Already have an account? Sign in

We had a really great week! Lots of super successful training! I wish we could have gone to the summit on the first day because it was such a spectacular day to be in the mountains, beautiful, sunny and not a breath of wind! We couldn’t, though, because we hadn’t completed our basic mountaineering training yet, and then the weather just closed the window. The winds seemed to have hammered the slopes pretty hard prior to our arrival as everything was sporting a windslab. Nothing had released naturally, but we saw several releases propagated by icefall. We really focused on our training and spent a lot of time outside. Avalanche hazard awareness, beacon searches, and the decision-making process of travel in avy terrain dominated much of the week. We also spent quite a bit of time on camp craft – building bomber snowcaves and setting up expedition-style camps. Of course, rope and anchor work, fixed line travel, crevasse rescue systems and other Denali-prep skills kept us busy as well. A great week!