Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Well the wind finally died down yesterday afternoon and instead of hightailing it out of 17 Camp, we chose to relax and enjoy where a few weeks work can put you. It was a gorgeous day to rest and recover and truly enjoy the place we had spent so much time and energy getting to and have the recent memory of our time on top fresh in our minds.
This morning we made a move down the mountain and retraced our steps down the West Buttress towards the fixed lines and 14 Camp. Few teams were out and about, mostly holding tight due to the higher summit winds and we rolled into 14 Camp to find that our kind friends with RMI McKinley Team # 6 had helped us out by digging up our cache. Thanks a bunch guys, so nice to have friends out here.
After increasing our pack weights, we headed down to 11 Camp and had some grub before catching a few winks. Soon we will hit the glacier for our final approach to the Kahiltna BC and see if we can high five RMI McKinley Team #7 and hop in a warm seat for the return to "civilization." It has been a fantastic trip and we've still got one more day to go, but we're certainly in no rush to leave this beautiful place and wonderful team.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
We moved a cache all the way up to 14,000 ft camp today. It is a big day to gain that much altitude with a big load, but our crew did great. In fact, several people commented on how good we looked as we pulled in.
We made great time getting back down to 11k. Jake Beren and crew stopped by for a visit as they are relaxing in 11k camp on there way out to Basecamp and the landing strip. Our plan is to move up to fourteen tomorrow, but only if the weather is as perfect as it has been.
Steve says hi to Tania!
Cindee says hi to dad and wants him to know she is safe and happy!
Quinn says hi to Liz!
Lance says hi to the girls! I hope Penny's school play went well.
Haugen says hi to Amber and the girls!
Peter says hi to Bob and Perk! Trust the puppies are doing well. Love to Ivonne.
Grasshopper says hi to Annie, Rose, and kin!
Katie says hi to Cody!
Uchal says hi to all his people in Rock City!
Sandra says hi to mom, dad, and Hikari!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
We are getting beautiful weather day after beautiful weather day! We retrieved our cache from 10,000ft. We are now set to bring a load up to around 14,000ft. This will be great for our acclimatization since it fits into the climb high and sleep low model.
The team has really been doing a great job of taking care of themselves. We are doing a lot of sport eating and drinking as we sit around camp. I am usually a hydration nag, but this crew is on top of it!
Stay Classy North America!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
So great to hear you have good weather. The pictures are amazing. Keep trucking. Love, mom and dad.
Posted by: Kathie Constantine on 6/19/2013 at 8:51 pm
Grasshopper, Big Steve, & Quiet Sandra - Cheers! Hope you’re enjoying a few rewards after work? That is along with proper hydration. Keep it up! Remember, hills are your friends!! Mtn Mo
Tuesday, June 18 , 2013
What a day yesterday was! We were the only team to climb our route and truly enjoyed having the whole day to ourselves. It was a touch windy, but with warm air temps, it was perfectly manageable. The team climbed strong and stood on top in the afternoon with perfect visibility were treated to spectacular views the whole way up. The summit day is only possible with a combination of factors all coming together and we did a great job matching ourselves to the mountain. Bravo everyone!
Today really makes our call to go for it yesterday seem like the right one. The wind picked up last night and has been blowing hard ever since. We have been hanging out and resting at 17 camp and once the wind dies down we will tackle the Buttress and start the cruise home. We are going to wait a bit and maybe take off tomorrow after this spike in wind speed. For now we could use the rest after a few huge days.
Looking forward to seeing everyone as soon as Denali grants us safe passage.
RMI Guides Jake, Leon, and Josh
We’re glad you all made it to the summit and the weather held! It must seem absolutely religious if the pictures are any hint. Come back safely and be sure to tip the guides—they’re the best.
Il Padrino
Posted by: R.B. on 6/19/2013 at 4:04 pm
Congrats Josh on getting to the summit your first try. Post some pics -Richard Boucher
Posted by: richard a boucher on 6/19/2013 at 7:33 am
Monday, June 17, 2013
Hello everyone. We made it back to camp after a good day of climbing. Everybody is safe and sound. We're just finishing up a little dinner before turning in for a little bit. Looks like we just beat the storm. We'll move a little lower tomorrow. That's all for now.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren checks in after their successful summit.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Hello, this is Jake with RMI #5 standing on top of Denali with an awesome crew on an absolutely beautiful day. We'll give a shout when we get down but it doesn't get too much better than this. Thanks everybody for the support, and will be checking in from down low. Over and out.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren calls from the Mt. McKinley summit!
Monday, June 17, 2013
We are on the mountain! After walking up the glacier on our long approach, this camp feels like we are actually starting to make some headway towards the top. We will be at this 11,000' camp for a minimum of three nights, so we are dug in pretty solidly.
The plan for tomorrow is to do a back carry. This means we will walk back down to our cache at 10,000', dig it up, and then bring it back up to our new camp at 11,000 ft. It shouldn't be too hard of a day, but it is very important in our acclimatization scheme.
Although there are no bad views in this place, we have an amazing view from this camp. From a safe distance, we get to watch some giant ice cliffs calving off some large chunks. The heat of the nice weather days has made for some dynamic snow and ice conditions.
Summit Team 6! Led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen
Please tell Cindee she’s a bad-a$$ and that Zoot and Ruby miss her and that we don’t know the internet passcode! Hahaha. The whole team is an inspiration. Keep it up guys! Climb it like a BOSS!! Maija
Posted by: Maija Markul on 6/20/2013 at 2:21 pm
Wow, what amazing pictures and updates!
Hey Steve! We’re cheering you on and can’t wait to see you guys when you get back. Have an amazing time on the adventure. Heading up Snowmass this weekend and will take a moment for you!
Sunday, June 16, 2013
We woke this morning to another unbelievable day at 17,200' camp on Mt. McKinley. The sun was shining, there was no wind blowing, and folks were comfortable in soft shell coats eating their grits and Pop Tarts. If you don't have a frame of reference for how unbelievable that kind of weather is, it's more typical for people to be wrapped in every puffy coat and pant that they brought to the high camp, while the wind threatens to blow you right off the mountain. Needless to say, we were psyched.
We started walking down the buttress route soon after breakfast, and make excellent time across the knife-edge, exposed walking from camp to the top of the fixed lines. A short, technical descent down the lines had us all sweating by the time we reached the bottom, and we stripped down to base layers for the moderate descent back to our cache at 14,200'.
After we grabbed all the group food and gear, we loaded heavy packs and headed down in the scorching sun towards our old stomping grounds at 11,000'. We arrived in calm, clear skies, and we quickly got up tents and got out of the sun. We're drinking a ton of water, looking forward to the group food fry of leftover cheeses, meats, and breads this evening, and getting ready for the 3am launch down the glacier tomorrow morning. Hopefully we'll have the weather to fly back to showers, greasy burgers, and cold beer tomorrow.
Until then, stay tuned for the latest and greatest from the team!
Hasta luego,
RMI Guides Tyler Jones, Garrett Stevens and the sore but happy team
Sunday, June 16th, 2013
Holy cow we made it up! Leaving early, we passed RMI 4 at the base of the fixed lines, high fiving as we continued our climb. The team did a remarkable job making it to high camp in fine time. The West Buttress proper is the most fun part of the route and earns the namesake title. We cruised up to our cache at the base of Washburn's Thumb and barely slowed down with the extra weight. Arriving at camp didn't even require a coat once we stopped. The weather is perfect now and all we need is one more day and I'm sure the team will make it to the top. We are ready to outchill weather if it comes, but hopefully we can get one more day of this fantastic weather. Send us all good weather vibes if you please and we will check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Sunday, June 16th, 2013
Happy Father's Day to all of our dads from Summit Team 6!
We bit off another chunk of the mountain this morning ascending to 9,600 feet. Only 10,600 feet to go! We arrived at our new camp around mid morning. Our team is quickly becoming McKinley camp experts, so it did not take us very long to dig in camp. We had some extra daylight (oh yeah, it is always daylight), so we decided to dig a monster posh house. A posh house is our version of a cook tent. It is like a snow cave where the cooking and seating area is dug into the snow below ground level. The roof is a big top-like tent that is held up by a pole that goes from the apex to the floor of the snow pit. Now we have room for company.
The weather forecast looks stellar so we should be able to move up to 11k Camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Summit Team 6
P.S. Lance says thank you to his wife and girls for the Father's Day card!
Wow!I am speechless! What a great experience! I am so proud of my friend Cindee Teer! I hope all goes well, and everyone is safe! The Turner Family
Posted by: Ingrid on 6/17/2013 at 7:01 pm
It sounds like things are going so well! Steve, we are thinking of you constantly. Tania went home today and we miss her, but we had fun this weekend talking about how WE are not on a glacier, but enjoying summer in the mountains. Just so you know, Tania did awesome this weekend.
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Glad to hear it’s going so well. We are excited for you all!
Posted by: K Constantine on 6/20/2013 at 6:36 pm
Glad to see the progress on the map! Hope you all are having a most wonderful adventure! Miss you terribly and love to Steve.
Posted by: Tania K on 6/20/2013 at 6:15 pm
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