Entries By Seth Waterfall
This is Seth Waterfall broadcasting from Everest Basecamp. It's been another beautiful day here. We've had a few inches of snow each of the past few night and it has spruced the mountains up nicely. Everything is coming along in our preparation for our first acclimatization rotation. Today Dave went up to Camp One to check on the conditions in the icefall. He made great time and got some really good info on how we can move through the icefall efficiently. The rest of the group went out on to the Khumbu glacier and practiced our climbing and rappelling skills. It was sunny and warm on the glacier and all of the team members were able to run several laps on the 'obstacle course' that the guides set up. This practice is designed to get us familiar with our equipment and allow us to make adjustments in a safe environment. The next step for us will be to head up to Camp One and Two in order to build up our acclilmatization. But before we do that we still have several days of adjusting to the altitude here at Basecamp. It's a long process but this is necessary in order to give all of us the best shot at the summit.
Basecamp is rapidly filling up with teams from all over the world. The camp is just about full. There are only one or two teams that have not arrived. Yesterday we were delighted to see our friends Melissa Arnot and Dave Morton arrive. They are camped about a quarter mile up the glacier and they stopped by for tea after they unpacked their gear. We've had several visitors from most of the big teams. It's great to break up the day with a few visitors and share stories from the trek in.
We'll check in again tomorrow.
Greetings from Everest Basecamp! I still have to pinch myself to make sure I'm really here. To come here and climb has been a longtime dream for me, but it's only been the last four or five years that I thought it would be possible. I never really imagined I'd be doing so as a part of this amazing team.
For me personally, this couldn't be a better opportunity. I get to pester Ed Viesturs with pretty much any question I want about climbing in the Himalaya, and learn how to guide these peaks from Dave Hahn. I can't really see me ever having access to this kind of brain trust again in my guiding career. To add that in with climbing in gear that we have all helped develop from the ground up makes this truly a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
It was just over a year ago that I was doing a normal guiding rotation at RMI. For me, that has meant starting in May on Rainier, then heading to Alaska to work on Denali then back to Rainier until August, then I head over to Africa to guide on Kilimanjaro. When my boss Peter Whittaker invited me to be a part of this team, I had no idea what it would lead to, yet here I am at Everest Base Camp getting ready to head into the Western Cwm.
This is our third day in base camp and I'm still trying to judge the scale of the mountains here. I'm used to the feeling of getting my bearings in an unfamiliar mountain range. It's one of the best parts of climbing somewhere new. With no trees or buildings or anything familiar to give you reference, you can get vertigo trying to approximate distances or elevations. Typically, the novice will underestimate distances drastically. I've spent enough time in the mountains though to have a healthy respect for this trickery.
The difference here is that there is no grander scale. When I first saw Everest from Namche Bazaar, I couldn't believe how big it was or how far away we still were. Now that we're closer and the satellite peaks of the Everest massif block the summit from view, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't even more intimidated.
But if there's one thing I've learned over the years from all of my mentors and climbing partners, it's how to tackle big objectives. In a sense, this one is no different... wait, what am I saying?! It is different. It's the biggest mountain in the world. Step by step, that's how we'll do it. With a healthy respect for the mountain.
In a few days, we'll head into the icefall for our first real physical test of the trip. I'm really psyched to put the boots on and get the crampons and ice axe out. My job on this trip is really just getting started. I can't wait to get going.
Posted by: Seth Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Back to Talkeetna! We started the day at 14,000 with an early wake up. The weather was looking like it wanted to get worse, so we hurriedly packed up camp and began our decent to the air strip. After picking up our cached gear at the 11,000’ Camp and making great time on the lower Kahiltna, we arrived at the air strip only to be greeted by four teams of climbers waiting to fly off. The weather had been ‘iffy’ all day and none of the air services had landed yet.
Soon after we arrived we got word that Jay Hudson was going to fly in and see if the visibility was good enough to land. An hour later we could hear his planes coming to get us. It felt like special treatment being the last to arrive that day and the first to leave but that’s why we fly with Jay!
Forty five minutes later we landed back in Talkeetna. After a brief unpacking job we all disbanded to our respective hotels for the first showers in twenty days. Then we all met for a celebration dinner on the deck at the West Rib Pub. Tomorrow we’ll be going our separate ways back to our families and loved ones.
Great trip guys!
On The Map
Start the descent. Today we woke up to our old friend the wind. We realized that we were lucky with the weather the day before. The wind had picked up again and for a while we thought that we would be stuck at 17,000 for the day. At three o’clock we decided to make a break for it and packed up camp. Four hours later we pulled into 14,000’ Camp. It felt good to be lower on the mountain and after a solid dinner we all passed out.
On The Map
SUMMIT DAY!!! And how sweet it was! Let’s start from the beginning of the day. 12:00a.m. Lucia has been snoring for a few hours. I’m wide-awake listening to the wind blow the tent around and stressing about summiting. I guess that’s the difference between someone on their first climb here and someone on their 11th.
4:00 a.m. The wind still blows, I still stress... Lucia snores.
5:00 a.m. Still windy. I resign myself to the fate of not climbing Denali. I’m OK with it, it was fun, I learned a ton, and everyone had a good time. Sometimes the mountain just won’t let you climb. It’s OK. Lucia is still sound asleep.
6:45 a.m. I hear rustling coming from Lucia’s side of the tent. I’m wondering what he’s up to, as the night before when I had suggested that we start the stoves at seven he said, “it’s too cold then, we’ll start them at 8.” Then I notice the wind, actually the lack of wind is what I notice. Lucia pokes his head out the vestibule and pulls it back in quickly. “Dude, it’s really nice outside. Let’s go!” So we get up and put our boots on.
Lucia starts the stoves. We fill our water bottles and have instant grits and hot drinks for breakfast. After packing our last minute things we’re off. It’s just after nine o’clock.
It takes us two about 2 hours to climb to Denali Pass. There are a few other groups out today. The nice weather has brought everyone out. We take a break with two of them just below Zebra Rocks.
We then ascend the ridge to the ‘football field’. The weather is still holding, but it’s noticeably colder here above 19,000 feet. There are a few clouds wisping over the summit and we anticipate high winds on the summit ridge. We climb Pig Hill to the summit ridge and are rewarded with a spectacular view down to the Kahiltna. We then proceed along the steep ridge to the summit. It’s 5:30 in the evening and we’re standing on the roof of North America on a calm, clear day.
After a few rounds of congratulating and picture taking (Andy brought three different banners to get photos with) we enjoy the last few moments of ‘top time’ and descend to the football field. Then, we descended to Denali Pass in very warm conditions. As the sun dropped low in the sky we climbed down back to camp.
At camp we were greeted by the second RMI trip of the season led by Mike Walter and Tyler Jones. It was doubly great to see those guys as they had 3 pots of water waiting for us.
All in all it was an eleven-hour summit day. We were very happy to crawl into our tents and get some well-deserved shut-eye.
On The Map
More wind. Well we’re definitely all out of jokes to share now. Most of the books that we brought have been through at least three different hands. Except no one wants to read the epic tome on the history of oil that I brought. It’s OK that no one wants to trade, as the 1000 pages of ten point font guarantees me weeks of reading.
We’re all pretty much in tent mode as the wind is a bit high for outside lounging. A team of climbers tried to go to the summit today but turned around at 18,300’Denali Pass due to high winds. It’s too bad for them as this is their last day of food for staying at 17,000 and they will have to go down.
We’re all getting a bit down from all of the sitting. Our group has decided that tomorrow will be our ‘up or down’ day. If we cannot climb tomorrow then we will start heading down. It’s still two full days of work just to get back to the landing strip from here.
On The Map
Resting at 17,000. Not much to report on today other than the wind. It continues to blow and blow. We all slept in after a tough climb yesterday. That sure was nice. After breakfast (we’ve all begun to really love instant oatmeal) we reinforced our camp walls. Unfortunately it had not gotten any easier to cut blocks out of the snow. Oh well, a little elbow grease and the walls were looking good.
No one tried to go to the summit today. The wind is just too high. A few more groups have arrived in camp and the folks that have been here longer than us are starting to get a little nervous about having to go down without taking a shot at the summit. We’re still sitting pretty good, but a few more days of this and we’ll have to go down too.
On The Map
Move to 17,000! Today we awoke to the normal weather pattern... WIND. We decided to give it a go and try to move to 17,000’ anyway. The pattern had been for the wind to die down in the afternoon so we figured that it would be perfect for us as we would be on the Buttress proper when the winds were at their lowest.
Well so much for the best laid plans. The winds stayed high throughout the day making the climb tough, but we all managed to make it without suffering too much. We picked up our cache along the way so we’re here in camp with all of the food and fuel we’ll need through summit day.
Some unfortunate events occurred today as we entered camp. A team of two independent climbers had fallen from high above the normal route. The Rangers and some volunteers have gone to help them. We have had a rough time finding suitable snow to build walls for our tents. The high winds have stripped a lot of snow away and cutting blocks was extremely difficult. It’s amazing how the altitude makes simple chores more difficult. You have to be very conscious of not working yourself too hard. It’s easy to get light headed.
On The Map
More Rest. Today was one of the nicest days since we flew on. We are all feeling the exertion from yesterday so we spent the day eating a drinking and getting ready to move to high camp. Everyone is a bit more relaxed now that we have a cache on the West Buttress. It was quite a show today watching all of the teams that have been here longer than us trying to move up. We’re lucky in that we flew on a few days after some larger groups and they seem to be always trying to do the same things at the same time while we just cruise along a day or so behind. Let’s hope the luck holds.
The weather pattern has been pretty similar over the last few days. It has been windy for most of the day with the winds trailing off in the afternoon. We can see up towards the summit from 14 and it seems like the winds are staying pretty high up there. We’ve had reports from some folks coming down from high on the mountain and they basically back up what we’re observing down here. We are planning on trying to move our camp to 17,000’ tomorrow, if the weather is good.
On The Map
Carry Day! Today we made our first trip up the fixed lines from 14,000’ to the West Buttress proper. Everyone, guides and climbers, ascends the fixed lines via an ascender attached to the fixed line. We also use our climbing rope for extra protection. This is the most effective, safest way to ascend the steep slopes below the West Buttress proper. The NPS installs and maintains these ropes with help from the guides. It’s a tough haul getting up but the view from the top of the fixed lines is great. It’s two thousand feet down on either side. On one side there is the Peters Glacier, the other side looks back down to the 14,000 ft. camp. What a cool spot!
The wind was kicking up when we reached the top of the fixed lines so we had everyone clip into anchors and take a break while the guides dug a cache for our gear. We have left 5 days of food and fuel here for our use when we move to high camp at 17,000’.
After filling in our cache we returned down the fixed lines to our lovely home at 14. The camp is looking very nice after a few rest days. We’ve made a sign out of snow that lets folks coming in to camp know who we are and our snow walls protect our tents nicely from the wind. We even made a television set and remote control out of snow, however the reception here in the Alaska Range is not very good.
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