Entries By hannah mcgowan
June 26, 2018
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan, Gloria Roe
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Monday, June 25, 2018 - 10:31 PM PT
We woke up early to clear, cold skies. Our mission was to carry a load of gear up to our next camp at
17,200 feet. We chose to leave early to avoid the heat wave that can occur on the fixes lines when the sun is hitting them. It seems weird that we are avoiding heat while climbing a giant mountain in Alaska, but the solar radiation bouncing off of all the white snow and other light color surfaces can heat you up something fierce!
Although the conditions were sometimes less than ideal with some deep snow and some blowing wind on the ridge, the Super Crew did fantastically! We are all pretty worn out after such a big day and deserve the rest day we are taking tomorrow. Send us some sunshine vibes so we can rest in warmth!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & the Super Crew
On The Map
June 24, 2018
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan, Gloria Roe
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Sunday, June 24, 2018 - 8:59 PM PT
Oh what a day! We awoke to cool, clear skies and quickly readied ourselves to go retrieve our cache at 13,500. As we walked and the sun began to rise higher in the sky our numb digits started to gain some life and the beautiful views put a little pep in our step. When we returned from the cache we lounged in the sun, listening to Rusty’s eclectic musical mix and filling our bellies with a delightful bagel breakfast. Later we practiced running belays and traveling on fixed lines in preparation for tomorrow’s cache at 17,000'. Our Super Crew cruised on through it and will do great with tomorrow’s climb. We are now packing bags and picking out the perfect food to stash at
17,000' Camp. We plan to rise early for our climb and be back tomorrow afternoon for some proper rest time.
All is well here at scenic 14,000' Camp!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Super Crew
On The Map
Saturday, June 23, 2018 - 9:57 AM PT
We’re moving up in the world! Today we moved up to
14K camp in style- everyone in our super crew moved well and took great care of themselves along the way. We arrived to our new home with sweltering sunshine with intermittent bouts of glitter snow and calm winds. We made our castle of a camp and enjoyed all of the things 14K camp has to offer- lounging, walking over to the NPS weather board, watching skiers and climbers coming up and down... Ain’t life grand! We intend to back carry tomorrow and reunite with the things we cached at 13,500 yesterday, then spend the rest of the day brushing up our fixed line and running belay skills before caching at 17K camp. We’re go grateful to be outside in base layers!! Thanks for tuning in and keep your fingers crossed that this great weather continues.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Super Crew 6
On The Map
June 22, 2018
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan, Gloria Roe
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 11,200'
Friday, June 22, 2018 - 9:49 pm PT
We woke up very early this morning to start checking the weather. We were trying to let the mountain tell us whether to head uphill to cache some gear or to wait another day for conditions to settle down.
Denali was cryptic for awhile but finally delivered a confirmation that it was OK for us to climb by clearing the skies up high.
We jumped into action and started climbing into moderate winds. The winds stayed with us for most of the upwards climb which kept us cool as the sun finally poked out.
The team finally got the view they deserved from our cache site at 13,500'. We have been living in the clouds for too many days!
If the weather looks good in the morning, we are going to head up to 14k feet and make our next camp. Fingers crossed for high pressure!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Super Crew 6
On The Map
June 22, 2018
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan, Gloria Roe
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 11,000'
Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 10:16 PM PT
After the Hurricane Horiskey beatdown and yesterday’s big move we decided today was a great day to rest and let our bodies begin to acclimatize to the higher altitudes. So we slept until the sun hit our tents and then we enjoyed a hardy meal of breakfast quesos and talked strategy for our cache day tomorrow. Post breakfast we enjoyed an afternoon snooze (have to let the breakfast settle) and then did some organizational prep before rollin on into dinner and a celebration of Josh’s 48 birthday! He had a smile bigger than the solstice sun when we sung him Happy Birthday and presented him with a cheesecake and mini cake complete with a candle. After filling our bellies we dispersed to our tents and are enjoying the rest of solstice snuggled up waiting for our cache day tomorrow.
All is well here with our Super Crew!
Happy solstice everyone!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
June 21, 2018
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan, Gloria Roe
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 11,200'
Wednesday, June 20, 2018 -- 11:14 PM PT
As it turns out, the sun does still exist!! We saw it last night— well actually just the cold sunlight that reflected off the moon— but it was surrounded by bright blue sky and we finally got to see the gorgeousness of the landscape we’ve been inhabiting for days.
We woke in a white out but made the move to
11,000' Camp anyway, with the thought that we must be right at the top of the clouds. Sure enough, we were right! Our new home at 11,000' welcomed us with sunshine to dry out our gear and allow for lounging not in a tent. After a big burrito dinner we are fat and happy back in our sleeping bags, but this time they’re dry and our alarms aren’t set to wake up every hour for shoveling. Much love to all of you who care enough to listen in! Sending special birthday wishes to Cody, Lindsey’s brother!
With love,
RMI Super Crew
On The Map
If you were wondering what kind of scenery you can see while
climbing Denali, don't ask us because we haven't seen anything in days! We are living in a giant ping pong ball where white snow meets white clouds.
We high fived Tyler Jones's RMI team as they made their way down through the muck headed towards Basecamp.
All we need is a short break in the weather and a small assurance that the next camp will not be any worse than here. We are hoping that tomorrow morning gives us what we need.
The team really is in good spirits considering the amount of tent time that has been logged during this storm and we are not even really on the mountain yet! There has been nothing but positivity and hard work from our Super Crew. So proud!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
June 18, 2018
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan, Gloria Roe
Categories:
Elevation: 9,600'
Monday, June 18, 2018 - 8:18 PM PT
Just when we were beginning to think the worst of the storm had passed, Hurricane
Horiskey came back with a vengeance. We spent the night trying to keep afloat by shoveling every hour on the hour. As the winds increased and the snow continued to fall we rallied the troops and began a train of shoveling in 30 minute shifts. This train of shoveling has lasted all day! And after a brief interlude for a warming Ramen dinner we are back at it. Although Hurricane Horiskey is a bit more intense than we would have preferred we are taking this opportunity to keep our shoveling arms strong and work on one of mountaineering's most important skills, patience. As you may imagine our Super Crew is crushing it and taking the weather in stride. When else would they have a chance to catch up on Breaking Bad or finish the Lord of the Rings Audiobook?? We are crossing our fingers that the weather will mellow a bit come tomorrow but until then continue to shovel as if we were headed for China.
Pray for good weather!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Super Crew!
On The Map
Sunday, June 17th - 7:47 pm PT
Whelp, we’re still posted up at
9600’ camp, but fresh out of tequila and island wear. Every few hours last night we had to call for all hands on deck to keep the blowing snow from piling up and over our tents. The storm took a toll on our kitchen tent, but we still managed to rotate through in small groups for a pancake breakfast. Now we are still listening to the snow and wind tap tap tapping against the tent walls, but we are all snuggled up with dinner and tea in bed. With any luck Hurricane Horiskey will ease up over night, but until it does we’ll be keeping a close watch on the snow accumulation and poised to shovel as much as we need to keep our little camp in good shape. Thanks to the hard workin' bunch of RMI Super Crew 6, we’re warm and the sounds of laughter from neighboring tents often overshadows sound of the wind.
Super Crew 6 would also like to add a shoutout to all the fathers out there! Happy Father’s Day! Much love From our windy, snow covered but Cozy tents to wherever you may find yourself today. Love you all!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
Saturday, June 16, 2018 - 8:47 PM PT
We thought we’d take advantage of the 24 hour light to catch up on our sun tans today and decided to stay put. Between the umbrellas in our Espolón drinks and the Hawaiian shirts, it was well worth it! Alright, I guess that’s only half true- we did in fact stay put, but unfortunately it was hardly a choice- strong winds and precipitation continued through the night and all day. It seems Mother Nature is in a fighting mood! It’s a good thing we built such high walls! Even still, the snow is piling up and nearly spilling over. We’ve got a whole crew of superstars though and we’ve gone all hands on deck to reinforce our camp a couple times throughout the day. Between shoveling frenzies, we spent the day laughing in the kitchen tent, napping, sport eating, and marveling at how quickly our outhouse keeps filling in with snow. Spirits are high despite the hard work required to thrive in conditions like this, and the whole team is currently snuggled up in big sleeping bags and down booties. The storm is forcasted to begin clearing tomorrow, but unfortunately that could mean anything here in
Alaska.
For now rest assured we’re hangin tough and taking care of each other.
With love,
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and the Super Crew
On The Map
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Glo and team! Your lofty goal is now within reach. Hope weather cooperates and you reach summit soon. What an extreme adventure….so proud to know you!
-Mary Ann
Posted by: Mary Ann on 6/27/2018 at 9:39 am
Go Glo and Team! After you rest your weary bones for the next tackle. An arduous journey for sure and so strengthening. Congratulations on all of it. Love and good vibes for the summit.
Mom
Posted by: Michelle on 6/27/2018 at 12:20 am
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