Entries By ben liken
July 1, 2014 - 11:13 pm PT
Today was a relatively easy move for the team. We were walking out of our 9,000' camp at 7 AM when things were crisp and cold. The track was in pretty good condition due to the number of teams that had been over it in the preceding 24 hours and our loads were light. We began in clear conditions but by the time we reached the big right hand turn at
Kahiltna Pass, we were in cloud. Passing our cached gear at 10,000', we began the more serious hills leading to 11 camp. The team rolled into camp at around 11:30 AM and set to smoothing out tent platforms. Right about then it began to snow, just as had been predicted. There are at least a half dozen other guided teams in camp, a few more than we expected to see, but most are staffed by friends and acquaintances. The team took a well-earned rest for the afternoon.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
June 30, 2014 - 9:44pm PT
Hey Everybody!
Last night we got our first taste of Denali weather as a wet snow fell, dusting our camp with six fresh inches. The little storm began to lift after a leisurely breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hash browns and we were soon able to pack our bags for a carry to 10,000' feet. Along the hike we witness spectacular views down the
Kahiltna Glacier and up to the start of the West Buttress. We are now back in camp resting and awaiting a tasty dinner of tortellini prepared by Zach. All is well here in the great north as the sun splashes some light into our dinning tent.
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide
Ben Liken
June 28, 2014 - 10:07 pm PT
So good to be on
Denali. So good to be on the move again. With our late flight onto the mountain yesterday evening, there wasn't so much time to be ready for the late season tradition of walking out of basecamp at 4 AM this morning. We built our camp and put priority on getting good rest instead. Our thinking was that with so much snow (30 inches from the last storm) that we might get by just fine without the early start. We'd plainly seen the lower Kahiltna Glacier during our flight and it certainly didn't look like crevasse bridges were going to be a problem. So we got up at a civilized 7:30 AM and did our organizational work and set out for a daytime
Denali departure. As we'd allowed ourselves to hope, crevasses were no problem. In fact the glacier was in better condition than it had been for late season in decades. We made three hour-long pulls with some fifteen-minute restbreaks in between. But in the end we decided not to push on to our normal first day camp goal of 8,000 feet. Despite our snowshoes, the walk was getting strenuous due to the great amount of unconsolidated new snow softening with the heat of the day. We camped at 7,000 ft where the East Fork meets the main glacier and we'll happily begin earlier tomorrow to get ideal surface conditions. Nice to see a few of the other late season guides on the move today as well, a bit of a reunion. Especially nice to hear from
Adam Knoff at 11K on the radio and
Billy Nugent on top.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
June 27, 2014 - 12:00 am PT
We were up and hustling to get ready this morning, anxious for the chance to get on
Mount McKinley. But it turned out, after breakfast and a walk in the rain to the airstrip, that there wasn't too great a chance for flying today. The word was that several feet of new snow had fallen overnight at Basecamp. The snow, cloud and wind were predicted to continue up there for the day, but we were put on standby just in case things broke. We made good use of the day in the
K2 Aviation hangar, reviewing rope techniques for glacier travel. The rain and low cloud persisted, but we stayed dry enough. We had one more "last" dinner in town and turned in to be ready for another day and another try.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
June 25, 2014 - 11:35pm PT
A rainy and grey morning in Talkeetna didn't stop our team from a seven o'clock breakfast meeting at Talkeetna's great Roadhouse. We were primed and ready for our important orientation at the
Talkeetna Ranger Station at 8:30. Our climbers were honored to have Roger Robinson himself give the presentation. Roger has been climbing Denali and rescuing Denali climbers for close to four decades now. Then it was out to the K2 Aviation hangar where we spread out our gear and got down to the nuts and bolts of figuring out exactly what to bring on the climb and what to leave behind. It took much of the afternoon to sort gear and to get it all weighed, inventoried and ready for flying. So it became an "indoors" day, which was just fine. Rain kept falling and there was precious little flying going on out at the normally bustling Talkeetna Airport. The team got together finally for what we hope will be our last dinner in town for some time. It was a fine feast, but we'd just as soon be on climbing rations when supper time rolls around tomorrow.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide
Dave Hahn
June 25, 2014 - 12:26 am PT
And so it begins... The last
RMI Denali team of 2014 took shape today in the Anchorage airport. We assembled, seven climbers and four guides from around the world lugging about 23 or 24 giant duffel bags of cold weather gear. The team took a ride with Denali Overland, our shuttle service to Talkeetna. The three hour trip was broken by a stop for provisions in Wasilla, but then we powered on up the Parks highway to our Talkeetna turnoff. We had pretty good views of the Chugach Range as we left Anchorage but the Alaska Range stayed mostly hidden under cloud. There were some scattered rain showers to see, and a Bald Eagle or two, but no moose this time. We were in Talkeetna by 8:30 PM and getting settled into the comfortable Talkeetna Motel not much later. The big work of preparing to fly onto Denali begins in the morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer checked in from Camp Muir at 6:45 am. The
Four Day Summit Climb team was forced to turn around at Ingraham Flats due to deteriorating weather. They experienced gusty winds, drifting snow and heavy precipitation. Camp Muir had a small accumulation of snow throughout the morning.
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz led by Elias de Andres Martos checked in from their high camp. The team was expecting to make their summit attempt today but we unable to do so due to the poor weather. The team experienced a very stormy night with consistent winds.
The Four Day Summit climb will return to Rainier BaseCamp later today. The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz will continue their training and spend another night on the mountain. They will return tomorrow afternoon.
The
Four Day Summit Climb Teams Led by
JJ Justman and
Lindsay Mann reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The teams reported great climbing conditions with winds of about 5 - 15 mph as they climbed above the clouds. The teams will spend some time on the summit before starting their descent back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to Today's Teams!
RMI Guides
Mike Haugen and
Solveig Waterfall and their Four Day Summit Climb Team reached the top of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported clear and beautiful weather with light winds of about 10 mph. The team has started their descent and will be back at
RMI Basecamp this Afternoon.
Congratulations to Today's Team!
The Four Day Summit Climb Team led by
Adam Knoff reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at about 7:00am this morning. Adam and Team reported great climbing conditions with light winds and clear skies above 6,000’. We expect the team back to
Ashford Basecamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to Today's teams!
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Way to go guys! Keep up the good work! Keeping track of you guys through Joe and Sean’s posts. Wishing I was there!
Posted by: Matt Moldenhauer on 7/2/2014 at 7:09 pm
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