American Alpine Institute Denali Team 5, 2012

I just got back from my second Denali trip of the year, and once again the weather ruled the trip.   This was my second trip of the season, and unlike the first was quite warm.  Unfortunately the high winds were still present, and were accompanied by lots of snow. 
With the strongest team I have had on the mountain I left Talkeetna fairly optimistic about our summit chances.  The first few days on the lower glacier were perfect.  Not too hot and not too stormy. 

When we got to 11,200ft camp the weather changed, and as is typical for that area of the mountain we got a lot of snow overnight.  So much in fact that it collapsed our cook tent and broke all our poles.  This combined with a little stove accident pretty much ended the life of our cook tent.  We spent the next day repairing the tent.

We did manage to carry a load up and around windy corner after a short delay. 

The following day we moved to camp at 14,200ft.

Once arriving at 14,200 the weather took a turn for the worse and the snow started falling. 

We did manage to carry a load up to a cache spot of 16,700 ft.  Little did we know on this day that the weather would never improve enough for us to return and retrieve our cache. 

After returning to camp a storm rolled in and dropped several feet of snow, which is fairly uncommon at 14k this time of year.  In addition to the heavy snow there were very strong winds which caused some very dangerous avalanche conditions all over the mountain.  See the previous post for some photos and a short movie. 
We had cached 4 days of food just below Washburn’s Thumb, and then sat at 14 camp day after day watching the winds hammer the upper mountain, and load the leeward slopes.  We were stuck at 14 camp unable to go up and get our cache, and unable to go down.  Below are some photos of some of our time at 14. 

With only a single dinner left and no lunch to hand out until we got down to a cache at 11k camp we had to descend without ever returning to the upper mountain.   The only team that summited within a week of us leaving was a group that had been sitting at 17 camp for 11 days.  Each person in the group sustained serious frostbite injuries in what might be one of the worst pieces of decision making I heard of on the mountain this year. 
The move down from 14 camp was not a simple walk.  Thigh deep snow around windy corner made travel difficult. 
We walked through the night to get to basecamp for the flight out the following morning.  It was truly a beautiful night…

American Alpine Institute Denali Trip #1

I just got back from an early season trip on Denali.  The expedition was exceptionally cold and windy.  There were a few day on which I was able to shoot some reasonable photos however.

Soon after arriving at camp 1 the weather changed.  I have had periods of bad weather low down on the mountain, but never bad enough weather that we were not able to carry loads to our cache.  This storm was a bit different however.  Below is a video of Aili working on getting dinner ready.

Birds often get blown off course and  into the range with storms.  This unlucky tree sparrow spent his last few hours with us at camp.

 Sastrugi snow after the storm.

The next day we cached at about 9700ft and moved our camp to 11,000ft the day after that in mostly good weather.  A third day of good weather allowed us to retreive our cache at 9,700ft the following day.

The following day was fairly good weather but a little windy.  We decided to cache around windy corner this day followed by a move to the 14,000ft camp the next day.

The move to 14,000ft is a difficult day, so we took a rest day in good weather the day after.

The following day of good weather allowed us to retrieve our cache 600ft below camp.

Chris

Zlatko

Returning from our cache.

Climbers returning to the 14,000ft camp.

After a rest day at 14,000ft we decided to carry food and fuel up to the top of the fixed lines at 16,200ft.   When we woke up that morning we could all see that the weather was changing fast.  I was very worried about getting separated from our food and fuel so I chose not to make the carry, and instead spend the morning fortifying our camp.  We also took this chance to send Lorenzo down with Chad due to altitude issues.

A lenticular cloud over the summit of Denali.

Lorenzo heading down.

 Sergey and Vitali spent at least part of the day building an igloo.

Sergey and Vitali building an igloo.

The master builder at work.

By the middle of the day the weather started to worsen and by night the winds became very strong.  We spent five days hunkered down at the 14,000ft camp due to very cold temperatures and high winds.  This amount of time in one place on the mountain is pretty trying, but we managed to entertain ourselves by listening to NPR, an making some videos of both the weather outside, and our attempts to cook appetizing meals for ten without the use of our cook tent.

A short break in the storm allowed us to get outside and do a little digging and maintenance

Cooking for ten...

Mt Foraker after the storm.

After spending way too much time in our tents we made the desision to decend rather than attempt a fast trip to the summit.  I was concerned about the possibility of getting stuck in bad weather at 17,000ft camp after the ascent as the weather window to summit looked to be very short.

Avalanche Course at Mt. Baker.

I just completed two field days with an AAI avalanche course in the Mt. Baker back country. Overall we had a great course despite some pretty challenging weather. We did get a few turns in down Swift Creek which always makes for a great day. Here are a few photos...

AIARE Avalanche 1 Course with American Alpine Institute.

I just got done teaching my third AIARE Avalanche 1 course of the season.  these courses have one classroom day in Bellingham followed by two days in the Mt. Baker ski area backcountry.  For the most part the weather has been pretty cooperative, and despite the low snow pack, we have managed to get in a few good turns.

Route finding in the backcountry.

Terrain trap.

Navigation in poor weather.

Skinning uphill

Rimmed trees.

Rimed trees at Herman saddle

Not the best skinning conditions.

The weather for this last class was forecast to be awful (mid 30's and raining).  Saturday turned out pretty nice.  Sunday had such a bad forecast I made the decision to not take my camera out.  Turns out it was a pretty nice day also.  All these photos are from near Artist Point on Saturday.  

Skinning toward Artist Point.

Erin's Group on the ridge getting ready to head down.

Erin, showing us how its done.

Kurt

Nice turn!

Skiing off Artist Point.

West Ridge of Forbidden Peak Climb with American Alpine Institute

I just got back from a climb of Forbidden Peak over the Forth of July weekend.  Conditions are about as good as they could be right now, with the coulour still completely filled with snow, and the ridge mostly bare and dry.  We dropped our campons a couple hundred feet above the top of the coulour and then continued in our boots from there to the summit.  

Two Skiers in  Boston Basin.

We did not seem to bother the year round inhabitants of our camp.

Pika

Marmot

 We did not get a super early start, and were at the base of the coulour by 8.

Starting up the coulour.

Above the shrund.

Somewhere on the ridge heading up.

Seen somewhere on the ridge.  WTF was someone trying to accomplish with the blue cord added to this anchor?  Thanks, I can add this to my collection of crappy anchor photos.

Summit

Heading down.

Another party below us on the ridge.

James down leading.

Another Pika back at camp.

Skiers with Johannesburg Mountain in the background.

Share|