna so we walked into the thick clouds, think if you were trapped inside of a ping pong ball. There was a faint trail from the teams who arrived late in the night and all of a sudden there was nothing. We plodded through the snow and up the main fork of the Kahiltna Glacier navigating by GPS and the occasional bamboo pole that is placed for just these conditions.
Wet snow was falling but not a trace of wind. Sweaty with sore hips we rolled into camp as the cloud bank lifted just enough to see camp at the base of
Ski Hill. We are all tucked in our tents and resting up for our carry day to 9600' tomorrow. Our hope is to travel early when the temperatures are cooler and place our cache of food and fuel. Everyone is dry, warm and re-hydrating after a tough day. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Today was another rest day with a top notch breakfast donated from our fellow RMI team
Mike Walter who is currently on the way down to the airstrip. The breakfast quesadilla extravaganza started with snow and ended with heavy snow. We said good bye to Walter team and are looking forward to some training in the next few hours to dial in our technique for the next stage of our climb to carry supplies for our high camp. This will set the stage for our summit push when the weather allows. For now we will out chill the snow and let you know how our carry turns out tomorrow! We are wishing good luck to the
Van Deventer and
Hailes teams as they are pushing to high camp today for their summit bid!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
On The Map
Thursday, June 7, 2018 - 2:21 PM PT
We awoke to a little bit of new snow at
Illimani Base Camp, which further reinforced our decision to make our high point yesterday. We quickly packed our gear and headed out to our land cruisers in which an adventure ensued. Driving around the high country side we enjoyed splendid views as well as picking up dinner from road side vegetable farmers. Ultimately we find ourselves camping at a low elevation of 8000’ on the side of river at a retired police officers house. Surrounded by tropical fruit trees we’re looking forward to having a fire, sipping on some beers and reminiscing about the last two weeks!
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Wednesday, June 6, 2018 - 10:39 PM PT
The wolf huffed and puffed, but not on our house today. We woke up early after a short, but intense burst of snow last night, and things looked great. By the time we were done with breakfast though, we were watching huge plumes of snow sail off Denali's upper mountain, which gave us pause. We slowed our roll, and spent the morning watching to see if winds would abate. They did finally, but not until 4 pm or so, way too late for us. We'll try again tomorrow and hope for a different outcome. In the meantime, we are sitting through another intense bout of snow, turning everything white.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Jess Matthews, Taylor Bickford
On The Map
The
Four Day Summit Climb June 4 - 7 reached the crater rim at 7AM PT today.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens reported a nice day with light winds. The team will enjoy the views from the summit for a bit before starting their descent. Once back at Camp Muir the teams will re-pack and continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Wednesday, June 5, 2018 - 8:21 PM PT
This is Mike King with RMI's June 4th
Denali Expedition. We weighed all our gear and loaded up the 2 Turbo Otter ski planes and waited out the morning in the K2 Aviation hanger. Grey skies and a cloud bank at the foot of the Alaska Range prevented an early flight. Around 2:30 we got the call that pockets of blue sky had developed so we buckled up and took off to try and sneak into Denali Base Camp.
The flight in was spectacular, clouds above and below and nothing but bluebird in between. Our pilot went through triple crown pass with views of Foraker, Hunter and Crosson. After landing at Kahiltna International we set up camp, rigged sleds and divided the food and fuel rations. With the later departure and the heat of the sun reflecting off the snow we decided to spend the night here.
We'll get an early start and travel while the temps are cool and never setting sun low on the horizon. The Team is firing on all cylinders and eager to move up glacier tomorrow and get this expedition started.
Thanks for following along and we will check in from the base of Ski Hill tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Wednesday, June 6, 2018 - 4:52 PM PT
After a busy week of pushing up to
14,000' Camp, we took a much deserved first full rest day. The team had a rough nights sleep at our new altitude and learned how to manage the morning “snowstorm” in the tent that develops from the condensation our breath gives off and freezes on the inside of the tent walls. To sum it up, it’s not a pleasant way to wake up! Despite that, we got to sleep in and wait for the sun to hit our tents before we had a big breakfast with bagels, cream cheese and salmon!! The morning sun helped dry out our sleeping bags before some afternoon snow showers moved through. Tomorrow we might have a more active rest day filled with some training and a walk to the Edge of the World. All and all, the team is enjoying some rest and should sleep much better tonight as our bodies continue to acclimate to our new elevation.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
On The Map
Wednesday, June 6, 2018 - 4:43 PM PT
We were all set to climb to 17,000' Camp this morning but Denali had other plans for us. By 8 am this morning we could see strong winds blowing across our climbing route on the Buttress. We decided to put the move on hold until the winds slowed. Luckily, Mike Walter's team at 17 Camp provided hourly updates on the weather situation and we eventually decided that the weather was too severe to climb into today.
Not all was lost though, we took some time to remodel our mountain kitchen and built a new outhouse. Obviously important facilities when waiting out bad weather.
We will wake again tomorrow planning to move and see what the weather allows.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes
The Alaska Range draws hundreds of climbers every year. Guarded by Foraker, a seldom climbed 17K ft peak, and by Mt. Hunter, the most difficult 14er in North America, Denali, "The Big One", is without a doubt (and for well-deserved reasons,) the main climbing goal of intrepid mountaineers from all over the globe. Dozens of other smaller, but no less beautiful peaks, are overseen by most of those whose dreams of the altitude are set on reaching the roof of the North America continent. Right at the start of their journey, across from the landing at the South East Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, lies Mount Frances, a satellite at the very terminus of Denali's South Buttress.
This year, climber Brian Phillips, came with his mind set on
Alpine Climbing in the Range; a good plan to tackle fun, full body climbing involving the implementation of the techniques practiced over the year of ice, snow and rock climbing. With our current conditions and weather forecast last week, we decided to put our eyes on the South West Ridge of Frances. An objective that can be done in a long full day of climbing. After all, we had one week to climb (another of the beautiful things of
Alpine Climbing in Alaska, is that one doesn't need to plan for an entire month, and 7-10 days allow for a great deal of fun!!!)
Upon landing on the glacier, we started our decked-out camp. When you know you're constructing your home for a full week, it better be good! Beyond fortified walls around our flattened tent platforms, making a decent kitchen, with snow benches to sit, eat and socialize on is key. A good two hours of digging, and our crafted living space was ready to be enjoyed. We didn't get too comfortable that very first night, as the forecast, unlike what the predictions said, was too good to let go, and after early bed, we woke ready for action.
The SW Ridge of Frances is a moderate route that involves steep snow climbing, only separated by pitches of fine, moderate rock climbing. While none of the steps are very difficult, it is very sustained, and for hours on end you are always "game on" mode. An early start granted frozen snow to move on on the lower part of the mountain, which made us gain progress fast. Soon enough we'd be climbing rocks, and without realizing, the alternation of both terrains, was the constant for the day. Plotting along, the early evening would come, and high on the route, we could keep an eye at the Denali Base Camp, and the many climbers that eventually circumnavigated us, at ground level, totally unaware other human beings were up there. We tackled the last rock pitches as the sun wanted to dip behind the horizon, but in the "Land of Midnight Sun" it never would. We continued the progress now towards the summit, on the frozen ridge that connects the false one to the true one, tip toeing around cornices, a couple crevasses and long ice cliffs beneath us. It was dinner time when we got to the top, and even though we knew that descending the East Ridge was a mere two hours back to the comfort of our Base Camp, we stuck to the plan of bivouac on top. How special could it be to see the alpenglow of both sunset and sunrise over Hunter, Foraker and
Denali? It was almost cloudless, and we had carried a small bivi tent, sleeping bags and a stove anyways. So we stayed. Tired but accomplished and cold but warm inside, the night blended with the day, and sooner than we noticed, the bright sun was again over us and now, time to head back down before the snow softened further. The East Ridge, our descent route, had been climbed several times the previous week, even a ski descent, so with a good track, we were back at our camp in a mere two hours. We had gone up and down, in style, fully climbing up a peak and we were proud of it!
Alpine Climbing in Alaska at its best.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Wednesday, June 7, 2018 - 10:59 am PT
Nothing is easy about
Denali. After two hard days of climbing and finally reaching the summit yesterday, we are currently hunkered down in our tents, avoiding the wind and spindrift that the mountain is throwing at us this morning. It is currently too cold and windy to safely pack up and climb down the exposed West Buttress. So we're on standby, chilling out in our tents waiting for the wind to abate. Hopefully we'll be able to bump camp down to lower altitude and warmer temps soon.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Tuesday, June 6, 2018 - 10:50 pm PT
Despite a less than ideal weather forecast, we awoke to clear skies and no winds. We fired up the stoves and woke our team. Muscles were weary after climbing for seven hours yesterday, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity.
The weather stayed good all day and the route was in great shape. It was a hard day of climbing but we got to stand on the
top of North America! We were ten hours round trip (high camp-summit-high camp). And now that we've eaten dinner and crawled in our tents, the temperature has plummeted, winds have increased, and snow is falling. Timing couldn't have been better.
We will start our descent tomorrow...
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
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Hi all, letting you know we are following along on your trail. Doesn’t seem as cold here in California as it is there though. (insert smiley face). You are on for the summit, I feel it in my warm bones. Stay focused and bring me some new jokes. Hang in, hang on, hang out, and head for the summit!
Love to Scott, Hi to Team, and Luck to All!
Mom Selgrath
Posted by: Connie Selgrath on 6/9/2018 at 9:39 am
From all here on Vashon-following you—!
Posted by: Carol Jensen-Scanny on 6/8/2018 at 3:16 pm
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