Mt. McKinley: Jones and Team Descend to 11,000’
Sunday, June 16, 2013
We woke this morning to another unbelievable day at 17,200' camp on Mt. McKinley. The sun was shining, there was no wind blowing, and folks were comfortable in soft shell coats eating their grits and Pop Tarts. If you don't have a frame of reference for how unbelievable that kind of weather is, it's more typical for people to be wrapped in every puffy coat and pant that they brought to the high camp, while the wind threatens to blow you right off the mountain. Needless to say, we were psyched.
We started walking down the buttress route soon after breakfast, and make excellent time across the knife-edge, exposed walking from camp to the top of the fixed lines. A short, technical descent down the lines had us all sweating by the time we reached the bottom, and we stripped down to base layers for the moderate descent back to our cache at 14,200'.
After we grabbed all the group food and gear, we loaded heavy packs and headed down in the scorching sun towards our old stomping grounds at 11,000'. We arrived in calm, clear skies, and we quickly got up tents and got out of the sun. We're drinking a ton of water, looking forward to the group food fry of leftover cheeses, meats, and breads this evening, and getting ready for the 3am launch down the glacier tomorrow morning. Hopefully we'll have the weather to fly back to showers, greasy burgers, and cold beer tomorrow.
Until then, stay tuned for the latest and greatest from the team!
Hasta luego,
RMI Guides Tyler Jones, Garrett Stevens and the sore but happy team
On The Map
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Comments (4)
way to go james! cant wait to see all your pics and hear all your stories!
Posted by: tina on
Hello Googoo and the rest of the climbers, our prayers are with you all, we are proud of you, keep it up and come back safe, love you, Areg
Posted by: Areg Abramian on
James and team
Congratulations!!! Very impressive and inspiring to witness!!!
Please descend safely.
Fred
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on
James! Congrats on the summit!!!! So sorry I am just now finding this blog! (and happy belated birthday from one crazy gemini to another!) So psyched for you and your team!!! Enjoy every minute on the mountain. Can’t wait to hear stories.
Lauren
Posted by: Lauren on