Entries from Mt. McKinley
May 24, 2015 - 11:48 pm PT
Hello again from 11,000ft!
We woke up this morning to a fresh dumping of snow at camp, covering our tents and cook tent. First order of business this morning was getting everything dug out and reinforcing our snow walls.
The weather was still looking a little squirrelly afterwards, so we opted for a bit of a relaxed breakfast while we continued to watch what was going on outside. After a couple hours, our patience was rewarded and things cleared up enough for us to get organized and take off downhill to retrieve our cache at 9800'. We made down, grabbed our cached goods, and jammed back uphill in good time. This is a strong team! Everyone just keeps going and is having fun!
Once back at 11,000' with all our gear, the weather made a turn for the better. The skies cleared out, the winds died down, and the sun warmed us as we relaxed for the rest of the evening. If all goes well, we'll push up to 13,500' tomorrow to cache our gear around Windy Corner in preparation for our move to 14k.
Goodnight for now!
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and the rest of the team
On The Map
May 24, 2015 - 9:30 pm PT
The wind and snow continued through the night and into today. We spent the night listening to the roar of a freight train of wind above us on the
West Buttress. The max gust through camp, according to the NPS weather station was 52 mph. That wind and snow put a few holes in our posh tent, and knocked over a few walls, so we spent the morning stitching up holes and rebuilding walls. Otherwise we fared pretty well through the blizzard. This afternoon things started to subside, and by evening the sun was showing, sparkling off of the small snowflakes that are hanging in the air. Our hope is that that trend will carry through tomorrow, and we'll have the visibility to head back down and retrieve our cache from Windy Corner. Fingers crossed. The change in weather has also caused a change in the general mood of camp, and we're listening to laughing, joking, jovial voices all over camp. We'll let you know how things go tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Josh Maggard, Robby Young, and team
On The Map
May 24, 2015 - 3:35 pm PT
Well, there is not much new to report today. We're still waiting out the weather here at
14,200 ft on Denali. Last night was windy and snowy, with gusts up to 52 mph here in camp. There is lots of deep drifted snow around camp, so even just walking around is an exercise in trail breaking. The winds have let up this afternoon and it is still snowing lightly. Moderate snowfall is expected tonight and tomorrow, and with any luck it will let up by midweek.
We're all safe and comfortable, waiting for the weather to improve. When (if) it does, we'll have our work cut out for us; as a result of the new snow and wind loading, we'll be faced with trail breaking and evaluating the avalanche hazard of the steeper slopes above us. In the mean time, we're passing the time by reading books, chewing the fat, and the continual work of maintaining our camp's condition throughout the storm.
We'll keep you up to date with any changes in our current holding pattern.
RMI Guide
Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
Hello friends and family,
Apologies for the absent dispatches these last few days; Apparently clouds and Sat phones do not get along. We had a few eventful days on the Kahiltna so here is a quick wrap up. Our attempt on
Kahiltna Dome was thwarted by Avalanche conditions so we made a full retreat from camp II back to Base Camp under a blanket of clouds. The team set up a quick camp by the airstrip and started celebrating the trip with a few beers we stashed in a hole and some margarita's from a friendly neighbor. With some time to kill, a few folks wanted to know what the inside of a crevasse looked like so we set some anchors and lowered a few into the deep blue black holes that reach down under our feet. Doug perched himself at the lip for a photo session of folks climbing out of the abyss. Everyone flew off yesterday just before the weather shut base camp down and we enjoyed a fine dinner in Talkeetna and some drinks at the Fairview. A great trip with some of the finest people I've shared a rope with. Thank you all for tuning in and look forward to the pictures and stories headed your way!
RMI Guide
Leon Davis & Team
May 24, 2015 - 9:32 am PT
Winter has come to Denali. We spent the night listening to snowflakes pelt the tent walls, interspersed with frequent tent shaking blasts of wind. As we stretched breakfast into a long brunch, the story didn't change, so we decided to focus our energy on building up our walls a bit more and solidifying camp rather than going to get our cache. The evening brought stronger snow, and a fresh forecast of more snow tomorrow and wind, so we'll see how the plan for tomorrow shakes out. From the wintry white north,
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Josh Maggard, and team
On The Map
May 23, 2015 - 11:00 pm PT
In the real world the saying goes"the early bird gets the worm". This season on
Denali, the early bird gets the weather window. Now I've never been a bird before so I'm not gonna judge on how good a worm must taste, but I have been here before and I can tell you that moving camp in clear weather is much tastier than moving in a storm. So, with a clear but windy morning we scarfed down a warm granola breakfast cached some unneeded gear and quickly broke camp. Our team is getting very proficient at this skill so we were rolling by 9:15. Nick led the team out and in 2.5 hours of sustained up hill travel had us all sitting at 11,200 feet. It wasn't long after we began building a fresh camp that the weather had enough of being nice and took a quick turn for the worst. It held out just long enough to get camp built and then really started snowing and blowing. The forecast is calling for up to a foot of snow by the end of tomorrow so we feel blessed to be in a good spot to wait things out. Everyone sends big hugs to those following the blog and little hugs to those who aren't.
From from Camp three.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff and team saying goodnight.
On The Map
May 23, 2015 - 2:37pm PST
We're still comfortably camped in
Genet Basin waiting for better weather in order to move up to high camp. Today it is snowing and windy here in camp, and you can hear the winds howling thousands of feet above us on the West Buttress. We're still living quite comfortably in our tent compound at 14,200'. We're hopeful that the weather pattern will change after this weekend and we will have a shot to move to high camp and try for the summit. We'll check back tomorrow to keep everyone up to date.
RMI Guide
Mike Walter and Team
Saturday, May 23rd 12:44 am PDT
I would like to dedicate this dispatch (one of many I'm sure) to my six year old son, Liam, who's kindergarten class will be following the blog as our adventure unfolds. Hi kiddo! Daddy misses you a lot!
Up here on the mountain, day two was again a well executed day. We packed up camp at 7,800 feet and made a
single carry of all of our things up to 9,800 feet were we are camped for night. We each moved well over one hundred pounds divided between our sleds and packs. From here on up we begin to split the loads, taking some up the mountain in one carry and then returning the next day to retrieve the rest. The weather here is well below freezing at night and we have strong gusty winds that are blowing snow around. We got lucky to move into a camp that already had big snow block walls built to protect us a bit from the heavy gusts. Tomorrow we will decide what the plan is after we have breakfast and check the weather. So far so good.
RMI Guides Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt, and Andy Hildebrand
On The Map
Friday, May 22nd 5:52 pm PDT
The day dawned (that is, the sun rose since it's always some shade of dawn or dusk but never night) with blue skies and calm air in camp, so we hit the rally button, gobbled breakfast and set about breaking camp to head to 14,200 ft. As we climbed, clouds started to appear and stream over our heads and we knew that winds were building. Windy Corner lived up to its name, but it was really only unpleasant for a short while, with wind whipping snow and ice pellets into our face. As soon as we passed the Windy Corner, the winds died and the oven turned on. It's a long move to
14k Camp, and once we arrived the work wasn't over. We set about building walls, a new kitchen, and getting everything bomb proofed. Now we're settled into our new digs, happy, warm, and content. 14k Camp really is the cat's meow. Tomorrow we'll retrieve our cache, and it will be great to be fully settled.
Until then,
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Josh, and team
On The Map
May 22, 2015 - 5:01 pm PT
Once again we find ourselves resting at the 14,200' camp on
Denali's West Buttress. This is our second rest/acclimatization day at this camp, and we are feeling stronger each day. The weather is quite pleasant here in camp, with partly sunny skies and barely a breath of wind. The story is a bit different up higher on the mountain, where strong winds are streaming snow off of the West Buttress. Winds are forecast to increase and there is a high wind advisory for tomorrow and tomorrow night. That means we're planning to stay put in our comfortable and secure camp for the next couple of days while we wait for more reasonable weather in which to climb. We'll keep you updated...
RMI Guide Mike Walter & team
On The Map
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Much respect for you all and your endeavor on Denali. This is your year Will. Godspeed….
Posted by: John on 5/26/2015 at 8:10 am
Shannon—sorry we missed your calls Sunday night. Thought of you through the weekend and missed your smiling face and sarcastic jabs at Shakamak. Wishing you and the entire team better weather and a safe climb. We’re cheering you on!
Posted by: Mark on 5/26/2015 at 7:34 am
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