Entries By tatum whatford

Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 9:28 pm PT

After a another day of waiting, false starts on packing and taking down our tents, and some general finger twiddling, we suddenly got the very positive news that K2 had launched all four of their otters to come get us yesterday evening. The trusty planes hit the runway in quick succession, not unlike a military drill and we were loading duffels, packs, and sleds with excitement. We went on the slide down the runway one more time and we were off, airborne for Talkeetna. The flight out was a bit bumpy and we dodged clouds through the Alaska range to get home. It was quite evident how hard the pilots had worked to come get us. 

We landed in Talkeetna and disembarked to the fragrant smell of plants, technicolor hues of leaves and grass, and gratefully removed our boots and traded for flip flops. And just like that, we had reached the end of the expedition and achieved our ultimate goal - to come home whole. We gathered at the Denali Brew Pub for a celebratory dinner and poked our head in the historic Fairview Inn for a touch more celebrating. 

This morning we dried our gear, repacked bags for flights home, and got ready to head our separate ways. There is a strong bond that develops sharing tents and some trials over 23 days on a glacier. It's bittersweet to move on, but we do so knowing that this team came together in a way that made everyone stronger, they stretched to meet all of the many challenges we faced, and we came back successful. From Henry, Tatum, and myself, we would like to thank all of our team sincerely for being so strong, fun, and patient, and many thanks to everyone's families for the support and for following along. This is a long strange trip that none of us will soon forget. Flight plan closed. 

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

June 1, 2023, 10:30 pm PDT

MOUNTAIN DAY 22 -

We had hopes this morning as the base camp manager said to ready everything and that planes were on the way. By 8:30 several planes hit the runway and stayed to load climbers. They departed and as the clouds edged closer, we were told they were launching planes for us and they were trying to get in. But the snow started and visibility shut down and the planes stopped landing. We kept waiting for the snow to stop and a hole to open, but it didn't come. It is now calm, but snowing prolifically. Midwinter, we would be going to sleep excited about the powder day to come. Here, we beg for it to stop so we can make our way home. But we are in a beautiful place, and we count ourselves warm, dry, and lucky to experience the power of the Alaska Range. 

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer and team

Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 8:25 am PT

We made it to base camp! We had a smooth, though sticking with the theme of the trip, pretty white walk out to Base camp. We got in in the early afternoon relieved to be done pulling our sleds and shouldering heavy packs. The clouds didn't promise much for flying out, but we stayed hopeful and lounged on our packs and sleds. We had left ourselves some celebratory materials and we enjoyed those. A few clearing trends and blue skies gave us hope a few times but by 8pm we accepted that we would have another night in tents and set then up, made a last dinner of burritos, and crawled back into sleeping bags. We are happy to have done our part now. No more packs or sleds, just waiting for weather to cooperate. And it is so much warmer, and easier to breathe down here! 

Hopefully weather let's us fly off soon!

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - 1:28 am PT

Denali's 17,000' Camp is a necessary evil. It's not particularly pleasant to exist there, even when it's nice out. With our objective secured yesterday, we were all ready to get out of that high and forlorne place. We set out today to get as far from 17,000' Camp as we could. We descended the West Buttress, down the fixed lines to 14,000' Camp. After some socializing with the other teams at 14,000'. We set our goal again with the intention of getting to 11,000ft. It has been snowing quite a bit since we passed these locations. There was a good boot track in, but there was well over 12 inches of new snow blanketing the Polo Field and Windy Corner. We'll wake up early and rally to the airstrip with the hope that we can fly first thing tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Snow camping is fun, especially at altitude, but all anyone can talk about is beer and burgers, and it is time for a shower and feeling warm once again.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 - 8:26 am PT

We finally got everything to come together. It was calm and quiet in the morning and we got out of camp early, ahead of everyone else. The Autobahn had filled in and took some work and time to put a track in, across to Denali Pass. It was shady and cold, but the team worked well. At Denali Pass, we stepped into the sun and also a touch of wind - just a light breeze. It kept things cold and we continued to work up. At points we would lose the wind and it would suddenly turn so hot, then back to cold. We played that game to the Football Field, and then up the summit ridge. By midafternoon we were standing on the summit of Denali! The summit was pretty warm and we got some photos before turning against traffic and the rest of the mountain. We retraced our steps to camp and fell into bed, happy to have the first part of the mission accomplished. Now we will set our sights lower on getting to thicker air and the airstrip.

Congrats to all the climbers!

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer checked in from the summit of Denali at 5:50 pm PT on Monday, May 29th.  The team returned to their high camp at 17,000' around 1 am PT.

Congratulations to the May 9th Denali Expedition!

Sunday, May 28, 2023 - 6:42 pm PT

Today didn't work out exactly as planned. When we got up it was calm as promised, but a complete white out in camp. Snow was falling lightly, straight down. We dragged our feet to see how it would evolve. As the sun came up, the clouds did push up a bit, and with some sight it was clear the wind was moving strong up high. Within a few hours, that wind made it to camp as well. So we spent the day in the tents dodging intermittent snow showers and wind gusts.

We are hoping that tomorrow brings us better summit weather and that Mother Denali let's us pass.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

May 27, 2023 7:28PM PT

Things were exactly as we hoped this morning, calm, and blue above.

We woke earlier than most, and had our chores taken care of quickly to get out of camp.

We were roughly the second team out, which turned out to be the right move as it seemed like nearly everyone at 14 headed to the fixed lines today. From the top, we could see a near to continuous line that stretched back to 14.

We made good time and rolled into camp at 17 around 4pm. Then started the laborious work of building camp. It's hard to do anything up here quickly - walk, shovel, stand up too fast, so it took some time, but we are now settled in - working on melting snow for water and hoping that tomorrow gives us our summit shot.

Pete, Henry, Tatum and Team

Thursday 5/25/2023 10:00pm PDT

Another good rest/ weather day for us today. The snow, clouds, and breeze were in and out and it was an obvious day to sit. 14,000’ Camp on Denali is turning into a small city as more and more teams move up and run into the same weather waiting game. When we first moved up there were only a handful of scattered camps. Now 14,000’ Camp is continuous, and you can meander around, walking down alleys between snow walls.The team took on a variety of tacks to stay entertained. One intrepid member measured the perimeter of camp to be a quarter mile and did a 5k, jogging some of it. A few members even joined in at points. Others wandered around and chatted with other RMI Expedition Teams. And one member has now read the ingredient list of all their snack food!

Tomorrow looks to be more of the same and already the team has made plans to build an igloo, and perhaps more - the site plan is still being finalized. The 14,000’ Camp hang continues

RMI Guides Pete, Henry, Tatum & Team

Wednesday, May 24, 2023 - 11:14 pm PT

It was a good day for us to sit. Yesterday's strong effort meant everyone slept well, and long. We got up late, enjoyed our last bagels and smoked salmon, told stories, and generally enjoyed the rest day. Snow and clouds intermittently invaded camp, with some breaks of brilliantly strong sunshine. For a bit of movement and boredom cure, we built a bunch of walls to deflect the wind that may come tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will rest again, as the forecast calls for winds at 17,000' to elevate significantly tomorrow. We'll see how this weather system plays out, and it's good comfort for us to know that all of our pieces are in place and when the window opens, we'll be ready.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer