Mountain Updates

Muldrow Centennial Team is at the McKinley River! They will camp there tonight and cross the river in the morning. They should be at the park road by 1:00PM where a shuttle bus will transport them to the east entrance; arrival time is estimated to be around 4:30PM.

Family and friends can meet them at the McKinley Chalet lodging located just outside of the Park's entrance. A big thanks to Doyon/Aramark and Denali Park Resorts for lodging and transportation. The team will be transported to Talkeetna via Aramark tomorrow night!

Gowler 6/27 is still at 11,000 feet. The weather continues to be stormy so they are holding tight. Here's a link to the Denali Mountain forecast

Here's a tent scene for you...

Tent groups usually are 3-4 persons.

That's Rob Gowler from last year's Denali Expedition.

 

Denali West Buttress 6/16 Returns!

AMS team led by Todd Tumolo and Jeremiah Phelps have returned to sunny skies in Talkeetna after tackling some deep snow on Denali. Everyone is in good spirits and glad to have gotten experience up on the Great One. Enjoy these photos from their climb!

AMS team members Dim and Herbert  at 11,200' 

11,200' camp looking up at Motorcycle Hill. 

 AMS 6/16 Team going up Squirrel Hill.

AMS climber Herbert at 14,200' after a storm that brought 3 inches of rain to Talkeetna and a lot of snow to camp!  

Summer green! 

AMS Headquarters and drying the expedition gear.

Word from 14 camp

Rob Gowler called with messages from the West Buttress team!

From Rex - "To Family & Friends, doing well, missing you all."
From Jeremiah - "To Family & Friends, doing well, missing you all."
From Dean - "Mom & Dad, thanks for the birthday card, all is well, loving life. Sherry & Tina, I miss you, looking forward to seeing you on the 31st. 7 mile bridge is required. Marcos, 'Weather is here, Wish you were beautiful.'" (I've heard eyewitnesses say Dean's been kicked back, enjoying a puff of cigar at each camp.)
From Marcio - "Hi everybody in Brazil! Hope all is well. Feeling well. Special kiss to Alexandra, I love you, Marcio."
From Forest - "Hello to all Family & Friends, all good here!"
From Ed, Yury & everyone - "Enjoying the -20F in July!"

The phone cut out before we could finish, so I'll send all your messages and blog comments if he calls back later. I think I was able to get a quick hello in to Dean from Andrea, and I was just about to give Rob the message for Marcio about the Brazil Cup results!

Early this morning the team finished their back carry to retrive their cached items at Windy Corner. They're resting and eating at the 14,200 foot camp now. Today they are going to review some the procedures of traveling with fixed line protection, which they will use in the next several days as they travel up the "headwall" to the 16,200' ridge.

Ciao!
~J and Caitlin

Summit Report

Colby Coombs called from 17,200 feet just a few minutes ago. He, Josh Hoeshen and Nubo Huang were on the summit last night at 8 pm, 20,320 feet above sea level on a beautiful, clear night.

It was a very long summit day and they have been resting all morning, which is normal for all teams. They will move down to 14,200 feet later today, then repack and wait for conditions to descend. Once they have had some rest they will determine how fast they want to move down. The earliest they would be back to Talkeetna would be sometime on Friday or Saturday morning. They are enjoying perfect weather, it is "splitter" up there, as Rob would say.

Rob, Forest, Jeremiah, Dean, Marcio, Rex, Yury and Ed back carried today to pick up their items at the Windy Corner area. Please excues our previous (now deleted) post that they were carrying to 16,200' today, they should be doing that in the next few days!

I just spoke with one of the NPS Mountaineering Rangers who said it is very quiet in the mountains, with not many people up there right now. Those few that are up there are enjoying the beautiful day!

We're getting projects done here at Headquarters, getting ready for the Mountaineering Courses coming up July 13, August 3, August 10, September 7 and September 14.
The sun is out, it will be a good day for a swim!
~Julia

Yesterday the weather on Ben Nevis could not have been better. Deep blue sky with just a few fluffy white clouds, light wind, warm but not too hot. The rock on Tower Ridge was dry and warm to touch. So it was a perfect day for Martin to enjoy his birthday treat!

This was a step up in challenge and scale for Martin and Jonny but they both got on fine and enjoyed the experience. We made great time up the ridge and soaked up the very fine views in all directions from The Great Tower. It was all arranged by Connor from the excellent Atlas Mountaineering who even put on pink doughnuts as a birthday surprise half way up the route.

There were a couple of other teams on Tower Ridge, one pair which was going up all the classic ridges and a team or two on Carn Dearg Buttress as well as all the regular walkers and CMD Areters. Today it's all change though. The rain arrived at 2pm and the wind was already quite severe by then and has got worse. Our scheduled Ben Nevis walking group made it to Corner Number 5 at 1050m before turning back down the trail. It looks blustery and showery over the next few days as well.

Update from 14,000 feet

Rob just called to say that he just rolled in to 14-camp with Forest, Jeremiah, Dean, Marcio, Rex, Yury and Ed. He said every one is doing well and they plan to back-carry tomorrow, then make a carry up the following day. He said it was a very warm day. Nick had snow melted and ready for them, I'll bet they were ready for Tang or lemonade.
Rex sends a shout out to his people - he saw the jet overhead as they were rounding Windy Corner, and figured it was inbound to Fairbanks...
Rob will pass greetings to Jeremiah from his girls...

Nick is keeping the home fires burning at the 14,200' camp. The weather is beautiful, almost too warm, and "not a breath of wind" up high. Rob says it "looks perfect up there".

We're expecting a little rain here, thunder is rolling in closer and the eastern sky is dark. Rob could see the thunderheads below them. We've been getting afternoon thundershowers on these hot days. The Mountain Forecast is looking good.

Caitlin will likely make a post later tonight after Colby checks in.
~Julia

Chore Day at AMS

While we have three teams on the Denali and a custom mountaineering course starting tomorrow, we have time around headquarters to do some projects.

Colby's nephew, Owen, can now add hole digging to his resume.

Guide Alex Stroud tunes up one of AMS' fleet.