Denali Expedition: King & Team Build Camp at 14,000’
Posted by: Mike King, JT Schmitt, Ben Ammon
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 7:42 PM PT
After yesterday's grueling day the team slept in until the sun hit our tents, 9ish. We had a slow start with salmon and cream cheese bagels and coffee. The goal for today was to build walls around our tents and get our kitchen/dining tent dug out and reinforced. The walls are built by digging through the loose snow into the firm layers below. Then we take snow saws and begin to quarry large blocks to be the foundational row. Each successive layer gets smaller so the wall isn't top heavy. The walls help keep wind from destroying our tents. The team rallied through their wall building then helped the guides finish reinforcing the kitchen tent or Posh as we call it. The Posh is a five sided tent without a floor. We dig a hole in the snow and have benches for people to sit and cooking counters for the guides. Out of the wind and sun we enjoy our meals, today's dinner is hand rolled chicken burritos. With the menacing forecast on the horizon we will put the finishing touches on camp and hunker down for the remnants of a tropical cyclone that is headed for Alaska. People are happy for the sunshine and tired from the 'light exercise' of camp craft. This helps us acclimate in preparation for heading to 17,000' Camp, High Camp, for our cache day and ultimately our summit day when the weather and mountain tell us it's time to go up. Until then we will be at 14,000' continuing to get comfortable being uncomfortable and focusing on the tasks that our in our control and leaving the conditions that our out of our control to Denali.
Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Mike King
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Comments (1)
So fun following your adventure, Robbo! You’ve got a huge fan base down here, everyone’s asking about you - and I’ve been in mis-matched socks since you hit the trail :) Sounds like you’re in for a few euchre days! Have fun. Be safe. Love to you and Cole. And prayers for the whole team. XO, Mamoose
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