Entries By ben thorneycroft
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 11,000'
Tuesday, May 27, 2025 - 12:10 am PT
After a big day yesterday and sleeping at 17,000' still, we slept in to get what recovery we could. It was a cold morning, but we eventually roused, downed some breakfast, and got all of our things in packs and headed down. It’s been a funny day of environments. Weather at 17,000 was frigid and clear this morning. Passing through 14,000' Camp felt like we were at the beach, and we said Hi, Good luck, and See ya to our friends with RMI Guide Seth Burns and team.
Moving below 14,000' across the Polo Field, everything was white, muffled, and there was ~24” of new snow on the ground and it was snowing hard. We are now at 11,000' Camp, pausing to sleep and enjoy the warm and oxygen rich climes. It’s not at all how they felt on the ascent! Tomorrow, we’ll pack things one more time, and walk out the Kahiltna Glacier to base camp. We’re excited and ready.
RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben, and team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 20,310'
Monnday, May 26, 2025 - 8:09 am PT
Mt. McKinley Summit!
It was a splitter morning, so we prepped for a big day and left at 10:15 with sun on camp and the Autobahn in the shade. For that reason we were wearing pretty much everything we had. There had been maybe one other guided team above 17,000' this year, and not much traffic overall, so the infamous Autobahn needed quite a bit of foot scuffing and picket hammering as we passed. It made for tough work, but we were across to Denali Pass. Light wind and clouds that were in and out were the rest of the day, and at 6:15 AK time, we walked onto the summit. It’s always emotional reaching a big goal, and we took it in before turning our attention downhill. Moving down under the late Alaskan light we made good time and were back at camp at 10:15. A late dinner, recovery, and sleep are in store.
Tomorrow we’ll start the descent to the airstrip, which is always incredible in its speed.
RMI Guide Pete, Nick, Ben, and a very happy and tired team.
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 20,310'
Monday, May 26, 2025 - 12:07 am PT
Summit success for the Mt. McKinley May 8th Expedition! Yesterday Pete Van Deventer and team reached the highest point in North America. Pete checked in when the team had safely returned to 17,000' Camp. More details will be coming soon (we hope).
Congratulations team!
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Congratulations to you all! This Nana is so proud! I have prayed each day of this adventure for your safety, wisdom, skill and success. Will continue the prayers until I hear that you have “touched down”.
Posted by: Nancy Berry on 5/26/2025 at 8:50 pm
Congratulations to all of you! This mom is incredibly proud! Come on home!
Posted by: Maxine Hill on 5/26/2025 at 8:37 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 17,000'
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Saturday, May 24, 2025 - 9:03 pm PT
We made the big move and started the final push. Things looked good this morning so we got things running early, packed all the necessities for going up high, and walked out in the shade. Soon the sun was on us, and cold became very hot. We made good progress up the fixed lines, across the West Buttress and into 17,000' Camp. We’ve got camp built, stoves are roaring towards dinner, and we’ll wake up and see what tomorrow brings.
Best,
RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben, and team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Friday May 23, 2025, 6:48 pm PDT
After yesterday’s big effort, we took today to rest and recover. It’s been a beautiful, warm, and sunny day here at 14,000 feet. We treated ourselves to a brunch of bagels and smoked salmon, and spent the day stretching, reading, and drying out gear in the sun.
With our carry complete, we’re fully focused on the summit window now—and hopeful that it comes soon. All the preparation is behind us; now it’s just a matter of timing. Once the push begins, things will move quickly.
Send us all your summit-weather vibes!
—Pete, Ben, Nick, and the Team
New Post Alerts:
Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Crossing fingers and sending good weather vibes for you guys!!!!
Posted by: Jarmila on 5/24/2025 at 1:46 pm
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
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Friday, May 23, 2025 - 2:24pm PDT
Yesterday It was a cold, clear morning that promised to warm quickly with the sun. The ridge above looked calm, and everything pointed to a great day to go climbing. We watched a few other teams with similar intentions start out as we packed, and then set out ourselves. We made smooth progress to the fixed lines and then up to the ridge at 16,200. Surprisingly, we found ourselves effectively at the front of the pack, and feeling spry, we continued on along the West Buttress to 17k camp. It is some of the most engaging and interesting climbing on the route, and the views were stunning. We dropped our small caches at 17 and headed back for 14. It was a long, big-effort day, but 9.5 hours of work got the job done and got us back to camp happy and hungry. We’ll take a rest day tomorrow and then start looking for our summit window.
RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben, and Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Good luck on this final push! What an accomplishment! Praying for success. Be safe! My best to all!
Posted by: Maxine Hill on 5/24/2025 at 7:07 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 14,000'
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - 10:29 pm PT
Things started to turn nicer up on our big hill. The snow and clouds blew out today, winds quieted, and we spent the day addressing logistical hurdles. The first was that we found out last night that the downline of the fixed lines hadn’t been freed of its icy tomb, so there was a rope going up but not down- recipe for a traffic jam. We made a plan with teams from AMS to send a couple of guides from each team up to sledge hammer out the lines. Accordingly that meant we couldn’t go for a carry as a team. Additionally another guided team needed a guide loan to get their back carry in. So, Nick helped another team with their carry, got back in time for Ben and Pete to head uphill, then Nick took the group to the Edge of the World to look down on the lower Kahiltna Glacier and our first camp at Ski Hill. We were all reunited this evening over a tortellini dinner, and we’ll assess whether to get our carry in tomorrow!
Full team day.
RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben, and team
PC: Pete Van Deventer, Edge of the World. From Previous Expedition
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 14,000'
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Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - 9:59 pm PT
We had a brief burst of excitement waking up this morning as it was clearer than it’s been in awhile, but as we watched and inspected more closely, it was quite clear that the wind was quite strong along the West Buttress. We continued to watch and hope, but by mid morning it was evident that today was a day to rest. The sun did spend a good amount of time out, turning the tents into saunas. Several skiers in camp also went for laps below the fixed lines, so we watched the ski show as well. We’ll keep getting up early to check and see if it is our day and when it presents, the team is primed and ready!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Keep the updates coming! You can’t send too much info for all the folks down here, waiting for you to get back. Get the show on the road, and hurry home! Love you Brian!
Posted by: Maxine Hill on 5/21/2025 at 5:40 pm
Sending positive thoughts and good vibes!!
Posted by: Brittany on 5/21/2025 at 11:11 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 14,000'
Monday, May 19, 2025 - 6:37 pm PT
We took a full and proper rest day today. It has been snowing more or less all day in camp, and the winds started to pick up a bit this afternoon. That made it easy to take a long breakfast, rest and read in tents, and take naps throughout the day. We spent a bit of time building some snow walls, which everyone got quite excited about, and some more time reviewing fixed line techniques for when we go higher. We are working on a reindeer sausage jambalaya for dinner, and we'll see if the snow and wind let up over night.
RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben and team
New Post Alerts:
Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 14,000'
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Sunday, May 18, 2025 - 11:35 pm PT
Cache retrieval complete! It was an in and out snowy day, at time hot, at times cold, but winds stayed light so we bopped back to 13,500ft and retrieved our goodies. The rest of the day we rested and took stock. Most realized they have some work ahead to catch up on lunch food eating. Tomorrow looks snowy so we’ll take a full rest day, probably build some walls, and Ben has a short seminar called “get your fix” to get everyone ready for the fixed lines above. And though this will post tomorrow morning, Brian wants to wish Lacey a very happy anniversary (and we wish the same to them both!).
Best from 14,000' Camp to everyone at home,
RMI Guides Pete, Ben, Nick, and team
Let’s go!!! Congrats everyone. That’s an awesome accomplishment. Now get home safe.
Posted by: JP Love on 5/26/2025 at 4:49 pm
Congratulations to you all on making it to the summit.
Posted by: Peggy McMahon on 5/26/2025 at 12:25 pm
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