Mountain Trip's June 23, 2006 Denali Expedition

In Base Camp

2006-07-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

They made it to base camp. It took them only two days to come down what took them two weeks(nearly) to get up. They are in base camp this morning, and will fly to Talkeetna soon, as long as the weather holds. You should be hearing from the climbers today. Thanks for tuning in and congrat's to the climbers.

Bill and Todd

Mountain Trip
www.mountaintrip.com
info@mountaintrip.com

They Summited!!

2006-07-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Ryan called this morning from High Camp. It is a beautiful day, but everyone is pretty tired from the move to 17,200. They were debating wether they could go to the summit or wait until tommorow and hope for another nice day. We'll update this evening if we hear anything new.

-------UPDATE------

They Summited!!! The whole group was able to make it to the summit today! We just got a breif message that everyone is doing great, and they will start down tommorow. Congratulations to the whole team.

Wind and Snow

2006-07-05T12:52:00.001-07:00

They were able to carry their loads up to about 15,400 feet yesterday, not as high as they would have liked. The new snow and high winds kept them from getting all of the way to the ridge. They were expecting more winds today, so they are probably waiting it out in camp again today, we will hear the reports this afternoon.

----UPDATE---

They were able to move up to high camp today!! Hoping to summit soon.

Snow and Wind

2006-07-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

They had a bit of bad weather today, but were comfortably tucked in to their tents at 14,200. The activity of the day was shoveling snow, and eating. The weather is beautiful this evening, and they plan to carry their loads up to 16,200 tommorow.

NOT A Nice Day at 14,200ft

2006-07-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

They are hoping to carry loads to 16,200 ft today, but they weather sounds a bit crappy. We'll see how it goes, I hope to hear from them later today.

They Made it to 14,200

2006-07-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

Ryan called in and the whole team is safe and sound at the 14,200 foot camp. They were able to move up today, and everybody did great. They will stay 4 nights at this camp acclimating, and getting ready for the move to high camp, and the last push. Tommorow they are planning on sleeping in late, and having a big breakfast of French Toast and bacon. Life is good, and the veiw is spectacular.

Hoping to move to 14,200 ft Camp

2006-07-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

They called last night from 11,000 ft and had carried their load up to 13,500 feet. They returned to the 11,000 camp for one more night and will hope to be moving up to 14 today. They are eating well and we continue to give them updated World Cup results, so they are happy.

Looking For World Cup Results

2006-06-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

The team called yesterday from the 11,000 ft camp. They are going to be carrying a load of food and fuel to 13,500 feet today and returning to spend one more night at 11,000 feet. They were doing great, they did loose one team member as Bernie Fritz had to come down the day before(he is fine). They were most concerned that they hadn't been able to find out the most current World Cup results, so I am going to send them a text message to the Sat phone as soon as I finish here.

At Camp 1

2006-06-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

The team has moved up to Camp 1. Between base camp and camp one they only gain about 600 feet in elevation, but will travel about 5 miles up the Kahiltna glacier. The will spend a couple of nights at this camp before moving up to 11,000 feet.

The team has flown to the glacier!

2006-06-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Post-Solstice team has safely flown to the mountain from Talkeetna. On Saturday, June 24th they made the two hour drive from Anchorage north to the airstrip.

After driving to Talkeetna, the team checked in at the NPS Ranger Station and watched an orientation Power Point presentation on the challenges of climbing Denali. Following that, they organized their gear for the flight in, loaded everything up in Cessna 185s and DeHavilland Beavers and flew to the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier.

The arrival at Base Camp on the SE Fork is like stepping out into a dreamland. You just left a land of green leafy trees and stepped out into a landscape of white, grey and black. Towering peaks rising up to two miles above your head make you feel like a tiny speck. It is breath-taking!

The Post- Solstice Team has arrived in Anchorage!

2006-06-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the expedition update page for Mountain Trip's June 23, 2006 West Buttress climb!

The team is another diverse group comprised of climbers from Alaska, Canada, the US, the UK and New Zealand. They all looked agood at the gear check and are ready to go!

The team consists of:

Andrew Wilkinson
David Germer
Mike Chapman
Scott Allison
Andrea Moore
Gineth-Soto-Buturla
Bernie Fritz
Jeff Bean

The guides for this expedition are:

Ryan and Sherrie Campbell (hah-hah! -private joke!) and Rob Durnell

We'll do our best to keep the info on the team as up to date as we can, but PLEASE remember that it is often difficult to communicate from a mountain as big and variable as Denali. Try to adhere to our motto of "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS!"

We hope you enjoy these updates.

Cheers,

Todd