The Boys Are Back In Town!

Bill Allen (co-owner of Mountain Trip) called this morning to inform me that he was parked in our van at the entrance to Denali Park with a bedraggled crew of stinky climbers!

The team reached Wonder Lake (an idyllic place with incredible vistas of Denali) at midnight yesterday and raised eyebrows as they boarded the 6 a.m. tourist bus that shuttled them to the park entrance. I ave not had the opportunity to get on that bus after 20-some days on the mountain, but I can only imagine that they answered a lot of questions and made more than one passenger a wee bit uncomfortable if for no other reason than the considerable odor they must be packing by now.

Bill met them with fresh changes of clothes and they should be showered by now. Some steak, pizza and perhaps a couple of well-deserved beers ought to make them feel almost human.

Hats off to all they guys for a hard-fought job very, very well done. I believe they are the only team to traverse Denali this season.

That's all for the dispatches. I may post some photos, if the guys give me some in a timely fashion.

Todd-out.

Off The Glacier!

Negotiating the many, many cracks on the Muldrow Glacier (Chris Kerrick Photo)

Dave Ahrens just called to report that the crew is finally off the Muldrow Glacier and swatting mosquitos at their camp in the tundra alongside Cache Creek.

Dave described their 20 hour, 6 mile journey down the Muldrow as the most demanding day of guiding in his life. He said they were wading through waist deep depth hoar (sugary, worthless snow) and that they basically probed for crevasses every step of the way. Probing involves poking the snow with a long aluminum pole in order to gauge the integrity of the snow in front of you.

They had to jump across numerous holes and frequently had to stop to build anchors to protect these leaps. It all sounded pretty exciting and both physically and mentally grueling. Everyone is plenty pooped and resting. They will head across the tundra tomorrow and hopefully will arrive at Wonder Lake on Monday morning.

I read once (Discover Magazine- maybe June 1997...?) that it takes about 1864 mosquito bites to kill a person. Hopefully the combination of repellent and long pants and sleeves will keep our boys protected from those pests.

Good Luck Crew!!!

On The Muldrow Glacier

Descending Karsten's Ridge (Dave Ahrens photo)

Chris just called in to report that they safely negotiated the steep and tricky Karsten's Ridge. The team is camped at 10,000 feet on the Muldrow Glacier and will hike out to the tundra tonight.

They pulled a BIG day from 18,000' down to the spot where they are now camped. I suspect that some team members discovered new levels of endurance that they may not have know they possessed. Today they will sleep in the warm sun that is basking their tents and hopeflly the night will be a clear, cold one, which will make negotiating the wild, Muldrow Glacier a more simple task. For climbers reading these posts who are familiar with the relatively benign Kahiltna Glacier, the Muldrow is like a Disneyland of huge crevasses and tricky icefalls.

We'll keep our fingers crossed that they get a cold night to travel through and that they stay above the crevasses.

Good work guys!!!

A Beautiful Day on the North Side

Descending from High Camp (Dave Ahrens Photo)

The crew is working their way down from the cold icy glacier world into the warmer, greener lower reaches of Denali. We expect them to reach the Tundra and touch their first green ground by tomorrow. It is a beautiful day on the North Side of the park, check out the webcam from Wonder Lake provided by Denali National Park. http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/denacam/denacam.cfm

Successful Summit!!!!!

I received a call from the guys and they made the top!

Dave Ahrens called to say that they had a beautiful, warm summit day with amazingly clear views. They made good time, taking 10.5 hours round trip and spent about a half hour on the summit. They were the only group on top at the time and the whole group made it.

Tomorrow they plan to head down around Brown's Tower and down Karstens Ridge.

Congratulations to everyone for a hard earned summit of the highest peak in North America.

Possible Summit Day Today!

We haven't heard anything from the team for a couple of days. I suspect they are saving their sat phone battery for the long, remote hike out to the north.

Today sure looked like a summit day from where I'm sitting. I heard a rumor that some teams headed up, so I suspect that our guys made a push as well. I'll post mare as soon as I know anything.

Weather Forecast

You can check out the weather forecast at http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=SXAK49PAFG&type=public
Keep in mind this is just a forecast, and may not be what they are actually experiencing on the ground. They do a pretty good job however.