Abed, checking in from 11,200'

This call came through at about 9:15 Alaska time last night. Abed reports that it was indeed windy going around Windy Corner to put a cache in at 13,500'. It sounds like they replenished any caloric deficit with a hearty meal of enchiladas and high altitude ice cream (a personal favorite!).

Enjoy the post:

Nathan, checking in from 11,200'

This came in last night, at about 8 pm Alaska time.

Enjoy!

Mike B, calling in from 11,200'

Mike Balster called in with the following update from 11,200 feet. You'll notice that he mentions that it was hot on the glacier today. That's not something commonly equated to Denali climbing, but is a very real challenge. When the sun is out and there is no wind, the heat can be almost debilitating. To mitigate against this, we get up early in the morning and try to get up the steeper (more strenuous) sections before the sun hits us.

Enjoy the podcast:

Message from Scott Balster

This came through last night from Scott. It sounds like they're having a good time up there!

Enjoy...

Carried to 10,400', back at 7,800'

Dave called in from 7,800' camp, the group carried a load of gear up the Kahiltna to 10,400' in preparation for their move to 11,000' camp tomorrow. As Dave says, it was splitter weather (climber lingo for a stable high pressure) and the views were as good as they get of the Kahiltna glacier. Splitter weather means intense sun in the early afternoon, so it is not common for parties to return to camp in hot temperatures. The team plans on getting up at 3am tomorrow morning to move to 11 camp, so if everything moves to schedule they should pull into 11 just as the heat picks up, just in time for the climbers to climb into their tents and drink some water while the guides work on dinner.

at 7,800' camp

Here's the expedition, sitting down to their lunch during the pre-trip day in Anchorage. Guide Dave Ahrens is in the red, and 2nd guide Mike Burmeister is in the blue.

The first field report from MT guide Dave Ahrens came in last night; Dave called to say hello and report that the team had moved out of basecamp to 7,800' camp. They carried all of their expedition on their back and in sleds and slogged onward- the route descends down the southeast fork of the Kahiltna to the main flow of the Kahiltna and slowly climbs through crevasse fields before depositing the team at 7,800'. From 7.8 camp the team can see the Kahiltna peaks, Kahiltna Dome, Mt. Crosson, Mt. Foraker, Mt. Francis, Mt Hunter and the Denali massif- quite the view!- and look directly up the northeast fork of the Kahiltna. Camp is set in a nice compression zone of the glacier, which means crevasses are for the most part squeezed closed and human-friendly. The team was up at 4am to avoid travelling in the day's heat, which can feel like you're in the tropics; as pleasant as that sounds remember that the climbers are dressed in long underwear at the very least- any exposed skin will burn in as little as 15 minutes if not protected with sunscreen- so the heat is something to be avoided.

Dave was just settling into camp for the evening, reporting that everyone was eating Au Jus roast beef sandwiches and enjoying the camp, everyone seemed strong and excited to be out on the glacier. Today, weather permitting, they will carry a load of gear up higher on the route and return to camp. More later....

Podcast from 7,800'

Dave Ahrens called in with a message for everyone.

Here you go!

Thanks For Joining Us!

Climbing big mountains demands a lot of climbers. They train for months and sometimes years for an ascent of a peak. We all climb for our own personal reasons, and we all have complex lives outside of the mountains, which often limit our ability to follow our passions to the full extent of their depth and breadth.

Every so often, climbers get compelled by the siren song of an adventure, in the truest sense of the word, and the planets and life line up so as to permit them to embark upon this journey. This is the case with five climbers from around the world, who are joining two guides from Mountain Trip to attempt to not only climb Denali, the highest peak in north America, but to traverse it.

To put this in perspective, Denali has a higher vertical rise than Mount Everest. The vast majority of climbers who climb on the mountain, ascend and descend the very challenging West Buttress route. This route begins at an elevation of 7,200 feet on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier and climbs just over 13,000' to the top of North America. It takes about 12 days (if weather, health, and fitness align correctly) to reach the top and about 2 days to descend.

Our team will ascend the West Buttress and then carry their entire load of supplies and camp up and over the 18,200' Denali Pass before descending over 18,000' to the tundra below, crossing the formidable McKinley River and hiking 15 miles out to the sublime Wonder Lake, well to the north of the mountain. Only one or two teams a season attempt such an endeavor, and Mountain Trip has a long tradition of being the only guide service to regularly organize these truly epic adventures. We're climbers and we love to indulge ourselves when the sirens sing out...

On May 23, 2010 our team will assemble in Anchorage, Alaska and to finalize their preparations for this climb.

Let's meet the climbers!

Guides:

Dave Ahrens of Silverton, CO
Michael Burmeister of Anchorage, AK

Climbers:

Carsten Pedersen
Michael Balster
Scott Balster
Abed Al Saffar
Nathan Weil

We will update this blog as often as possible so as to both provide you, the reader, with an accurate description of what the team is up to each day, and also to provide future readers with an account of what it is like to climb Denali. Please keep in mind that communication from the Alaska Range is not always easy and that weather could easily conspire to prevent us from hearing from the team.

Comments posted to our reports will occasionally be passed along to the climbers on the mountain, but we cannot always guarantee that messages will always be relayed. Please know that all of your kind thoughts and best wishes will be read and deeply appreciated by the climbers when they get back to "the real world," so we encourage you to post them frequently. If you should ever need to contact one of the climbers, please call or email our Colorado office.

Enjoy the posts!