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Travel day. Today everyone arrived in Anchorage from their respective homes. John Lucia (the lead guide for the trip) and I have already been in Alaska for 10 days skiing in the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains. Walter Hailes, the third guide on the trip, met all of our climbers at the Anchorage airport, while John and I picked up the RMI gear for the entire Denali climbing season from airfreight.
By the time John and I got back to Talkeetna, we only had a few hours to unload all of the gear before Walter and the rest of the folks showed up. After a quick rundown of the next days’ schedule, we put our luggage into the RMI storage container and headed off to the hotels for the night.
On The Map
Tuesday, June 18, 2019 - 9:21 PM PT
Our team enjoyed a rest day today, sleeping in and indulging in a cheesy breakfast scramble brunch. The day started out sunny and we were able to dry gear and charge electronics, but by the afternoon it was snowing lightly.
Tomorrow we plan to carry a cache of food and fuel to ~13,600' around
Windy Corner and then return to our current camp. That's the plan at least. Stay tuned.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Sunday, May 26, 2019 - 11:41 PM PT
Well, the storm is here. It snowed all day today. Hard to say exactly how much. It’s ankle deep in some spots, and waist deep in others. We’ve been moving consistently and working hard every day up until now, so this forced rest day wasn’t the worst thing in the world. We spent our time shoveling snow, eating bacon, shoveling snow, reading, shoveling snow, and napping. We will probably wake up in the middle of the night to shovel some more snow. That’s
Alaska for ya. It looks like we probably won’t be going anywhere for a few days, but that’s no problem for us. When we finally do get to move we’ll be well rested, and well versed in the art of maintaining camp in a storm. Until tomorrow, the team sends their best.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 8:01 PM PT
We had a super early start this morning. We were very proud of Super Crew 6 this morning for getting up and packing up with style so we could get on the trail quickly. I gave them a C+ to their face but it was really an A+ effort. I didn't want them getting too cocky right off the bat!
We had a great walk up the
Kahiltna Glacier through light snow and medium visibility. As we approached camp, the sky started to clear and bit and we have been able to see Denali on and off since then.
We are dug in safely and 7,800' and will make an on the fly decision whether to move up to our next camp based on what the weather looks like when we get up at 2 a.m. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and the Super Crew
On The Map
Well well well! Here we are at Casa de Piedra at 11,000' plus feet. For those of you that no habla espanol, Casa de Piedra is Spanish for The house of...Piedra (God bless you Chris Farley).
Team 4 had a beautiful walk into our second trekking camp. And of course as we looked up the Relinchos valley we had our first great view of
Aconcagua. It is always breezy here at this camp so we are hunkered in for the time being. Tomorrow Base Camo!!
RMI Guide
JJ Justman & Team
Today saw a lot of wind on our carry up to Camp 1 at just over 16,000'. Lots of difficult walking in loose rock, scree, and icy penitentes brought us up to our first cache where we dropped food, fuel, and gear that will be needed on the upper mountain. Tomorrow calls for another rest and acclimitization day before our move up the mountain the following day. We'll check in again tomorrow.
Today dawned beautifully clear, cold and calm. But we knew it wouldn't last as a multi day storm was forecast to start impacting the mountain today. So we got up early and had breakfast and fellow guide Alan Davis and the crew took advantage of the clear weather to head over to the Edge of the World, a dramatic overlook just outside of 14 camp that looks down on the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier and out to the Base of Ski Hill on the main Kahiltna Glacier where we established our first camp nearly two weeks ago.
After returning from the Edge, the team returned to camp and got right to work fortifying our already impressive snow walls. The goal was to be ready for any strong winds that will hit out camp during this imminent storm.
Meanwhile, fellow guide Alex Halliday and I went back down to the 11,200' camp where we had cached some extra food and fuel. We dug up the cache and snagged the supplies and returned back up to 14,200'. The goal here was to be sure we had sufficient supplies should the storm extend further than forecast.
All in all, it was a productive day. And now the storm has begun. It is currently snowing with very limited visibility and gusty winds. And we're ready for it. We hope to weather the storm and take advantage of a potential weather window early next week to make a bid for the summit.
That's it for now,
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
July 16, 2017
Today we all woke up feeling good, had a very nice breakfast and sipped coffee before heading out on our acclimatization hike. At 8:00 William met us and we loaded into a shuttle for a 40-minute ride bumping through small villages to the trail head at 12,300'. We were all eager to stretch the legs and started out of the gates a little fast. Within minutes we settled into a pace more suited for our altitude. After two hours we found ourselves over looking
Laguna Churup at 14,600'. With perfect weather we lounged on the granite slabs around the alpine lake occasionally dozing off in the mid day sun. Shortly after noon we started our descent back to the shuttle and then back into Huaraz. After grabbing a quick lunch in town we did a gear check and got our duffle bags packed for our launch tomorrow and then strolled back into town for a casual dinner. Everyone is doing great and we are all excited to hit the trail tomorrow.
Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens and the Alpamayo team
Jake Beren & Team checking in. We moved to 14.000' Camp on Denali yesterday. Today we are busy building walls and fortifying our camp and getting settled in. We will spend tomorrow training and are enjoying the thinner air.
All is well!
All of the pieces are in place for an attempt on the
Upper West Rib, now we are just waiting on the weather. With yesterday's carry to 16,400ft we have had a chance to stress our bodies and progress the acclimatization process.
The weather in the Alaska range can be a fickle thing. Moisture from the south mixes with frigid temperatures from the north, and the resulting scale of weather can be anything from light snow flakes to true arctic blizzards. Right now we are in a holding pattern waiting for the snow to stop. It has only snowed a few inches today, but two feet are predicted for the coming 48 hours. With our shovels at the ready we are waiting to see if the prediction comes true.
There is a silver lining to the forecast, however. It appears as though after this round of snowfall, the weather will stabilize and we may get our window to climb. That is still a few days out, but we are hopeful. The highlight around camp today was a potluck style lunch. After two weeks on the glacier a little variety in the daily diet was a welcomed change.
Thanks for following along, and if anyone feels like overnight shipping a snowblower and a few gallons of gas our way, it would be much appreciated.
RMI Guides Geoff Schellens, Eric Frank and the UWR team.
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On vacation and did the flight around Denali on this day and saw you guys as tiny dots below. So inspiring and breathtaking! Godspeed to you all and will be watching your progress now back in Texas!
Posted by: Rebecca on 6/20/2019 at 5:06 pm
Thank you for the daily updates. It’s really neat to read about your progress…I feel part of the journey! :) Hi to Casey. Enjoy your experience!
Posted by: Amanda Day on 6/19/2019 at 6:50 am
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