Entries from Mt. McKinley
Last night dropped over a foot of new snow and the morning dumped close to six more inches. As we hide in the midday heat of the tents, the wind blows 50+mph in gusts. One minute it is calm, the next minute we brace against the walls of the tent as the wind tries to push them flat. After a few rounds of shoveling, we break for a toasted bagel breakfast, then more shoveling, building snow walls and hiding from the gusts. The sky has cleared as we watch enormous plumes blow off the
Buttress above us as well as enormous avalanches coming down from the upper slopes. Other climbers and our team our able to enjoy the show, knowing that we are a safe distance from the action. The snow currently continues to patter our tents. We are hopeful that better weather is coming on the horizon.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
On The Map
Throughout the night the clouds surrounding camp started to produce snow and dropped over a foot around our tents. Plans are always in flux up here and our carry higher on the
mountain has been postponed. The crew is unfazed, merrily digging out our home and relaxing with a big salmon and bagel breakfast. Another round of digging and a bit of rest before our upcoming potluck lunch. Down days can be productive, storing up strength for higher up on Denali and fine tuning the essential camp skills required for the future. That's all for now, cross your fingers for a break in the weather and we'll check in later.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
On The Map
Today we awoke to 6 inches of new snow at 14k camp. We have continued to eat well. Today our breakfast consisted of egg, cheese and bacon burritos. Over the course of the morning the clouds dissipated and the wind calmed down a little. Eric and I decided to head up and move the cache we previously left at 16k, up to our
high camp. We also added an extra food bag and fuel can to our supplies up high.
With
Brent Okita and team up at high camp for the last several days, waiting for their window to summit, they offered a big helping hand. Thanks Brent, Leon, and Lindsay! Due to high winds in the morning, they volunteered to walk down from high camp and help
Eric and me carry our whole cache from 16k to 17k. We can not thank them enough for their help! Our efforts were somewhat tiering, but will allow the team to move more smoothly to 17k when weather allows. Rather than stopping at 16k and schlepping our cache and our full camp kit to 17k, now the team will be able to conserve energy by smoothly moving to 17k.
Upon our return to the team at 14k, we discovered that our third guide,
Logan, had rebuilt our snow kitchen and cooked up a nice dinner. What a pleasant surprise.
The crew is in high spirits and getting anxious to move to higher ground and make a summit attempt in the next few days. The ground work and logistics are in order. We just need a few nice days to execute our plan. We look forward to moving into more inhospitable environments and nearing the top of North America. Our careful planning has paid off and all our ducks are in a row. The team had a nice moral boost with an afternoon reading of all the positive vibes from the blog comments. Thank you all!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
On The Map
Last night we received another foot of snow, though it wasn't nearly as windy as the previous night. Although it was a significant storm, come morning something about it felt different causing me to check the weather regularly. Sure enough, by the time we got up at 9:30 the skies had cleared and it was beautiful. Except for the winds blowing the new snow around
Denali Pass and the ridge above.
It was yet just a little too windy for us, plus all the trail breaking of the previous days was gone, so we hung out at camp and enjoyed our nicest day at 17,200' yet. Another day for the snow to settle will help reduce any avalanche risk as well However, a report by another guide that poked his nose into the conditions affirms what we have been seeing already, and eases my mind considerably.
After a breakfast of grits, Leon, Lindsay and I went down to 16,200' to help out our next group led by Tyler Jones by bringing their cache of food and fuel up to 17,200'. This eases their move day enormously, and gets some provisions up here in case our already less than stellar luck with the weather turns south even further.
And now, for the first time all trip, I'm very optimistic about our chances for the summit. Things seem like they are finally falling info place. Of course, tomorrow is another day ...
Right now it is warm and windless, and we are getting ready for dinner. Wish us luck!!!
RMI Guide Brent Okita
On The Map
We awoke at dawn. Not all that impressive because dawn is at least 8 hours a day this time of year. Once awake we had a beautiful cruise down to our cache at the corner of the
Kahiltna Glacier with great visibility in the early morning light. We loaded our packs and reveled in the absence of the sleds/anchors and even picked up the pace a bit to help with our acclimatization. Back at camp it was second breakfast, a nap and a bit of technical review before dinner. Tomorrow, if the mountain allows, we will carry towards 14 camp and return to 11,200 feet to recover.
That's all from here, the team is doing great and looking to take it higher tomorrow!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
On The Map
From 14k camp on
Denali's West Buttress, it is only a short walk to one of the best views in the entire range. The perch is called "The Edge of the World". The plateau on which camp sits falls away dramatically. Nearly 5,000 vertical feet below lies the infamous Valley of Death. This afternoon our team walked to the edge of the world and took turns getting belayed out to the edge to take in the view. This afternoon the valley floor was obstructed by clouds which would sporadically rise to engulf us, but several times we were able to glimpse parts of the wall thousands of feet below us.
The weather in camp has continued to be squirrelly. Last night we were buffeted by winds up to 50mph from various directions. Thankfully, we had already built a few snow walls to protect the tents, but the incessant flapping on nylon all night has convinced us to build more. The snow is falling fast now as we settle in for the night when we rise we will just see what the day brings.
RMI Guides
Tyler Jones,
Eric Frank and
Logan Randolph
On The Map
Last night as we were drifting off to sleep our first big storm with high winds and some snow hit us out of the blue. Even with the protective walls around our tents the winds were strong enough to buffet them and make you wonder how much stronger the winds would need to be to collapse them. But we had done everything right and all the wind served to do was keep us from sleeping as well as we might. Oh, and I guess it kept us from the
summit once again.
My biggest concern was for our Posh tent that relies on a single pole to support the paper thin fabric of the body. But, thankfully, besides about 600 pounds of Snow drifted onto one side, the thing held up well. So, we're still in business with our dining/cook tent. And a good thing that was when Kristen brought out her deck of cards for a few afternoon games of poker.
Just some routine maintenance around camp, shoveling, repairing sagging walls, had us out for a little while after poker, but we're all back in the tents relaxing and even getting in a little sleep.
All for now from 17,200' (where we're waiting patiently for better weather to find us)
Until next time,
RMI Guides Brent, Leon and Lindsay
P.S. As I send this a few hours later the latest weather forecast indicates that Tuesday or Wednesday may bode well for an attempt. That's good because that's about how much food we have left for up here. But we'll have some major trail breaking to do given the snow, It'll be a du challenge.
On The Map
A big aloha from
11 Camp!
We woke to our first clear morning of the trip, with brightly colored lenticular clouds stacked over Mount Forraker. It was cold and clear in our neck of the woods and we traveled well on our way to our cache at 10,000 feet. With slightly lighter loads we dispatched the final hill into camp and moved right in to camp. Now we rest during the heat of the day and recover after a great, but tough day.
Tomorrow, if the weather permits we will retrieve our cache and ready ourselves for life higher up.
Take care everyone,
RMI Guides
Jake Beren, Elias de Andres Martos, Thomas Greene and Team
On The Map
Well, we're still here at
17,200', day 7 up here and no summit in sight. In my 22 years of doing this I've never stayed here over seven days. I guess there's a first for everything.
But the team is still strong and committed to tagging the summit despite our little weather delays. And it's still only day 17 for us, so we're still well within our time frame for these trip.
This morning was nasty, so we relaxed in our tents until 11:00am and had the brunch that has become all too familiar these days. At that time the wind and snow abated somewhat and I entertained for the first time doing an evening climb of sorts. With a bit of a cloud cap over the summit conditions were not ideal, but we had been having some rather consistent clearing in the afternoon and evenings, and with daylight throughout the evening, late starts are not unheard of.
So, we set out for the summit knowing full well that if we encountered worsening weather we'd simply turn back. The important thing for us was to get in some walking to maintain out strength, acclimatization, and mental health.
The route that we had punched in the day before was gone, so we had to plow through 1-2' of snow to establish the route. Luckily the snow was quite stable and allowed us to reach almost 18,000' before I made the tough call to turn back in the face of some increasing winds and certainly not improving conditions.
But, we had reestablished the route and gotten in a little exercise. And everyone had climbed well! We'll be ready when the weather gods finally allow us to climb.
Back at camp over dinner we discussed just how long we might stay here at 17,200' waiting for our opportunity. Wednesday seemed like a date that would be reasonable to make our last day here. We have food and fuel to go beyond then, but for those of you wondering when your loved one will be coming back, I would say a few days after that would be reasonable. That being said, we do have some on the team that are willing to stay on beyond then. And for them, I guess I'd have to say that I too would be willing to stick around.
But... Let's not go there quite yet.
Kristen would like to wish Billy a happy birthday. And Gary would like to send Angela hugs and kisses from 17,200' camp.
All for now. Thanks for reading our dispatches!
RMI Guides Brent, Leon , Lindsay and the rest of the team
On The Map
This morning we were prepared for a day in camp as visibility was poor and the winds raged off the ridge of the
West Buttress. We enjoyed a long and delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon and three cheeses on a bagel accompanied by fresh coffee. Our meandering discussion spanned many topics and ended with a break in the snow and wind.
Ten minuets later we sprung into action, prepping our packs for a carry up onto the West Buttress proper to 16,200'. We dropped our food, fuel and other supplies for our summit push. We are now set for a move up to high camp in a few days or whenever we get a break in the winds and unstable weather.
With an evening arrival back at 14k camp, we plan to recover and rest in hopes of going upward soon.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
On The Map
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From the beautiful island of Zakynthos,and a girl that knows what it means to fulfil a dream. May god watch over you and your team and bring you to the summit safely.On your next trip to Zakynthos CHRIS I want to hear all about this climb. May god be with you.
Love & hugs & kisses xx Janet
Posted by: Janet Mastromauro on 6/15/2012 at 12:51 pm
Hi Chris !!!
Hope the weather is cooperating for you and your team.
Take care and keep safe.
Posted by: Debbie Gaudette on 6/14/2012 at 7:47 pm
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