Entries from Mt. McKinley
Greetings everyone! This is Mike Uchal from the June 19th Denali Expedition with Adam Knoff, Zeb Blais, and team. We are celebrating the 4th of July here at 17,000’ with fresh coffee and great group stories. We are being proactive at fighting an impossible tent-bound fever with short jaunts outside and hot meals in our group tent, when the weather allows. We’ll continue to play this now mental game as we continue to wait for our weather window for our summit attempt. Please stay tuned Lower 48 and happy 4th of July to all of our friends and family from our team here at 17000’. Good bye.
RMI Guide Mike Uchal
Our team is spending the night at Basecamp tonight, as the weather has been un-flyable all day today. We were fortunate enough to have perfect weather for our summit day, and this little weather glitch is now merely an annoyance. We are all looking forward to some simple amenities like hot showers, cold beer, real beds, running water, and the opportunity to talk with loved ones on the telephone. But we know that these will come shortly and we're already accustomed to being patient with the weather; the important thing to remember is that we had a safe and successful trip on
Denali, and the weather worked out for us when we needed it to. This little waiting period in Basecamp is just a reminder that the mountain is still in charge and we need to play by its rules.
We're optimistic that we will get to Talkeetna tomorrow and finish our expedition. Until then, we're all safe, comfortable, and happy. Hopefully our next dispatch will be from Talkeetna tomorrow.
Cheers,
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
And we were getting so lucky with weather to this point... Ah well, we did our best to make use of a break in the snow and wind today. It started, here at 11,000 ft, with a snowy and socked-in morning. Many a team leader came out of his or her tent and then went right back inside, waiting for something better to work with. We were up at 7... but then gave it a pass until 8 and then we took a look at 9 and had breakfast. Things did start looking up by 10 and a few teams went for it. We liked the trend by 11 since we were seeing a lot of blue sky above (the uppermost part of the mountain was still in cloud) and only some indication of wind here and there. We were wearing our spikes and carrying our ice axes out of camp by 12:20. Our intention was to carry food and fuel up and around Windy Corner, cache it and then drop back down to 11 camp. The first hour went great. That was spent on "Motorcycle Hill" which was far steeper than any hill we'd tackled so far on the climb. From the top of Motorcycle, we could see winds starting to whip at the top of "Squirrel Hill" our goal for the next hour. We topped the hill in a fairly vicious and cold breeze and pushed on into the "Polo Fields" below the end of the
West Buttress. From there, we had a good view of Windy Corner, which looked... you guessed it, windy. We decided not to push things too far, although the team was handling everything just fine to this point. We chose a cache site at about 12,850 ft and dug in. The only reason for burying it all is that ravens long ago developed a taste for climber food and a talent for ripping a cache to shreds. We couldn't see any ravens, but by this point in the day we were seeing a lot of blowing snow and swirling cloud again. With light packs, we made good time getting down the hills and back into 11k. We were home by 5:30 and dining in the shelter of our posh tent by 7:00 while the storm intensified. It isn't a terrible storm yet, just some wind and snow, but we hope it plays out overnight and leaves us in peace.
Your messages to the web site were passed on to us and were thoroughly enjoyed by all the team. Thanks for the well wishes... keep those fingers crossed.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
This is
RMI Guide Adam Knoff, checking in from high camp on Denali at 17,000’. We had a sweet climb from 14,000’, up the fixed lines and along the crest of the
West Buttress, eventually dropping into the basin where camp is placed. What an absolutely spectacular day of climbing! Unfortunately, the predicted nice weather did not materialize and in fact, has deteriorated. Such is life on Denali, where all movement is dictated by weather. We are securely entrenched in camp, with sturdy walls and a posh cook tent. We have plenty of supplies, and now it becomes a waiting game. We will keep you updated.
On The Map
After summiting Denali on the 1st of July, our team has not stopped working. We descended from high camp yesterday morning, and continued to Camp 3 at 11,000' for dinner and some shut-eye. The former was in full effect in the form of bacon-chicken quesadillas, and the latter was in short-order, as we woke up at midnight to start our descent to Basecamp. After taking advantage of the early morning frozen snow conditions on the lower
Kahiltna glacier, we arrived at Basecamp at 8:30 am. Now it's just a matter of waiting for better weather to allow planes to fly and take us back to Talkeetna. We are all napping in our tents while we anticipate sunny skies.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
There were a lot more clouds around when we woke at 5 AM at 9,500 ft on the Kahiltna. As we ate and packed, there was a hint of snow, but we still could see a good distance down the glacier and there was a sense that we were just getting the normal flow of weather that likes to hang about 10,000 ft Kahiltna Pass -the divide of the
Alaska Range in these parts. We were roped and plodding into the murk by ten minutes after seven. As with the past two days, we wore snowshoes even though the surface was frozen up and supportable. Snow fell from time to time in our first hour of moving toward the Pass, but then we did climb out of the flow of cloud when we turned the corner at the top end of the glacier. As expected, the last pull into camp was a tough one with our heavy loads, but everyone did well and seemed quite satisfied to arrive at 11,000 ft at 11 in the morning.
We were actually surprised to see a few dozen tents around camp, having gotten used to not seeing so many people in the last few days. It makes sense though as a number of teams had come on the mountain in the days before we'd gotten on and we all tend to slow things down when we get to 11,000 ft. With that in mind, we'll attempt to carry a load of gear and food to around
Windy Corner tomorrow but then we'll come back down for a second and most likely a third night at 11K. We want our bodies to catch up with the altitude before we make the big jump to 14,000 ft.
We did plenty of catching up with friends and fellow guides during the day at this impromptu reunion, but we were particularly pleased to spend a little time with
Mike Walter and his team as they came into camp in late afternoon, freshly down from hitting the top yesterday.
Clouds came and went through much of the afternoon and evening, and now at 10:30 PM, it is snowing lightly with no wind. That blanket of cloud tends to keep the air temperature a little higher than it would otherwise be at such a lofty altitude. We'll hope for reasonably clear weather in the morning and that we can go for a climb.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Adam Knoff called in at 3:50 p.m. PT from the base of
Washburn's Thumb. The team is on their move to 17K Camp to get into position for their summit bid. All is well and the weather is good.
On The Map
Hi, this is
Mike Walter checking in from 14,000’. We have descended the
West Buttress and are back at the 14,000’ camp. Everyone is doing swell. Our plan is to continue the descent to 11,000’ and hunker down for a few hours. There we’ll ‘brew up’ hot drinks, grab something to eat and nap for a few hours. We’ll traverse the lower Kahiltna Glacier in the wee hours (when it’s coldest) headed for Base Camp. We hope to arrive at BC tomorrow morning, unless the Weather Gods have other plans in store. That’s all for now from our tired and happy crew.
On The Map
At 4:45P (PDT)
Mike Walter called from the summit of McKinley:
This is Mike and I’m calling from the summit of
Mt McKinley! The weather is beautiful; no wind, and just a few clouds. The summit of Mt Foraker (17,400’) is 3,000’ lower than us, and Kahiltna Base Camp is 13,000’ below us! Our ascent from high camp took seven and one-half hours, which is very good time. We’re taking hero shots, hugging and congratulating each other, but soon it will be time to descend to our tents. After a well deserved rest, tomorrow we will down-climb the West Buttress and reach the thick air at 14,000’ camp. More reports will follow.
Congratulations to the Mt. McKinley June 12th Team!
On The Map
Another early start and another straightforward move up in perfect conditions. We got up at 3 AM and ate breakfast in the cool shadows blanketing our 7800 ft camp. On our second day of climbing, it was already becoming routine to knock down the tents and get packs and sleds squared away for travel. We were roped up and moving up Ski Hill by 5:45. The hills were big and the loads were as well, but we slowed the pace and worked our way up. Again, we found the surface frozen hard and easy for sledding and walking without sinking in. Distances weren't terribly significant and it only took us three and a half hours to reach the top of the hills at around 9500 ft. We built a camp and dove into the tents just as the sun started heating the giant reflector oven of the upper Kahiltna Glacier. Afternoon was spent in slumber, or in reading, or in watching iPod movies, or in snacking and drinking water. Some did it all. We sat in our "POSH" dining tent chatting for a few hours at dinner. At 8 PM we tuned in our radio to catch the mountain specific weather forecast (which calls for a little bit of snow at our elevation tonight). Far more entertaining was our conversation with the other RMI teams on the mountain. We were excited for Mike Walter's summit and safe return to high camp and to hear that Adam Knoff and his gang are good to go for moving to 17,000 ft tomorrow. If our good luck holds, we'll cruise on up to 11,000 ft tomorrow with our strong and steady team.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
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DG,
Enjoy your time on the mountain. I was in court today in Durham and all the Marshalls were asking about you. Speaking of court—that’s where I’ll be tommorrow, Monday and Tuesday. And I’m not even the litigator in the family. So, there are worse things than waiting on a weather window! Bet you wish you had a Kindle though!
Stay focused!
Stephanie
Posted by: Stephanie on 7/5/2012 at 4:49 pm
Hi Uncle mike! It’s grace and sam. Boudro says hi! (mom says its Boudreaux but i dont like like that spelling) he’s very crazy! We miss you soooooooo much. Guess what? Mom’s pregnant! Yay, we are so excited! Have fun!
Posted by: Grace and Sam on 7/5/2012 at 3:22 pm
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