Entries from Mt. McKinley
July 3, 2014 - 11:19 p.m. PT
The forecasts had us optimistic that today would work out well for a
carry to 13,500 ft. At seven AM though, it didn't seem that Denali's clouds had read the forecast. It was socked in above, below and to the West of us. Even so, there was a mass exodus from 11,000' camp underway. The five other guided groups that we've been playing leap-frog with for the past week were all busting down their camps and getting early starts at moving up. By the time we'd finished breakfast, we had the place pretty much to ourselves (to our knowledge, no other climbers have come onto the mountain behind us). The weather, although a little murky and more threatening than we'd expected, seemed stable enough for our mission. We put crampons on our boots today instead of snowshoes, an ice axe in our hands instead of two ski poles, and we elected to give our sleds the day off, loading all food and gear for the carry onto our backs. At just after 9 AM we started up the steep "Motorcycle Hill" above camp. We made steady progress onto "Squirrel Hill" and then into the "Polo Field" laid out below the end of the West Buttress. By the time we reached Windy Corner at 13,300 we were thankful for the cloudcover which was keeping things just cool enough for comfortable climbing. And significantly, Windy Corner wasn't windy. We cruised up and around it to our intended cache site at 13,500 ft. Digging a raven-proof cache occupied us for long enough that the clouds began to clear while we were at it. This meant we were treated to some spectacular views during our descent. With lightened packs, we got down without difficulty. The route was in fabulous condition due to so much recent snow. We haven't crossed an open crevasse since leaving basecamp whereas in other years we might well have stepped over a hundred at this stage of the climb. The forecasted fair weather arrived and made our afternoon and evening resting back at 11,000 camp sunny and easy.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Thursday, July 2, 2014 – 4:43 PM PT
Yesterday our team experienced the unparalleled vistas of a clear sky at 16,200’ on Denali as we were finally handed a nearly perfect day. We loaded up three days of lunch and snack food plus a few personal items for our carry to the top of the fixed lines which crest Washburn’s Ridge—the most stimulating section of Denali’s West Buttress Route. The team did great learning how to jumar. All members of the St. Angelo family and Jay and Mary Lampas hit personal altitude records. Fatima did a great job breaking trail down the lines, literally paving the way for thirty other climbers on the same program as us.
The population of
14k camp has increased dramatically. What once was a camp that resembled a wide cow pasture with wandering wildlife now resembles a city with distinct neighborhoods on main thoroughfares. Just like a city, this can create traffic jams when multiple teams, all roped together, try to move around at the same time. This sudden influx of guided teams means we will need to wake up at 4 am, while the temperature here sits around 5 below, just to beat the crowds and avoid a bottleneck.
This afternoon we had a lengthy breakfast which leaned more along the lines of a leisurely brunch. We then took a beautiful stroll to an incredible precipice called the Edge of the World. Great weather allowed us more breathtaking views and inspired us for the hard days to come. Hopefully our next contact will be from high camp.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
Hello everyone!
Today has been a day of a little work and a lot of rest. We woke up to a delightful breakfast of bagels with cream cheese and bacon and after some casual conversation it was time to go retrieve our 10,000' cache. All was well except for a minor raven attack......thankfully the only casualty was a bag of ramen noodles. It was a 3 hour round trip and before long folks were back to relaxing and drinking glacier fresh water. Our plan for the rest of the day is to keep hydrating and get ready to carry a load to
13,500 ft tomorrow. Stay tuned as we continue our slow but steady climb up this giant pile of rock and ice.
RMI Guide Ben Liken
On The Map
July 2, 2014 - 12:09 am PT
Thank you for all of the blog comments. It is great to hear from everyone back home and it is always reinvigorating.
Today we got to sleep in and then scurried down to our cache above
Windy Corner. It was nice to be reunited with our food, clean underwear and base layers that we left buried in the snow for a few days. We then spent the afternoon doing some kitchen redesign, fixed line training and more sorting of food.
Tomorrow is an exciting day! We will get to see some more challenging and exciting terrain-- carrying to the top of the fixed lines!
RMI Guide Adam Knoff and Team
On The Map
July 1, 2014 - 11:13 pm PT
Today was a relatively easy move for the team. We were walking out of our 9,000' camp at 7 AM when things were crisp and cold. The track was in pretty good condition due to the number of teams that had been over it in the preceding 24 hours and our loads were light. We began in clear conditions but by the time we reached the big right hand turn at
Kahiltna Pass, we were in cloud. Passing our cached gear at 10,000', we began the more serious hills leading to 11 camp. The team rolled into camp at around 11:30 AM and set to smoothing out tent platforms. Right about then it began to snow, just as had been predicted. There are at least a half dozen other guided teams in camp, a few more than we expected to see, but most are staffed by friends and acquaintances. The team took a well-earned rest for the afternoon.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
June 30, 2014 - 11:19pm PT
After an impromptu camp on the polo field we woke up to intermittent wind gusts rattling our tent flys. We crawled out of our shelters to crisp cold weather and blue skies. We ate a quick breakfast and began to break camp to complete our journey to 14,200' feet. Amidst the chaos of packing our bags we spotted Billy Nugent and his crew descending from a successful summit, we exchanged high fives and and hit the trail. This time equipped with snow shoes and skis to deal with the waist deep drifts. We were feeling very happy about floating on the snow surface vs crawling through it. We had pleasant weather and relatively calm winds working our way around
Windy Corner. We pulled into camp and made ourselves at home, feeling the altitude a little we began to take care of ourselves and focus on the mountain ahead of us.
We are all feeling good and hoping for the best weather possible.
RMI Guide
Adam Knoff & Team
On The Map
June 30, 2014 - 9:44pm PT
Hey Everybody!
Last night we got our first taste of Denali weather as a wet snow fell, dusting our camp with six fresh inches. The little storm began to lift after a leisurely breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hash browns and we were soon able to pack our bags for a carry to 10,000' feet. Along the hike we witness spectacular views down the
Kahiltna Glacier and up to the start of the West Buttress. We are now back in camp resting and awaiting a tasty dinner of tortellini prepared by Zach. All is well here in the great north as the sun splashes some light into our dinning tent.
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide
Ben Liken
Hey, it's Billy here checking in from 14,000'. Our team had a lazy morning today and packed up and moved down from the 17 Camp to the
14 Camp on Mt. McKinley. We had some pretty slow going due to some wind and some kind of funky weather but especially due to very deep snow conditions, lots and lots of snow from the previous storm cycle that kept us at 17.
We are going to walk out of here early tomorrow morning, very early and head for the air strip. So hopefully the next check in will come from the Kahiltna landing strip.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
We lit our stoves at 3 AM today and had breakfast a short time later while enjoying the beauty of the Alaska Range in shadow. It took until 6 AM to get moving out of camp at 7,000 ft, but when we did, we were pleased to find that the snow surface was a hundred times more user friendly than it had been the previous afternoon. Our sleds slid easily along and we didn't have the problem of "post holing" that we'd experienced in the warm part of the day. We got to the
base of Ski Hill and began the hard work of the day, pulling heavy loads uphill for several hours. Clouds came over, giving some relief from the sun, but also bringing a new storm. Just as we picked and prepared a campsite at 9,000 feet, it began to snow. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon warm and dry in our tents as the snow intensified. Dinner was in our POSH dining tent, skillfully constructed by the guide team who battled to serve up a hearty supper in less than comfortable culinary conditions. Now as we are all in for the night, the snow continues to pile up outside. We'll wait and see what the morning brings.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
June 29, 2014 - 9:51 pm PT
Hello to everyone out there in blog land. We all wish, in some selfish way I suppose, that there was a sure fire way to teleport any curious individuals straight to our location here on what is commonly called the Polo Field of the
West Buttress. As I mentioned yesterday, a move to 14,000 foot Advanced Basecamp was on the ticket and we were gonna "make some hay" while the sun did shine. Oh how the "High One" can take any given plan and turn it into any thing she wishes. Like the oxymoron I spoke of about a "windless" Windy Corner. Can you say JINX! As it turns out, not only was the corner as windy as a Dave Hahn Everest story, the sun only shined for a few minutes before it started dumping snow again. Combine this with heinous trail breaking in the multiple feet of new snow and out pops a midway camp spot used only when the going gets tough. So tomorrow the tough will get going again and try for 14,000 feet once more.
Wish for warm toes, a better trail and quite winds.
Until Tomorrow.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
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Happy 4th to JT, SS and the rest of the team! Thanks for taking us all on this incredible journey with you. Wishing you clear skies and safe travels. Sending all our love, KK&J
Posted by: Kelly T on 7/4/2014 at 2:26 pm
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