Hi, this is Brent along with Leon and Lindsay calling from 17,000’ camp on the West Buttress here on Mt. McKinley.
We have just gotten up to our high camp here today after a grueling but a great climb in which everyone climbed super well. Right now it’s about 10 o’clock and the guides are just getting into their sleeping bags after getting dinner and filling up water bottles and all that good stuff.
Currently the conditions are pretty good, a little windy just 20 mph winds. We are in a bit of a white out, a little snow blowing but not too bad.
We are up here now, the forecast isn’t for horrible conditions but not bluebird, perfect conditions either. And that’s ok for us because we wouldn’t mind a rest day after our big climb up from the 14,000’ camp this morning.
We’ll be waking up early to check the weather just in case we have a perfect day. If that’s the case and there’s no wind then we are going to go for the summit tomorrow morning. So wish us luck on that. Otherwise we’ll be here and we have plenty of supplies to last us through any storm that might come our way.
That is all from 17,000 foot camp.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
RMI Guide Brent Okita checks in from 17,000 ft on Mt. McKinley
17.2K so far! How quickly you’ve done this! SO proud of the whole group. Cant believe that you may actually have a shot at the summit so quickly! Wishing you the best of weather and warm sleeping bags for the night! Missing my nightly conversations with Pea! Enjoy the view from the top of the US Kristen and then come home safe and sound! Love you.
Posted by: Timothy Kelliher MD on 6/4/2012 at 6:55 pm
A well deserved rest day yesterday paid dividends today. The team moved efficiently to 11,000 feet where we set up a deluxe camp. The weather greeted us with a nice cold headwind with some fresh snow in the track, but that was not too much of an obstacle for our team.
We worked hard to furnish camp after arriving this afternoon. Our cook tent is especially posh and our tent platforms are perfectly flat with a 5-star covered rest area. We plan on enjoying the camp we have crafted for the next few days as we rest and shuttle loads.
We look forward to retrieving our cache at 10,000 feet tomorrow, a relatively short day, then rest and indulging on the treats in our currently cashed goodie bags. Eating well means feeling well in the mountains and this is something this crew knows well! Till tomorrow, the whole team says hi to all.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Rolf, Grandpa John celebrated his 92nd birthday this week by buying a new bike. Says he wished he had taken a trip like this and would have joined you if he were only younger.
Posted by: Martha Snyder on 6/7/2012 at 8:17 pm
Go Rolf Go!! We are thinking about you and following these blog updates with excitement. Up, up and away! Best of luck!
Hey this is Gilbert with the RMI May 15th expedition calling after a successful summit day here on Denali. We are back safe and sound in our tents brewing up some water and dinner. We left around 10 am under clear skies and very little wind. We had a great summit with eight clients and three guides.
Now we are back safe and sound. We are going to re-hydrate and re-fuel and beat feat down to basecamp and hopefully fly out in the next 24 hours or so and be back in Talkeetna.
So, that is all for now and we will keep in touch.
RMI Guide Gilbert Chase
RMI Guide Gilbert Chase checks in after a successful summit day on Denali.
Once we decided not to move for the day, the team slept late and gorged ourselves on a breakfast of toasted bagels with cream cheese and lockes. The rest of the morning was spent getting camp in order and digging out our walls.
Expedition life is a funny mixture of hard days of climbing and long days of sitting in the tents trying to avoid boredom. Today was the latter. We spent the afternoon avoiding the sun while we napped, read books and told stories. Being able to entertain yourself in the tent is a crucial skill on big expeditions.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we plan to make a push up towards the 11k camp for more acclimatization and rest before we push higher on this magical massif, Denali.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
"Its a miracle, I lit the stoves!" Exclaimed Roberto as he woke up the team this morning. When we entered the cook tent Roberto and Brent had laid out a spread of bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon. Roberto was quite the Italian gentlemen this morning running the stoves and serving hot water, while insisting everyone enjoy their morning coffee and cider, and even giving us a short Italian lesson. A big grazie to Roberto, our favorite Italian chef at 14,000 feet!
After a leisurely breakfast we took a walk out to the edge of the world. The edge of the world got its name because it drops away 6,000 feet below you. Allowing us to see our previous camp at 7,800 feet and giving us fantastic views of the Alaskan range.
That was our big event of the day, and now we are resting and preparing for our move to 17,000 foot camp.
Other exciting news was that RMI Guide Gilbert Chase on the McKinley May 15th Expedition checked in this morning as RMI Guide Billy Nugent and team were making their summit bid. We expect to hear from them later on tonight.
Sitting strong at 14,
RMI Guides Lindsay, Brent and Leon and team
Happy birthday Phil!! Meatloaf sandwich on me this time. Looking forward to the stories. Be well!
Posted by: mark deffe on 6/4/2012 at 8:30 am
Happy Birthday Phil, what a wonderful place to celebrate! We are inspired by you and your teammates, hope you aren’t tired of the poptarts. xox Suzy & John
Today the team succeeded in getting our cache all the way up to 17,200'. What an achievement! Another early start had us beating the madding crowds up the fixed ropes and allowing us to enjoy our climb on the Buttress with a peaceful solitude.
At Washburn's Thumb everyone was climbing well, but we decided to send one team on up to high camp while the rest of us conserved our strength and descended back to camp from 16,600'. After all, we had reached the highest point many of us had ever climbed to and were doing well. Our team of go-getters who went on higher even carried some of our personal caches with them so that all our cache would be together at our next and final camp. I'm still so impressed by how this team pulls together and helps each other out in times like these. It should be noted that seldom do any teams make the effort or have the strength to carry all the way up to 17,200' camp.
What we experience while climbing the terrain between the fixed ropes and 17,200' is nothing short of awesome. And for most of us this is the most exciting climbing we have ever done. Steep, exposed and beautiful. What more could we want.
Back at camp now everyone is resting well and looking forward to a real rest day. We'll sleep in and dine on smoked salmon, bagels and cream cheese. And maybe after that we'll get into something else. It will be a well deserved day of rest!
Until next time...
RMI Guides Brent, Leon and Lindsay
This morning we awoke to 6 to 8 inches of light fresh powder. We didn't allow this to stop our momentum. With calm winds and overcast skies we decided on a carry for today. We cached a portion of our gear at 10,000 feet with the intention of lightening our load when we move to 11,000 feet.
We are now back at our camp at 7,800 feet hiding from the sun, rehydrating and relaxing. For the past two days we have seen many climbing teams from all over the world. This trip of a lifetime is well underway and the team is climbing strong. As the winds pick up here at Camp 1, we are headed out to tighten up our camp and build some wind walls. Cheers for the team.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Hey, everybody it’s Billy.
I’m calling from 17,000’ where we are enjoying our third rest day or you could call them weather days. We have been sitting around in the clouds, it has been snowy and windy. We are hoping that this high pressure that is supposed to build this weekend over the mountain actually happens and we’ll get a chance to climb. Right now the team is hanging tight, chilling in their tent, every now and then getting out and working on the snow walls, trying to maintain sanity and waiting for this weather to lift so we can take a crack at the top. I’ll give you guys a call again tomorrow, let you know if anything new develops.
Take care,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from 17,000 ft on Mt. McKinley.
Breakfast was early this morning as the night was fairly warm and if we were to make a carry we wanted to not be caught up in the sometimes crowded scene that happens on the fixed ropes later in the day. But a quick survey of how everyone was doing at breakfast confirmed our suspicion that the day would be better spent resting and fortifying our camp from windy, nasty weather that can happen at any time. After all, we'd been going strong for six days straight. So, we enjoyed a leisurely meal of western omelette, bacon and bagels, followed by some warm pop tarts. And the best part of the morning was when Roberto Pellegrino took over and started turning out some killer pancakes leftover from another days breakfast. The morning amounted to a relaxed time just enjoying each others company. But of course my mind is always spinning and after my third hot drink I thought it might be worthwhile to at least get some food up to our high camp, and perhaps even see our friends Billy, Geoff and Gilbert. So, off Lindsay and I went. It was her first time actually on the Buttress itself, and it made for a fun trip. And visiting with our other team at 17,200' was great too.
Tomorrow we plan on all climbing up the fixed ropes and on to the Buttress. How far we just don't know. But, we'll be sporting nice light packs, a very welcome change for us all.
We'll be in touch tomorrow night as long as we get back early enough.
Brent, Leon and Lindsay
Way to go Elizabeth, Brandi, and the rest of your team. The photos are absolutely stunning. We miss you here but are glad you’re having a wonderful adventure!
Love, Victoria
Posted by: Victoria Bailey on 6/1/2012 at 1:20 pm
Doug and Audrey, we’ve enjoyed following your journey and wish you well. I hope you’re having a blast and enjoying a look at life “from the top”. Much love.
What does normal feel like at 14,200'? Certainly not what it feels like at home. At least not at first. The headaches and weariness that some felt last night evaporated by morning and it was nice to see smiles on everyone's faces at breakfast. Yet still, we are not fully adjusted to the elevation. This becomes obvious when some normally easy things like shoveling snow or even walking to the 'bathroom' cause our respirations and pulse to surge a bit. But, it's getting better.
Today we retrieved our cache from 13,500' and did some training in preparation for the most challenging climbing yet. Becoming comfortable with the mechanical ascenders that we will use for protection while ascending the steeps of the fixed ropes leading to the West Buttress is critical for our safe and efficient ascent. Next, being proficient in dealing with running belays used for protection on our climb up the exposed and most beautiful ridge of the Buttress is essential. And I'm happy to say that everyone is well prepared for tomorrows climbing.
Good news from our friends, RMI 2, led by Billy Nugent, who are now at 17,200' camp, is that there are plenty of supplies at camp there, so our packs will be fairly light on our first foray up to 16,000' or 17,000'.
Our climbing tomorrow serves two purposes. We do need to get food and fuel up to our next camp. But more importantly, tomorrow will serve to heighten our acclimatization greatly, allowing our bodies to feel even more normal up here. And the more 'normal' we start feeling here at 14,200', the more prepared we will be for our eventual move to high camp at 17,200'.
But that's jumping ahead a little. For now we'll just concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other for a few hours and see if we can't get a cache in somewhere above us.
Goodnight from 14,200' camp where our expected low temp tonight will hover around 0 degrees.
RMI Guides Brent Okita, Leon Davis, and Lindsay Mann
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Clear eyes, full hearts
Posted by: Coach Taylor on 6/5/2012 at 4:44 am
17.2K so far! How quickly you’ve done this! SO proud of the whole group. Cant believe that you may actually have a shot at the summit so quickly! Wishing you the best of weather and warm sleeping bags for the night! Missing my nightly conversations with Pea! Enjoy the view from the top of the US Kristen and then come home safe and sound! Love you.
Posted by: Timothy Kelliher MD on 6/4/2012 at 6:55 pm
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