Entries from Mt. McKinley
Sunday, June 30, 2019 - 5:16 PM PT
We're enjoying the thick air at Camp 4, at 14,200' in
Genet Basin. We got a good night's sleep last night, slept in this morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and bacon. An ample coffee. Today we are resting and waiting for colder temps by which to travel. There is a weather front affecting Denali right now, bringing winds up high and clouds and precipitation down low. We're sitting in between in the sun and happy at 14k. Our hope is that we can travel through the night down the Kahiltna Glacier to the Basecamp Airstrip and that cloud and precip will dissipate tomorrow so that we can fly back to Talkeetna. We'll let you know how it goes.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 10:10 PM PT
To deal with the heat, we got up a little earlier than we might ordinarily have for an easy day at 14 Camp. At 7:00 AM it is still shadowy and cool in camp but not so cool that we rushed our breakfast of bagels and salmon with cream cheese. The main task for the day was our back carry dropping down from 14,200 ft to retrieve the cached food and fuel at 13,500 ft. We were out of camp at 9:20 and down to the cache just 15 or 20 minutes later. The ravens showed no interest whatsoever in our buried treasure although we’d seen where they raided a nearby poorly done cache a few days back. After a bit of hard digging, we distributed the load and began trudging back up at 10:00. The route happens to be quite direct this season -- just a factor of a few crevasses either being bridged well or not in a given year -- and so it only took 45 minutes to get home. On the spooky side of things we witnessed the normally stable and well-frozen West Buttress shedding rock down its steep flanks due to the heat. Back at camp, the easy part of our day began. We took shelter and drank water. The forest fire smoke grew thick enough that we couldn’t see down onto the Kahiltna Glacier and all but the top 3000 ft of Mt Foraker was obscured. We were pleased to connect with
RMI Guide Mike Walter’s victorious team when they came down and became our neighbors.
In the afternoon we reviewed the techniques we’ll employ to safely ascend the fixed lines between 15,000 and 16,000 ft. Tomorrow the forecast calls for a weather change, but if that is slow in arriving, we’d like to
carry up onto the West Buttress.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 9:29 PM PT
We woke up to a beautiful morning with a tiny breeze and a clear sky. We spoke with
RMI Guide Mike Walter's team over the radio and they let us know that the weather was also nice at 17k.
We rallied the troops and made quick work of breakfast and tearing down our camp at 14k. Although 14k is a nice camp, we want to be in position when our summit opportunity arises.
We made our way back up the fixed lines and climbed the beautiful ridge up to
17k Camp. This camp definitely does not have all of the charm that 14k does. In fact, it is quite a bit more harsh up here. Nevertheless, the group is all happy and healthy tucked into our safe little tents.
The forecast does not look great for a summit for tomorrow, but we will wake up and get the "now cast" and see what our day will bring. We brought plenty of food and fuel in case we have to do some camping for a couple of days to get our perfect weather!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team Siete
On The Map
Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 4:46 PM PT
After a good night's sleep at high camp we woke up with the sun, had breakfast, and packed up camp. We descended the
West Buttress and the fixed ropes on the Headwall and made it back to the 14k Camp by noon to beat the heat of the day.
We've decided to spend the night here and rest. Our plan is to spend tomorrow here also and wait until colder weather at night to travel back to the airstrip at Kahiltna Basecamp. With any luck we will be flying back to Talkeetna on Monday. We'll keep you posted with our downhill progress. But for now we're enjoying some well-deserved rest in preparation for a long descent.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Friday, June 28, 2019 - 10:23 PM PT
The heat wave is on. The highest temperatures of the season -so far- are hitting the mountain. The freezing level was up at 13,000 feet today and that is the expectation for tomorrow as well. (It might "normally" be down at 8,000 feet this time of year). We were up at 4:30 to take advantage of the cooler morning shadows. It took until about 7:10 to get on the move though after a good breakfast and some packing and gear sorting. We rolled up the now familiar series of hills -Motorcycle, Squirrel, Polo Field- but this day had much less cloud about than our carry two days back. There are layers of forest fire smoke in the air though -a big fire (56,000 acres) is burning down on the Kenai Peninsula, among others. Even so, we could see all the way down to the Tordrillos at the southern end of the
Alaska Range.
We moved quickly around Windy Corner and then lost any wind or breeze as we worked up into the giant reflector oven of Genet Basin. It was getting downright hot at 1PM as we pulled into camp at 14,200 ft.
It was a fine thing to be greeted by Mike Haugen’s team taking their rest day. They helped us out with some water to get started and showed us a nice set of pre-built tent platforms not far from their own. We built our new home and then crawled in to take shelter from the blazing sun. Each time any of our climbers or guides came out -there’d be a few “wow’s” and some jaw-dropping or head-shaking as they tried to take in the views out over the mountains and glaciers to the South. And usually bigger WOW’S as they turned to look at
Denali’s South Peak standing a mile in the sky straight up over us.
We ate our dinner in a new snow dining room, told some stories and talked over plans for the next few days. First off, we plan to get a good night's sleep after a hard-working day.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Friday, June 28, 2019 - 8:38 PM PT
The wind last night was strong, but it tapered in the morning. And it was crystal clear. We left camp and tackled the Autobahn up to
Denali Pass where we were finally greeted by sunlight. Then it was up past Zebra Rocks and into the Football Field. One last climb up Pig Hill and we were on the exposed, corniced summit ridge. Everyone from our team summited today. It was a beautiful and warm summit day with only a breath of wind. Ten hours round trip and we're back at camp getting ready to eat dinner. Tomorrow we'll bump down to 14K and play it by ear from there.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Friday, June 28, 2019 - 8:01 PM PT
The 2nd rest/weather/waiting day was even restier than the first. The team is hanging in there and we really hope to head
uphill tomorrow. Here are the individual team members best ways to spend their rest days:
Ian - eat, sleep, and be merry
Wayne - napping!
Zach - reading
Kerry - texting colleagues about weather forecast and thinking of family!
Meghan - Hosting a 14k ft charcuterie and Gummi bear party outside my tent (eat it now or have to carry it down later). Was a hit!
Ann - building a snowman, checking return dates of caches around the camp, thinking if I have enough probiotics to handle the spicy dinners
On The Map
Thursday, June 27, 2019 - 10:44 PM PT
No alarm clocks this morning. It was a
rest day at 11K. Everyone came into the dining tent with smiles around 9 AM, having enjoyed lying in. We stretched breakfast to last a couple of hours as we swilled coffee and chowed down on perfectly constructed breakfast burritos. Some followed that with the first naps of the day, others read, chatted, sorted gear or daydreamed. It was a fine day with mild temps and strong sun. Nobody was sorry to have an occasional cloud throwing shade. We rehydrated and rested. R & R Denali style. There are only about three other teams at 11,000 ft at the moment - the climbing season is tapering off - and so things were quiet and calm. The forecast calls for a few more nice days, which is usually about all one can ask for around here. We will spring back into action tomorrow with the big move to 14 Camp.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Thursday, June 27, 2019 - 9:45 PM PT
Not much to report from 14k. We woke up late, ate breakfast burritos for brunch, and relaxed.
We did stretch out our legs and walk out to an area called the
Edge of the World. As suggested, the Edge of the World is a huge drop of that overlooks the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. We all got our hero shots from this spectacular viewpoint.
We are going to spend at least one more day at 14k to see if we can let some wind clear out before we return up high to 17k. It has been so nice at 14k that we feel a bit spoiled!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team Siete
Thursday, June 27, 2019 - 10:22 AM PT
We woke up and fired up the stoves early again today, hopeful for good climbing weather. But the clouds that were lingering above us at 4:30am have descended and engulfed the
Denali, including our camp. We are currently back in our tents staying warm and dry. There is near zero visibility with light winds and precipitation and high humidity. Unless things turn around quickly, we'll chalk today up as another day to rest and acclimate. We're hoping for improving conditions the next couple of days.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
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Talk about dining with a view!! I always love hearing about the food :-P
Have a safe trip down!
Savannah
Posted by: Savannah on 7/1/2019 at 11:02 am
I’m sure they’d rather celebrate with their new friends at Club 14 than rush home.
Posted by: Keith and Regine on 7/1/2019 at 9:08 am
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