Entries By Andy Bond

Saturday, June 24, 2023 7:39 am PDT

We’re at Basecamp and I think there is a good chance we will fly. We’ll let everyone know when we arrive in Talkeetna.

Friday, June, 23, 2023 8:28 pm PDT

The crew descended down to 11,000’ Camp where we will depart for basecamp during the night in hopes of flying off the mountain Saturday.

The weather has not been all that kind to us on this trip and we are in and out of snow as clouds stream up the Kahiltna glacier up and over Kahiltna pass. We’re hoping for flyable weather tomorrow but know that no one has flown off the mountain since Monday. Hopefully the next time you here from us, we’ll Be in Talkeetna!

RMI Guide Andy Bond, Jack Delaney, Joey Manship and Team

Friday, June 23, 2023, 8:40 am PDT

Our Team is back at 14,000’ Camp after a long day of waist to chest trail breaking and ultimately avalanche conditions on the West Buttress. We made it to Washburn’s Thumb at 16,800’, all pickets were buried and not found except for the ones near slopes that naturally avalanche. The Autobahn is incredibly loaded with snow, and I am sure you will not find a single one of the 35 pickets across it!

Our plan is to head to the airstrip tonight and hope to fly.  No one has flown since last Sunday and snow is in the forecast all week, so we will see!

RMI Guide Andy Bond and Team

Wednesday June 21, 2023

Today the team woke up to Groundhog Day!

It has continued to snow but was relatively mild as far as temps and wind go. We masterfully killed a chunk of time in the morning by making a long brunch. After retiring to our tents for the afternoon, we regrouped and planned our potential launch to 17k camp for the next day over some golden, brown, and delicious burritos.

RMI Guide Joey Manship and Team

Tuesday, June 20, 2023 - 11:52 pm PT

The word of the day is casual. We woke up casually. We ate brunch super casually. It started around 9:45 and ended around 12:30pm. We casually devoured breakfast burritos fortified by wild Alaskan game sausage provided by the legendary Bleys. Food comas quickly afflicted much of the crew. Everyone casually waddled to their tents for the afternoon to indulge in naps and further snacking. Some folks managed to stay conscious enough to read books and watch TV or movies. Eventually the dinner bell was rung and the tents casually began to rustle with life. Dinner tonight is a repeat of a classic - ramen but this time with the addition of some newly acquired Korean spice paste. It added some much needed flavor as our ability to taste is deadened at this altitude. Another weather day has passed uneventfully, but each day we wait we get more clarity about the weather for our potential summit window. Anticipation is slowly growing amongst the team as the day to begin our summit push gets closer.

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Bond Girls

Monday 19, 2023

The sun quickly parted from 14,000’ camp this morning and we were then met with slushy snow.  We had a brunch fit for kings as Guide Andy procured brie and other items from descending parties. It added a certain sophistication to our bacon cream cheese bagels.  The day kicked off with a chess open in the main tent, joined by a local chess legend from International Mountain Guides, the team *cough Lenhardt* were humbled by their opponents’ prodigious skill and unassuming demeanor. Nevertheless, Guide Jack, Katharine and our very special Big Strong Andy assembled an impromptu chess board made of duct tape and packaged substances whose legal status is in question back on the lower 48.  The games were played with much merriment and sportsmanship.  For his final act, Guide Joey prepared for us another purloined comestible. The meatballs tasted even meatier as we were not the ones who brought them up.

As the snow falls, the team, hydrated and breathing light, await further developments in weather to allow for progress later in the week. Our pieces continue to act in concert for the real checkmate.

RMI Guides Andy, Jack, Joey and Team

June 17, 2023 11:04 PM PT

Day 12 of our Denali climb.

Today we had a sleep in at Camp 3 and woke up in beautiful sunshine and 15cm (6 inches) of fresh powdery snow. We looked at all the climbers who went up the fixed lines to get to 17k camp for a summit push on Sunday, but we all agreed the night before that we need more time at 14k camp before our summit push. We hope for another weather window at the end of next week (fingers crossed). No worries, big strong Andy still has two pounds of cheese left and will be safe.

Instead of climbing, we hired lovely Lenhardt for an intense yoga session to get mentally and physically ready for this mountain. After that railroad, Jeff improved our eating tent to make it comfier for the following days and Katherine worked hard to make Joey's long hair cut more functional and fashionable for the mountain.

The focus of the afternoon was listening to music, chill outside, eat snacks and hydrate, and let our bodies adjust to the new altitude. We also improved our sleeping tents, so the polar bear can sleep well at night and doesn't attack his tent mates. In the evening, Heidi gave us a call to come to the edge of the world for the first round of Denali's Next Top Model. We stretched our legs and walked over to this stunning place where the mountain drops 7,000 feet to the northeast fork of Kahiltna. We had great views of Mount Foraker and the valley. We had a good photoshoot, and all the Bond girls made it to the second round. Heidi was very proud of us. When we came back to our camp, Mr. Bond had already prepared a nice dinner for us.

To finish the day, a short German "th" joke for you . The captain of a boat is calling the German coast guard "Help, we are sinking, we are sinking". The German coast answers "Ok, no worries, what are you thinking about?".

Stephan Schiffer aka Polar Bear

June 16, 2023 11:38PM PT

On this glorious morning, we awoke to partly sunny skies and light snow showers (for those who don't know, this means mostly cloudy.) As temperatures warmed, we all gathered in the posh for another round of pancake Hibachi. Yours truly went for broke and landed a double pancake flip (that is one pancake flipping twice). Unfortunately, the blast wave of this extreme maneuver broke our big strong Andy's fork.

To make the most of our relatively mild weather and rest day, we headed out of camp and practiced fixed line travel and clipping pickets. The team did great and is ready for whatever gloves the mountain throws at them.

Famished, we made our way back to camp to gorge on snacks, mainly cheese. This helped quell our toilet paper crisis for the near future.

After dinner and a sweet treat of Jack's cheesecake the team retired to hopefully sleep deep and oxygen rich.

- Clown Fish/Joey

Thursday, June 15, 2023 - 9:07 pm PT

Good evening and welcome back to The Bond Girls Late Night blog, where you get all your juicy mountain deets and feats. Today we woke up to the most astonishing scene of Hunter and Foraker, something this resident Alaskan only sees from time to time from the Fred Meyer parking lot. For almost all of us, it was a frigid night, you can bet for night two at 14,000' some of us will be breaking out the toe warmers. As the sun rose this quickly changed. We ate a big breakfast of bacon and crème cheese bagels and got on the move down to our cache at 13,500'. After about an hour and 40 minutes we were back at our new base camp, where we enjoyed some stretching, field baths, trashy realty tv and naps.

Please see below for all of our members and their spirit animals deemed by me:

Katherine - Tucan / Mongolian horse

Linhardt - earth worm (healthy) / Guinea pig

Joey - clownfish / stink bug

Andy - black footed ferret / sting ray

Scott - eel / camel

Stephan - porcupine / platypus

Andy (guide) - sloth bear / manatee

Jeff - musk ox / horn toad

Jack - north Texas hare / anteater

Steve -  pigeon from Italy / moose

Mikayla - gull / sewer rat

Kevin - warthog / Airedale

Shout out to my girl Mack who’s completing a tour oversees here soon, and to all of my friends and family who helped and inspired me to get here.

PS Alex I know your birthday is in July I was just delusionally tired when I wrote that last blog lol.

Signing off for now, Mikayla (Pony Rider / Goldie Locks) and the rest of the girls!

Wednesday, June 14, 2023 - 11:19 pm PT

Greetings from 14,000' Camp. We packed up 11,000' Camp this morning and climbed up Motorcycle Hill and Squirrel Hill passing the Father and the Son wall. We strolled along the Polo Field and climbed past the 13,000' cache garden where we left supplies yesterday. The terrain on the route is steep and strenuous. The Bond Girls were carrying heavy loads with our sleeping bags, tents, personal gear and one piece of group gear each. But the reason I asked to do to the blog today was the loads carried by Andy, Jack and Joey. Their packs were overloaded beyond imagination and the sleds they dragged were piled high with gear! More than twice the weight any normal person could move. I worked on the railroad most of my life and have witnessed people doing extraordinarily hard jobs under extremely difficult conditions many times but the efforts of these three men today left me in disbelief! I stand at 14,000' Camp tonight looking at the beautiful sight of Mount Hunter and Foraker humbled by the efforts of the men that made it possible.

Jeff Ebeling aka Trashman

Chapter 6

The Bond Girls squirrel up Squirrel Hill. The Bond Girls completed quite a mission today!  We left 11,000' camp and moved a cache to 13600' in preparation to move to 14,000' Camp tomorrow (if the weather allows).   We finally infiltrated Motorcycle Hill, which has been staring at our camp since arriving here last Friday. Before I tell you about our day, I have to tell you what made the day possible.  After some weather at 11,000' Camp, serious trail breaking was needed.  All of the guides at 11k Camp worked together as a team to discuss weather and a plan to put in the route for everyone.  Climbing this mountain is not possible without teamwork (unless you’re that guy who climbed it in like 11 hours, but even he probably had some help).  We all pitch in, carry group gear uphill on shared ropes.  We set up camp together, eat meals together and make each other laugh over hot drinks when the weather outside is… well, Denali.

Back to the daily adventure! The wind rushed through our hair on Motorcycle Hill. Trying to get my full zip gortex pants on was like trying to get Church the cat from Salem’s Lot into a cat carrier for an exorcism.  Luckily Jack saved the day. Thanks Jack!  It is a pretty humbling experience to not be able to wrangle your own side zip pants!  After Motorcycle Hill we took on Squirrel Hill. Climbing Denali, you become like a squirrel, caching treats and clean socks… or the books you don’t feel like carrying any higher, deep under the snow, marked with a little flag, to come back to when you are able to collect them. Squirrels are endowed with luxurious tails, we brandish orange plastic sleds. Luckily we did not bring the sleds today.  Squirrel Hill stole Windy Corner’s thunder as goggles and summit parkas struggled to keep us warm. Pony Rider led the charge across Polo Field with a war cry, and Windy Corner was actually quite pleasant today. The weather cleared up for the team to enjoy a break at the cache and take in the majestic mountain paradise of Denali.  The walk back to camp was beautiful.  Now we hydrate, try to not smell so bad and get ready for burritos. The caches at Basecamp are a bit more celebratory. Visions of beer, cigarettes and hard liquor cheer exhausted climbers on to the finish line; the airstrip of the Kahiltna glacier.   There bush planes take you back to reality...Talkeetna, where the past three elected mayors have all been cats (two long haired Siamese and one tabby to be precise). I am grateful for the knowledge, experience, fortitude and tenacity of this team. We take on hardwork with a smile and show up for each other. Trash Man, Sled Dog, Polar Bear, Goldie Locks (formerly known as Pony Rider) Joey Dreamboat Manship and Bond-O are a few of the many nicknames this crew has, surely more will be given before The Bond Girls break into our base camp cache and get weird while we wait to fly off of the Kahiltna glacier.  

Thanks for stopping by to check up on your favorite secret agents!

Tune in tomorrow night for another installment of, “Who’s Cache is it Anyway?"

Shout out to Jessee and all of my Wyldcats! To Mom, Dad, Maggie and Lenora, I love you!

-Katherine