Entries from Mt. McKinley
May 19, 2014 - 11:14 pm PT
Hi Everyone,
We had a pretty busy day here on
Kahiltna's SE fork. Consistent and gusty winds from the north had us building a fortress of sorts around our tents and kitchen. There was some time in the morning for basic skills training in groups but by early afternoon the whole team went into wall building mode. It was pretty amazing to see how well everyone cooperated and their work ethic was close to exhausting. So much so that a small news team noticed the action from below and came up to video everyone working and interview a few folks. So tune in to KTVA Alaska 11 News on their website and you might see a friend or loved one on TV!
Tomorrow we are going for a day mission across the Kahiltna toward Mt. Foraker.
Stay tuned for more good news tomorrow!
RMI Guide
Leon Davis & Team
May 19, 2014 5:34 pm
The winds started to blow last night, and the temps dropped. The winds weren't steady, but periods of calm were punctuated by gusts that slapped and rattled the tents. All morning we watched huge plumes of snow stream off the
West Buttress, indicating steadier strong winds up high. Needless to say, it wasn't a day to head around Windy Corner. We spent the morning moving and fortifying our walls, as the wind has conveniently switched directions by 180 degrees. A long siesta in the afternoon should have everyone well rested and ready to go for a carry tomorrow. We're hoping hard for the weather to improve, to continue our progress, but the day of acclimatization can only help us at this point. Until then we are well dug in and will tuck in for a cozy night here at 11,000'. We'll be in touch tomorrow!
Hasta mañana,
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, and Josh
On The Map
May 19, 2014, 1:05 am PT
Hello all -
Our team is just crawling into their sleeping bags here at
Kahiltna Base Camp. Our pilots at K2 Aviation found a way in between a few windy spells and at 5:45 pm we touched down in sunny cool weather. By 9:30 pm we were having dinner and very happy about making it onto the Kahiltna glacier. Many of the team could barely hide their enthusiasm from the moment they boarded the plane until we crawled into our sleeping bags for bed time.
All is great!
Goodnight friends and family -
RMI Guides Leon Davis, Mike King and Katrina Bloemsma
On The Map
May 18, 2014 10:50 pm PT
Shortly after finishing dinner last night some light clouds sauntered into camp and began lightly snowing on us. Soon thereafter the winds kicked up and we had a moderately noisy nights rest with the wind sending our forecasted 6" of snow into outer space. This morning we awoke to clear cold skies and virtually no wind. Foraker stood to the Southwest with a few stacked lenticular clouds and the normal sprawl of Alaskan tundra was replaced by a sea of clouds. Today was another scheduled rest day for our team and we spent it reviewing fixed line and running belay techniques which we'll utilize on the upper mountain. We also took a short stroll across the glacier to check out a feature known as "The Edge of the World". This is the point at which the glacial plateau at which 14 camp resides on abruptly drops 6,000-7,000 ft to the Northeast Fork of the
Kahiltna Glacier. The team enjoyed the exposure and enormous views of Denali's "West Rib" and Mount Hunter. We also enjoyed our first sense of scale as we had a clear view down to our first camp at 7,800 ft and could finally get a sense of how far we've come. The weather stayed great for us today despite a forecasted low pressure system said to be moving through. Tomorrow we plan to tackle the fixed lines and move a cache of gear to just over 16,000 ft which puts us in great shape to wait for a weather window and ultimately our summit bid. All in all the team is doing fantastic, moral is high and folks are excited!
Best regards from Denali
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
May 18, 2014 10:57 pm PT
Today was a glorious day for a rest day. The sun was shining, and the winds stayed calm though we could tell they were blowing elsewhere. We spent the day watching clouds pour over the ridge of
Kahiltna dome, rolling down the backside and dissipating. It was beautiful to watch, and we were glad to be protected from the gusts. After a big breakfast of quesadillas, we sorted some food and gear for our carry past windy corner tomorrow. A quick review of cramponing and self arrest was as much activity as we needed this afternoon. We finished up the day with a big pasta meal and called an early night. We'll be heading uphill tomorrow to put in our 13,500' cache, which will set us up to move to 14,000' camp! The rest day was a great opportunity to recover from the last few days, and we'll be ready to go tomorrow!
All for now,
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, and Josh
On The Map
May 18, 3:27 pm PT
Greetings friends and family!
The second
Alaska Mountaineering Seminar - Expedition team is here in Alaska and almost ready to fly! Most of our gear is packed and weighed and now we are waiting for departure time. We have a few hours to go so we are setting up tents and prepping for our first night onto the glacier. Fingers crossed for an on time flight!
RMI Guide
Leon Davis and Team
May 17, 10:31 pm PT
The team spent today resting and acclimating at 14k Camp. Winds up high were strong today and about a half a foot of snow is forecast for tomorrow. We're all healthy and happy in our well-built camp. Hopefully the weather will break soon and we can put a cache in up high.
During the day, RMI Guide
Solveig Waterfall and I teamed up with some other guides and climbed up above camp to establish the fixed lines on the headwall that go from about 15,500' to 16,200'. The previously existing lines were buried in ice and damaged to the point of being unsafe and unusable. Now that we have good fixed ropes up there we all feel better about the prospects of safely climbing higher with our team.
With the weather forecast as it is, we plan to take another rest/acclimatization day tomorrow. We'll be in touch and keep you up to date with our progress.
RMI Guide
Mike Walter
May 17, 11:50 pm PT
Despite the forecasts that we have been getting the last few days, we woke to sunny skies and calm conditions. Everybody was excited to get the move to
11k done. Now that we are here, the first part of the challenge of McKinley is wrapped up. From here on out, we'll be done with the sleds and snowshoes until we head back for the airstrip.
The move only took a few hours, but we spent several more hours building snow walls and digging in. Right around dinner time the clouds moved in and it started to snow, about an inch in the last two hours. It looks like we'll wake to several more in the morning. The weather dovetails well with our overall plan however; we've had three hard days with big loads and tomorrow is the perfect time for our first full rest day. Our plan is to eat a fat breakfast, read some books, practice cramponing, prepare for a carry to 13k, and then eat a big dinner. Everybody is psyched with our progress even more so with the prospect of a mellow day. We'll let you know how it goes!
RMI Guides
Pete Van Deventer,
Robby Young, and
Josh Maggard
Another beautiful and successful day. We woke this morning to sunny skies and a cool, fresh breeze blowing. We put away breakfast and coffee, and then packed camp. The first stretch up ski hill is a steady, consistent grind, and in many ways we were happy for the breeze. Several other teams were moving around us as well, so we were trading leads with a handful of them. One of the great parts of climbing
McKinley is meeting other climbers from all over the world. The camaraderie of the mountains is pretty special.
Once we reached our camp, we spent several hours setting up tents and building some burly snow walls. We aren't sure if the winds will ramp up as forecast, but we'll be ready if they do. We are going to play tomorrow by ear, but for now everyone is settled into tents with full bellies.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Josh Maggard
We woke this morning to pretty robust winds at our 14,000' camp. After breakfast and hot drinks we headed back down to retrieve the cache we left a few days ago at
Windy Corner (13,700'). The winds subsided and we had a busy day between the back-carry, building stout walls for our camp, and digging out a kitchen tent. Everyone worked hard today and is doing well with the altitude.
The weather forecast is calling for some pretty strong winds for tomorrow, so we're just planning on resting until conditions improve and we can put a cache in up high. Hopefully the winds will subside sooner rather than later.
That's it for now. We'll check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide
Mike Walter and Team
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What beautiful surroundings! Im at the beach with our daughters but we are checking on Chuck and hoping for the best for his adventure!
lori Harrelson
Posted by: Lori Harrelson on 5/21/2014 at 7:09 am
Thanks for blogging this trip! My husband is there and our boys and I look forward to your daily notes and photos to track daddy’s climb! Good luck and God bless!
Posted by: Brooke Q on 5/21/2014 at 1:43 am
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