Back to Civilization!

The team flew out of Base Camp at the last minute yesterday and spent the night in Talkeetna, sans Dan and I, since we came back to Anchorage last night and Dan flew out this morning without sleeping a wink last night (that Danimal!). Everyone is doing great! Jerry has a touch of frostbite on his hands and will be seeing a specialist in Anchorage probably today-we want to wish Jerry all the best in recovering! He's taking it like a true tooper! There are thousands of photos to go through, but eventually we'll get a DVD put together. Also, thanks to Mike Walter, Billy, and Fede, our guides from RMI, for being the true rock star heroes of the trip!

Questionable Weather at Base Camp

I just talked to Hudson Air Service (http://www.hudsonair.com/), who provides flights in and out of Base Camp for RMI, and the weather has not been good at Base Camp for pickups and landings and another system is moving in. They don't expect to have the climbers from any of the three RMI teams (I think she said there were 19 people total) down today. Apparently, according to Wes' blog, the team may already be at Base Camp. I will contact them again later and if the team will be off today, I'll post another update.

Team Update!

As you all probably know from checking Wes' awesome blog, the team reached the summit on Friday and should be heading back to Base Camp from Camp III today! I expect it to take roughly 8 hours, which would put them at Base Camp at about 4:oo or 5:00 p.m. I plan on driving to Talkeetna to meet them, and if possible, to fly out with the pilots to pick the first crew up (and maybe I'll even bring some french fries or something good and greasy!).

I'm very proud of the team! I'll post some updates and after-pictures once the team is back in Talkeetna.

Search for Missing Japanese Climbers Sadly Ends

The search for the 2 missing Japanese climbers, who were climbing the technically more challenging Cassin Ridge route, ended. The climbers disappeared somewhere between 19,000 ft and the summit. See http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/421263.html.

Rest of team poised for a summit bid!

Hey all,  according to the RMI postings and the NOAA forecast, it looks like the best opportunity for a summit bid will be Saturday (Day 24).  If weather is good enough (diminishing winds), they will try to summit tomorrow (Day 23).  If they go tomorrow, the earliest that they will be off the mountain is likely Sunday (that gives them Saturday to travel to Base Camp).  If they Summit on Saturday, they might not be off until Monday.  It all depends on how fast they move coming down after reaching the summit and flying conditions at Base Camp--it took us 10 hours from Camp IV without much break time and without having reached the summit and then we had to wait until the next day for good fly-out conditions (plus, the team will have to dig out their cache at Camp IV).  Base Camp seems to be plagued by low clouds and fog.  Either way, both Friday and Saturday look very promising for a summit!  I have my fingers crossed for them!  It is now Day 22 on the mountain, and I know that lunch food is a little scarce up there, but I know that they can hold out until the weekend.  Go team!  Be safe!  Half my head is still up there with you!

Denali Journal, Day 19: Base Camp to Talkeetna

We woke up to a beautiful day at Base Camp today--a pure blue sky!  Shortly after 10:00, the beautiful site of the Hudson Air Service ski plane was upon me--it landed and picked me up along with some other guys from the Climbers for Christ group.  We got in to Talkeetna at about 11:00ish.  Once at the hanger, it felt really awkward to get out of the ski plane with down booties on and a big puffy -40 degree down jacket on, but I managed!  After tidying up some things at Hudson, I went straight for the Roadhouse to get a "Full Standard" breakfast, coffee, and my fill of goodies.  I also stopped in at the Park Service to let them know that I was back early and to give them an update.  

I can't stop thinking about the rest of the team up at Camp IV--I hope they summit and that they are don't push it too hard.  Also, I worry about the 2 missing Japanese climbers.  I have to admit also, that coming back to civilization, with all its creature comforts, stings a bit while my team is still up there--I miss Dan and the rest of the gang already!  I guess it's just the "post-expedition/race" funk--I used to get it a lot after adventure races, where I would feel worn out, a bit emotional, and with an empty "what next" feeling in my gut.  Something tells me it won't be long before that void is filled!

Denali Journal, Day 18: Camp IV to Base Camp

[Midnight]  This morning it was probably the coldest morning at Camp IV of all the days so far, and it was still a bit windy, but good enough for a departure to Base Camp!  I roped up with the Alpine Ascents International (AAI) team for the slog to Base Camp.  They were kind of dilly dallying and having trouble getting going, so we didn't actually leave until about 10:00 a.m.  I was on a rope of 4 climbers, and there was another rope of 5 more, and two of us (a woman named Sandra from Florida) were just clipping in to get to Base Camp.  They guy in front was named Alex, and he right away reminded me of the biker dude in the "Everest-Beyond the Limit" series on National Geographic Channel, boasting that he was supposed be on Everest right now, blah blah blah--he even had the same build.  But he seemed nice enough and anyways, I just needed to get along for a day and make the best of the situation since the AAI team was kind enough to take me with them to Base Camp.  The AAI guides seemed really friendly and "with it."  Alex was pulling a sled full of shit, and I wondered to myself why they had so much gear with them at Camp IV, while we had cached our sleds and heavy stuff at Camp III at 11,200 ft to avoid dealing with sleds up the steep Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill, and Windy Corner (the express route to the Kahiltna if you should fall).

Everything was fine until we got to Windy Corner and Squirrel Hill.  Since I had to prevent the sled from slamming into Alex's heels on the descent, it required some concentration to provide the backpull and taught rope necessary, but that much is normal.  The problem was that it was really windy on Windy Corner (go figure) and in fact, the high winds persisted all the way from Windy Corner to Kahiltna Pass just below Camp III.  It was so windy that I had to lean into my ice axe on some of the steeper parts.  Combine that with holding a sled back, heavy focus on keeping traction on steep terrain (two climbers on the other rope slipped and caught themselves, thankfully), having Alex pull me forward with an unmanageable pace despite my repeated warnings to him, stinging cold, fogged up glacier glasses, a very high heart rate, and you have a recipe for, well, not a lot of goodness, that's for sure!  Alex yelled at me several times for letting the sled bump into his heels and the last time I fired off a few f-in-heimers at him to let him know just how serious I saw the situation.  I think he "got it" at that point, but by then, we were almost to Motorcycle Hill.  He reminded me of adventure racers who give great lip service to teamwork but fail in that practice miserably.  We went from Camp IV to Camp III without a break!

Once we got to Camp III, I dug up some snowshoes per Walter's instructions and then the AAI guides, having witnessed the exchange between Alex and I, switched it up so that one of the guides took Alex's place.  I wasn't sad to see his demotion!  From there, we left Camp III and headed down, yielding to teams coming up hill.  There were so many teams coming up that we ended up breaking a lot of trail, which is a lot of extra work.  Visibility wasn't the greatest, so it was wand-to-wand travel for awhile until we got to clear skies at about 8,500 ft, which was a welcome site.  We stopped briefly to pull off our puffy jackets, but after that we didn't stop until Camp I at 7,800 ft.  At that point, the pace got more manageable.  We rested again just below Heartbreak Hill, which is a 400 ft. ascent to get to Base Camp.  

Heartbreak Hill was a huge heartbreaker!  It took over an hour to slog up that bastard, but we knew we were almost there.  Once we got to Base Camp at 8:00, we were too late to fly out and at any rate, it wasn't good flying weather.  It was all-in-all a 10-hour slog!  The AAI guides were total rock stars and made us bean and rice burritos and dug out a cache of beer for us!  I still don't know where they got it, but all guides have their connections!  We didn't get to sleep until after midnight.  I dreamt of nothing but getting off that big lump of ice and rock and of the team still up high.