McKinley Expedition: Van Deventer & Team Head up the Fixed Lines
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
.jpg)
May 25, 2014 - 1:57 am PT
After several days of winds up high, and cold conditions that turned several teams around, we hit the jackpot today. We walked out of camp just as the sun hit, turning a pretty chilly morning balmy. We stopped just below the fixed lines to get ready, then headed up for our first run at them. Despite pretty blue and icy conditions, the climber traffic over the last couple days left some nice buckets for our feet scratched into the surface of the ice. Once above the lines, we headed out the West Buttress proper, which offers some of the best climbing and views of the whole route. At the base if Washburn's Thumb, we set our cache of food and fuel, then turned back the Buttress to descend. We rolled into camp just in time for dinner and to catch the weather report. It sounds like we're going to have a proper snow storm tonight and tomorrow, with 1 to 2 feet forecast. With that news we spent some more time fortifying camp, then crawled into sleeping bags just as the snow started. We'll give you an update tomorrow and let you know how we fared.
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, and Josh
On The Map
×
Comments (4)
Bob and Nicky…stay strong and enjoy your celebration while striving for the top! Best regards and best wishes. Nick and family
Posted by: Nick Spanakis on
Hi Marko and Team
Stay strong. Cant wait to see you at the bottom. Is there a Bloomingdale’s there?
xxoo Aunt Carolyn
Posted by: Aunt Carolyn on
Glad to see that you guys are doing well, and hopefully the snow fall tonight won’t give the team too much trouble. Marko, John and I are, of course, reading the blog everyday. I am grateful for these line. Thank you, Peter, for your writings. Good luck in the days to come.
Gina
Posted by: Gina Badescu on
Can’t wait to read each days news…Pete is a good author!
Happy 1st anniversary to Bob & Nicky…two great friends.
Safe travels to all.
Deb & Vin
Posted by: Deb & Vince Manetti on