Entries from Mt. McKinley
Posted by: Seth Burns, Jackson Breen, Raymond Holt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Saturday May 17, 2025 2:07 pm PDT
Seth Burns and Team checked in from Talkeetna, they are loaded and Flying onto the Kahiltna Glacier.
Let the climbing begin!
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McKinley Expedition May 13, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'
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Friday May 16, 2025 11:10 pm PDT
We had the perfect rest day. It was in turns quite snowy, whiteout and incredibly hot, and blue and calm. We crushed a breakfast hash scramble, then some cinnamon buns, then lingered in the cook tent swapping stories and stretching. That gave way to midday siesta/saunas. Eventually Nick and Ben got motivated and dug a pit to hang skis over and make a passable pull-up bar (#lookatmenowpaul). Video evidence was collected of numbers 100 and 101 from both Ben and Nick. No wasting away and getting weak on Denali for those two. A good dinner, and we’re hoping to wake to weather that lets us make the next move.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer & Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Seth Burns, Jackson Breen, Raymond Holt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
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Friday, May 16, 2025 - 10:19 pm PDT
We started our day with breakfast at latitude 62 and ended our day with dinner at latitude 62. Can anyone guess where our day will start tomorrow?!
We spent the morning talking about the finer points of Denali climbing while learning and practicing some new skills. In the afternoon, our pilots at K2 along with the Denali base camp manager saw a break in the weather. Giddy with excitement, we loaded up the plane with all of our bags, put on our mountain clothes, and patiently waited for our chance for take off. Unfortunately, mountain weather can be a fickle beast and the mountain wasn't ready to let us in just yet. We became mesmerized by some classic Denali climbing films and fantasized about when we would soon be in those very spots.
Waiting is inevitable in the mountains, but always hard, especially at the beginning of a trip. I could not be more proud of our team's attitude. They are taking everything in stride and with a smile. We are enjoying constant laughs, telling stories, and building camaraderie that will enable us to run when our feet hit the ground. We will be ready to fly when our time comes. Hopefully that time is tomorrow morning!
RMI Guides Jackson, Ray, Seth and Team
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McKinley Expedition May 13, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'
Thursday, May 15, 2025 9:49 pm PDT
In the words of Thornjamin “when we awoke the weather was like nahhh, but then it was like jahhh”, and we carried to 13,500’.
It was windy when we woke but it quieted enough to convince us to go walking and turned out to be a quite smooth day. Tomorrow looks snowy and we intend to chill hard. These are times that lead us to say thanks to those in our life providing a multitude of remote weather advice, especially to Henry, whose whiteboard of weather models, maps, sharpies, and seemingly random red lines have yielded incredibly accurate results. Ask him how he does it?
But in all seriousness, we are psyched to have a cache up high and be looking at a rest day tomorrow. Things are going smoothly, the snow makes climbing quite forgiving for this time of year, and temps have been balmy (relatively) as well.
Best from 11,000’,
RMI Guides Thornjamin Bennycroft, Nick, Pete, and Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Seth Burns, Jackson Breen, Raymond Holt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 9:00 PM PDT
Well, we did not fly today. The clouds around Talkeetna and especially on the Kahiltna kept the planes on the ground. While this is not exactly what we wanted it is not unusual. Our friends at K2 aviation run a professional outfit and do everything they can to get us safely on and off the mountain. While they kept their eyes on the weather, we spent the day enjoying coffee, going over rope skills, eating plenty of food, and even going on a nice run.
If you're reading this, send us clear sky vibes.
RMI Guides Seth, Jackson, Ray, and Team
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McKinley Expedition May 13, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Ben Thorneycroft, Nick Sinapius
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 - 10:27 pm PT
11,200’ is our new home! We weren’t entirely psyched when we woke this morning as there was a thick cloud bank and ripping winds where we needed to go. We did a partial pack and stalled and waited. As the sun climbed and warmed our camp, the clouds began to rise, and the wind began to die. That was enough for us - we pulled the rest of the camp down, loaded up sleds (all have names, goose and Tinkerbell are a few) and started uphill.
We had as smooth and steady of a climb as we could wish for and rolled into 11k this evening after a 7-hour walk. We are happily dug in and working towards dinner. Tomorrow we’ll go back to retrieve our cache which is a short day, and then be set to keep looking uphill.
RMI Guides Pete, Ben, Nick, and Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 10,200'
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Monday, May 12, 2025 - 12:17 AM PDT
Today showed us the dichotomy of weather in Alaska. After a cold windy walk yesterday, today’s carry to 10,200' was calm and HOT. We had a pretty leisurely start this morning after getting to bed late last night. Folks enjoyed the sleep, and woke up surprisingly (to them) recovered and feeling well. We left around noon and made good time up to the cache site, dug a hole to hide some things in, and then turned back to our home, enjoying the lighter-weight, downhill walk as the light got long. We got back to camp a bit before it went into the shade and plowed through some burritos as a reward. Sounds like we may see snow tomorrow, so what we do tomorrow will be a gametime decision in the morning. We would like to say Happy Mother’s Day and so many thanks to all the incredible mothers in our lives who give us so much support as well and who let us be in this incredible place!
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft, and Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
It was a pretty full day, prepping everything for a few weeks of glacier living and making sure we get it right. We started with an orientation from the Park Service this morning, before diving in to unpacking our kits, and repacking them for the flight to base camp, where we will unpack them again, to pack for climbing. It's a lot of shuffling but we're feeling confident that everything is set to go. And everyone was buoyed as the skies were clear as could be all day. These clear days are when Denali (McKinley) shows off, encased in white and gleaming brightly on the skyline. Weather continues to look good for tomorrow, so we are prepped to fly first thing and get this expedition truly underway!
RMI Guides, Pete, Ben, Nick, and Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
The team all made it without snags yesterday, and we hit the ground running, packing into the shuttle and heading for Talkeetna. After dinner, we ambled down to the river - the mountains were socked in but the icebergs floating by provided the ambience. The amble then magically led our feet to the doors of the Fairview, for a quick pint and an acoustic rendition of despacito. Then to bed in the arctic daylight. We’ll pack tomorrow and things look good for flights on on Saturday!
RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben and Team
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Denali Expedition May 8, 2025
Good luck on this climb of a lifetime!
Posted by: Maxine Hill on 5/10/2025 at 7:47 am
Keep her lit!
Posted by: Sinead on 5/10/2025 at 2:26 am
Posted by: Brent Okita, Raymond Holt, Mac Nolde, Casey Grom, Roland Scott, Miles Watson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb Led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Roland Scott reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent Okita reported a beautiful day on the summit with great route conditions. The team is on the descent and will be back at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon to celebrate.
Congratulations Team!
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Godspeed out there Will. We’re excited for your journey and thinking about you every day.
Posted by: Andrew and Nicole Gonzales on 5/18/2025 at 5:30 am
Have fun out there, Juan and team! I’ll be cheering for you every step of the way.
Posted by: Jackie on 5/17/2025 at 3:17 pm
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