Back in Talkeetna

Weather cleared enough this morning for the planes to fly climbers in and out of base camp on the SE for of the Kahiltna glacier.

The team is all in Talkeetna now heading for the Roadhouse for the best breakfast in Talkeetna. They'll be heading back to Anchorage this afternoon.

Welcome back!

Base Camp

The team made it to base camp this afternoon, but the weather has continued to work against them. The planes weren't able to fly into base camp this afternoon or evening due to the clouds and snow. They'll spend a night in the relative comfort of base camp, where the oxygen is plentiful and the air is warm.

They are hoping to fly out tomorrow morning and be in Anchorage for dinner time.

Mark Howard (who descended a few days early) was able to fly out yesterday and is on his way back to the UK already.

Coming Down.

Well they made the tough decision to come on down today. It wasn't a summit day again today, and with all of the snow and increasing avalanche hazard it didn't look like Saturday would be a possibility either. They gave it a really good shot, and worked incredibly hard to get up there and be ready to go for the summit, sometimes you just need a bit of luck.

They are making their way down to base camp tonight, and hope to be there by tomorrow morning if they have decent weather and snow conditions. It has snowed several feet in the last few days, so they may have some deep snow to wade thru on the way down.

Another day of wind and snow.

Another stormy day on Denali...

Not much happening at high camp, sleep, eat, watch the weather.

Forecast has improved for tomorrow, so they still have a shot.

Route Map

Here is a route map I just made of the upper stretch of the West Buttress route. Click on the image for a larger version.

Thanks to Paul Roderick from TAT for the beautiful photo!

Summit attempt

Dave just called from high camp after turning around on today's summit attempt. They awoke to a pretty nice morning, still a bit of wind up higher but looking better than expected. Dave and the crew decided to give it a try and hope that the weather improved as they were climbing towards Denali Pass. It got even more windy and snowy as they were ascending and after an hour or so it became pretty apparent that it wasn't going to be a good enough day to climb to the top. They are back in camp now starting up the stoves for hot drinks and an early dinner.

Tomorrow they'll get up again and see what the weather brings.

Podcast from High Camp

Here's Kevin calling in from high camp.

A snowy day at 17,000 ft

Sebastian just called with the evening update from High Camp. The weather, as expected, wasn't cooperative today. Snow and wind kept them in camp waiting today. They are doing great and still in good spirits on day one of their weather delay, it may be a few more days up there. Waiting for the weather is a big part of the big mountain game. They are in the right spot, and can wait for several days waiting for a good day.

Mark decided he'd had enough and decided to come on home. He is descending this evening with another guide.

High Camp! 17,200 ft

Everything is working again and Dave called in this afternoon from high camp (camp 4) at 17,200 ft. The views from this camp are amazing, they are already higher than any other summit in the Alaska Range besides Denali's neighbor Mt. Foraker. Dave said it was a beautiful day up there, but there were some clouds moving in with the next big storm system. They were able to move up to high camp on Sunday, but it is a pretty tough day and everyone needed a day of rest and acclimating before pushing up to the summit. The last few days of the trip, moving to high camp and summit day, are the hardest days of the trip for most climbers.

They're ready to go for the summit as soon as tomorrow, but will need a pretty nice day. The forecast isn't great, but we've seen lot's of great summit days that were forecast to be stormy. They'll get up and be ready in the morning and see what the day brings.

Bill

Technical difficulties and a message to Adrian

The team has not called in for a couple of days, due to a hiccup with their satellite phone (better living through technology, eh?). We have a solution in place that was delayed by the weekend, however; they should be up and calling today.

In the meantime, I am going to sort of flip this expedition dispatch idea on it's head and post a family dispatch for one of our climbers. Adrian- your wife is having technical difficulties posting to our blog, so she sent the following to our office.

Our climbers might not always get these messages while they are on the mountain, but, as a climber who has been known to go away from home for weeks at a stretch, I can attest to the fact that it is certainly nice to read such sentiments at any time, even after an expedition.

Here's the message:

"Please tell Adrian that all is well and safe in Japan and China. Say that his girls love and are proud of him...that we expect him to get the top even in hell and high water...that we expect him to come down again too...and promising never to think of such shenanigans again!! We can`t wait till we`re all back home in Plymouth sharing adventure stories over a Friday night pizza and glass or two of wine....Hugs to Nick Bunch too and tell him to look after Ade...!

Thank you so much..

>From Elaine, Felicity and Polly Vinken in Japan and China variously ウ゛ァリオウ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Waiting at 14,200'

Due to high winds and still more snow the team is waiting at 14,200' for better weather. Reports from high camp say that the wind is blowing 30-40 mph. Hopefully it is a little calmer at 14,000'

We will keep everyone posted as soon as the team makes a move.

Nicki asked a very good question in our comments section: How do we defrost food in freezing conditions? Thanks for the good question Nicki. I am sure others have wondered the same thing. Unlike at home, they can't leave food on the counter or throw it in the microwave to thaw it. There are a few options they have though. They can put sealed bags of food in warm water as they are cooking to thaw them. Another option is to simply cook the food from its frozen state. Lastly as the guides are cooking up a storm their bodies are generating enough heat that they can put bags of food inside of their jackets to help thaw them out. On the other end of the spectrum there can be problems keeping the food cold on the mountain. Later in the season like this temperatures on the lower glacier can be unbearably hot. Once in camp guides will usually build a fridge for the cold food. This is simply a hole in the snow with the food in it and then a door made of snow and ice to keep the heat and pesky ravens out of the food.

Decision to Move Up?

Yesterday the team had a good rest day, complete with bacon cheeseburgers for lunch. Excellent food like that gives the team mental and physical energy and motivation to keep moving up the mountain. With clear skies and colder temperatures the team was making plans to move up today.

Lead guide, Dave Staeheli, called this morning for a quick weather report to help make his decision on whether or not to move up to 17,000'. The report suggested that the next few days were going to be partly cloudy with a little bit of snow and wind. All the guides have learned over the years to take these reports with a grain of salt. But accompanied by a good survey of the clouds and wind around them on the mountain they can make educated decisions for the team.

Stay tuned for an update on what the team ended up doing today.

Nick Bunch from 14,200'

Nick left the following message last night. The collapse of the cook tent is one of the many hurdles that the team has faced or will have to face. When it snows with no wind, it is easy to sleep more soundly, as the soft "hisssss" of the falling snow is very relaxing. The lack of wind unfortunately allows the snow to pile evenly up all sides of our pyramid shaped cook tents with a single pole supporting the apex. With enough weight, the pole will eventually collapse or snap, leaving climbers with a good project to focus their energies on during the subsequent rest day!

I'm not sure what the "Pisco" references are in Nick's message... Maybe a coded message to his cat, of whom I've heard so much? Maybe this is a good time for a trivia contest? Whoever can email me the correct meaning of his references will win a limited edition, Drew Ludwig original, commemorative Mountain Trip T-shirt!!! I'll post the winner on the blog after conferring with Nick.

Resting at 14,200'

I received a call from Eric at 14,200' this morning. The team woke up to 2 feet of new snow today. He said the guide team was wallowing through waist-deep snow to shovel all the new snow off the tents. The pole to their cook tent broke during the night under the weight of all this new snow. This is a small hurdle that the team will easily deal with.

The team is eating well and relaxing during their rest day today. They are all in good spirits as it has stopped snowing and they are starting to get views of the rest of the Alaska Range as the clouds are starting to part. We all hope this trend continues so the team can move up to 17,000' tomorrow.

We'll update everyone in the next few days as the team moves up to high camp.

Carry to 16,000'

Messages have been trickling in from cloudy and snowy Denali today. The team made a carry to just above 16,000 feet today, cacheing food and gear to be used on the upper reaches of the mountain. Everyone is back at 14,200' camp enjoying a well-earned dinner and getting some rest. The team is well poised for either a rest day (again well-earned) or to move up to 17,000' tomorrow. Stay tuned to see what weather and energy allows the team to do. We'll keep you posted.

A heartfelt message from Gavin

I wish I knew why messages detailing what food the team ate or what books they are reading come through as clear as crystal, yet ones like this from Gavin seem to be garbled by the satellite phone doppelgangers...

I sure how you can make out what he says...

Stuart, calling in from 14,200 feet

The following call came in from Stuart last night at about 8 pm Alaska time. The team hopes to ascend the fixed lines to put a cache of supplies up on the ridge at above 16,000 feet today, but it has been snowing heavily, and appears to be continuing to do so. We'll keep you posted, but I'd not be too surprised if the team stayed at the 14,200' camp today.

Here's Stuart! (the call was cut short, probably by satellites passing out of sight behind a ridge or mountain)

Report and special message from Adrian

This report came in from Adrian last night at about 8:30 pm Alaska Time. The call gets a bit jumbled at the end, but he was able to get the most important part of his message out before the satellites orbited bast the ridge lines and communications were lost.

Enjoy!

At 14 camp, backcarried

Dave Staeheli called this evening to report on their day- the weather was a little iffy, with no wind but snow and low visibility making things more interesting. They back carried from 14 camp, which involves walking about 40 minutes back down the Buttress trail to around 13,500' to pick up the remainder of their cached gear and food, so now they are fully supplied and right now probably finishing up their dinner of spaghetti with sausage and dreaming of tucking into their warm down bags.

Tomorrow is a rest day, which means the expedition gets to sleep in and eat a large breakfast to recoup their strength and acclimatize to the new elevation. Dave said everyone was tired but happy, which is to be expected as the group is still getting used to the air at 14k, and then he said they were going to bed.

Message from Joe

Joe called in the following message from 11,200 foot camp last night at about 5:30 Alaska time. It sounds like the team is doing very well and had a really nice day yesterday as they carried food and supplies up above camp to the 13,500' elevation.

To give you all a bit more of an idea of what Joe describes, they loaded up their packs with roughly half their food and fuel and any additional clothing items that they won't need until they get to the next camp and carried them up a moderately steep snow slope called Motorcycle Hill. They are wearing crampons now, as the conditions on and above Motorcycle Hill generally warrant the extra traction of steel spikes.

It takes a bit under an hour to top out above Motorcycle Hill and they would have taken a break somewhere with views of the immense Washburn Wall and the Father and Sons Wall, both of which rise for thousands of feet out of the Peters Glacier which flows just to the north of the team's route of ascent. After their break, they climbed up a series of rises, that get a bit steep at times, and are often firm neve or wind scoured ice. They weaved amongst some rocks, and it's at a bout this point where climbers get the sense that the "approach" of the Kahiltna is over and by Golly, they are climbing!

Topping out the rises known as Squirrel Hill, they begin a long gradual ascent that skirts the broad snowy (yet crevasse strewn) plain called the Polo Fields. They follow a path that keeps them off to the left of the crevasses, yet right of the avalanche runoffs from gullies that pour down from the granite crags of the West Buttress proper, which rises thousands of feet just to the left of the ascending climbers. It is pretty straight forward route finding and Dave Staeheli has seen 30 years of slide activity, so he knows where to take the team.

After the Polo fields there is another fairly steep climb up to the wind swept and often challenging Windy Corner. This steep ridge line comes down off the West Buttress and forms the western most border of the immense South Face of Denali, one of the biggest faces on one of the biggest mountains on the planet, so, as you might expect, it can be a magnet for incredibly harsh winds. Yesterday, Joe described it as "a lamb," meaning they were probably trying to hide from the sun under their sun hats, bandannas or light scarves.

As they turned Windy Corner, they needed to negotiate some persistent crevasses, which have given more than one climber a hearty surprise. There is some rockfall hazard for a few hundred meters and then they would have rolled into a safer zone where they dug a deep hole in the snow and buried their supplies.

After a rest at their cache spot, they would have boogied back down to camp, which takes a bit over an hour. This is an exciting day during the course of an expedition, and it is a real transition, as I mentioned, from the approach of hiking the Kahiltna to actually climbing!

OK- enough prattling on. Here's Joe:

At 11 camp

Guide Eric Gullickson called in yesterday to say the team had just pulled into 11,000' camp after a quick 4.5 hour move. 11 camp signals the end of the approach to the Denali massif, once they move up from 11 the distances covered per day become shorter; they will still be working plenty hard though! 11 camp isn't as casual as lower ones, the area is notorious for crevasses and anyone unroped has to stay in wanded safe zones, proven safe by guides with ten foot avalanche probes. From here the team will backcarry to get their supplies and get ready to carry them up higher again. 11 camp is notorious for snowfall and much of the mountain has been getting snow last night and today, so folks may have to get up a few times to clear the tents of snow, but nothing unusual.

Gear check photos

Here's some images to give an idea of the meet-and-greet in Anchorage- each client has their gear checked by the guides before setting off into the Alaska Range. Lead guide Dave Staeheli (orange hat) briefs the group on the West Buttress.

3rd guide Eric Gullickson (sunglasses) checks all the details.

2nd guide Sebastian Grau (in the red) slims down the kit. Ounces equal pounds and pounds equal suffering, so every little bit of kit is analyzed and scrutinized in the interest of keeping loads to an acceptable weight.

Images of the lower glacier

The view of Denali from 7,800' camp, looking up the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier.
The top of the mountain is a mere 12,400' above!

Here are some images from the lower Kahiltna Glacier. I thought it might give you all a better sense of what your friends and loved ones are experiencing, and help you put yourselves in their boots (minus the backbreaking effort!).

A camp being established at 7,800'. The peak in the background is Mount Hunter, the third highest mountain in the Alaska Range.

An almost established camp at 7,800'. We use tents like the one in the foreground to cook and eat in. By digging down to about shoulder deep, we can easily fit the entire team inside. We cut benches and shelves into the walls and when there are six stoves blasting away, it is a pretty cozy place to sit out less cozy weather...

At 7,800' camp

I just got our first phone call from the May 30 Denali expedition today, and the group has moved from basecamp up the Kahiltna Glacier and have established themselves at the base of Ski Hill at 7,800'. "7.8 camp" is located in a compression zone of the glacier, which means the ice underfoot is being squeezed together. This is good because it means that most crevasses are pinched shut, which makes for a safer camping experience.

Today the team carried a load of supplies to 10,000' on the Kahiltna in preparation for their planned move to 11,200' camp tomorrow. Moving on the lower sections of the West Buttress route involves traveling for miles on relatively flat terrain; the route from basecamp to 7,800 hardly gains any elevation. The move from 7.8 to 11 involves gaining over 3,000' but that gain is spread out over several miles. If the weather allows the team will move up and officially be at high elevation tomorrow.

The team wanted to relay that they are working hard ('backbreaking labor' was the quote) and the third guide Eric reported that all was well and everyone was looking and feeling strong. More tomorrow, stay tuned....