Mt. McKinley: Walter and Team Carry to 16,200’
Posted by: Mike Walter, Solveig Waterfall, Billy Haas
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,200'
Wednesday, May 20th 3:19 pm PDT
We took advantage of a beautiful morning today and bumped a cache of food and fuel up to 16,200 ft on the West Buttress, above the fixed ropes of the head wall outside of 14k camp. We made efficient work of the head wall and, as we neared the top, clouds and wind moved in around us. The weather was manageable, just not very pleasant. So once our cache hole was dug and our food and fuel was buried, we retreated back down the fixed ropes to the comfort of camp.
The afternoon was spent relaxing as winds swirled around camp. We will take a rest day tomorrow to recover and acclimate further. The weather forecast for the next couple of days indicates strong winds up high, so we'll likely have a couple of days to rest here at 14,200' while we wait for a reasonable weather window to move up to high camp and have a crack at the summit. Hopefully the weekend will bring more favorable climbing weather. We'll keep you posted either way.
Cheers,
RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
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Comments (1)
CPT Quantock and Team: Love seeing the pics and progress ya’all are making! Keep up the good work sir, the whole Bison team is rooting for you! Others in the battalion ask about your progress all the time, looking forward to hearing about this adventure.
“Move Out The Way!”
-Bison 5
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