Monday, May 22, 2023 - 10:50 pm PT

We set an early alarm, and peaked our heads out the tent to see what the weather was doing. Surprised to find clear skies above us, we blasted the stoves and got every up for a quick breakfast of oatmeal. After eating a quick breakfast, we loaded up our packs with the group gear, and personal food we wanted to cache and began the first stretch of the climb requiring crampons. Up until now, we have been on a long rope interval, and primarily in snowshoes. From here on out we will be climbing in crampons, and using an ice axe. Just as sun hit camp, we began our way up the steep Motorcycle Hill, around the corner up Motorcycle Hill, through the broken up Polo Field and around Windy Corner. The morning was cold, the wind was howling for the first few stretches but by the time we got to the corner, the wind had died down and we were warming up. We passed the common cache site at 13,500' and made our way up to 14,000 Camp, where we were greeted by other RMI teams. We buried our cache, and then headed back downhill to 11,000' Camp for the night. We made a big dinner of Annie's Mac and Cheese and bacon, and then promptly crawled into our sleeping bags after a long day. The team did great today, setting us up well. We are looking forward to another slow morning, and rest before fully moving to 14 Camp.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Sunday, May 21, 2023 - 9:47 pm PDT

Today was a big day! Our first official rest day of the trip. After a few long hard pushes, we decided to sleep in and take the entire day to recover, and prep for the big carry tomorrow. We woke with the sun, and had a few rounds of breakfast burritos. After a leisurely breakfast, the remainder of the day was spent resting, recovering, reading and napping. Just before dinner we reviewed a bit of cramponing and ice axe techniques to prepare for the terrain above 11k Camp, and then rolled into an early dinner. Tomorrow we'll make our way towards 14k Camp to cache some food, and gear before returning to 11k Camp. 

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team
 

Saturday, May 20, 2023 - 11:18 am PT

We woke up to snow lightly falling at camp this morning, and slow rolled into a warm breakfast of toasted bagels and bacon. After enjoying a second cup of coffee, we rigged the empty sleds to our backpacks, roped up and headed out from 11,000' Camp down to our cache at 9,900'. Making quick work with empty packs, we arrived at the cache in just under a half hour. We dug up the cache, divvied up the group gear, re-rigged our sleds and traced our steps from yesterday back to 11,000' Camp. It was short, but hard stretch to roll back into 11 Camp. We spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of snow storms, and enjoying the afternoon to recover. After a few hours of down time, we had a festive dinner of beef burritos with salsa verde and then prepared to potentially carry tomorrow. We will see what the morning brings, check in tomorrow!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Thursday, May 18, 2023 10:36pm PDT

After a late night and long day yesterday, we woke up around the time the sun hit our tents. After a quick breakfast of frosted mini wheats, we put together the group loads to cache and begin our climb up ski hill. After 4.5 long hours we pulled into our cache site, dug a hole, and tossed our group food, and personal caches in. After attaching the sleds to our packs, we began the descent back to camp. A bit earlier this evening than last, we made some reindeer sausage jambalaya and prepped for our big move to 11 camp tomorrow.

The weather looks good, hopefully we'll touch base from 11k tomorrow!

RMI Guides Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, and Lauren Macklin

Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - 11:46 pm PT

We woke up to an early call from K2 that said chances looked good to fly, so after a quick cup of coffee we rushed over to the hangar. After a few hours of hurry up and waiting, we were able to get out on a flight and land on the Kahiltna glacier in beautiful conditions. We unloaded all the group gear, organized everything for moving, and made our way to our first camp for the night. After six long hours, we finally pulled into the base of Ski Hill. Set up camp, and made a quick dinner of Mac and cheese under the clear skies. We are set up to carry tomorrow, but might sleep in a little bit first.

Check in tomorrow,

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Monday, May 15, 2023 - 8:02 pm PT

The May 14th Denali has officially begun!

After a long day of travel yesterday, the entire team made their way to Talkeetna and spent the day packing, organizing, weighing, repacking, and finally getting all the gear weighed, set up and ready to fly.   

While the weather doesn’t look promising, the entire team is primed and ready to go as soon as a weather window opens. We will wake up tomorrow morning with the goal of flying and see what the skies bring. 

Until we fly, we will continue to eat warm food, drink cold beer, and enjoy all the amenities we will soon miss.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion