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…

Avalanches at 14k Camp on Denali.

Just got back from my second Denali trip of the season.  Here is a video of some photos I shot of an avalanche running through camp at 14k.  The news has just been released that there was four climbers from Japan killed in an avalanche on Motorcycle hill just a few hours after I shot these photos.  I have never seen such unstable snow conditions on Denali as I did on this trip and the video below shows just one of the many avalanches we witnessed over a 48 hour period.  

Lots of new snow and very high winds created very unstable snow conditions over much of the mountain.  This made it too dangerous for us to continue up the mountain, and just as dangerous to go down.  We were stuck at 14,000ft camp for several days waiting for the conditions to improve.  During this time several other parties were either climbing or descending the fixed lines.  Two of these groups were caught in separate avalanches.  One group of three was caught just below the fixed lines and lost much of their gear and sustained numerous puncture wounds.  The other party was caught just above camp and sustained relatively minor injuries.  The decision to move higher or lower on the mountain is often a difficult one, but in the conditions that we observed there was no disagreement that our group would not be moving until conditions stabilized.  When conditions were safe for us to descend we had only one meal left, and we were forced to abandon our cache of gear and food higher on the mountain due to safety concerns.  Luckily our cache will almost certainly be removed from the mountain by another American Alpine Institute group later this week.

Avalanche debris from a slide of the Messner Coulour.

A huge debris pile from a slide on the Orient Express.

The photo below is looking back toward Motorcycle hill, and clearly shows the debris and crown from the avalanche which is now believed to have killed 4 climbers.  Upon deciding to leave camp at 14,000ft we had heard from a group at 11,000ft camp that the hill had avalanched in the night and therefore was safe for us to  descend.  At that point no one knew that the avalanche was human triggered and underneath the debris were 4 climbers.

More details of the accident can be found here: Anchorage Daily News.

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.

AAI Denali Prep Course. How Much is Too Much Snow?

I just got back from a Denali Prep trip.  These trips are usually a lot of fun and often make for some great photography.  This trip however got a bit old.  Not really the trip so much as the weather.  There is only so much time you can spend in a tent without going crazy.   For this trip that number is three days.  Of course we were forced to get out of our tents every now and then to dig out snow so we did not get buried.

The hike in consisted of dragging heavy sleds to a camp near the base of Table mountain near the Mt. Baker Ski Area.  This is great Denali training since Denali consists of dragging heavy sleds through the snow.  Once there we built a camp. Building a camp is a key Denali skill.  We created tent platforms and built walls around the camp so wind would not crush our tents.  Wind however was not going to be an issue on this trip.

After cooking dinner it was tent time.  I was looking forward to this since I have a one month old child at home, and there was nothing that would wake me up here in the mountains...  At some point in the middle of the night I woke to the side of the tent pressing against me and realized I was being buried alive by constant snow fall that had been falling since I put the tent up.  So much for uninterrupted sleep.  I got my boots on and dug the tent out.  Perfect Denali training!

Morning came, and it sure seemed a little dark, even for 6am.   Once again I am buried.  I tunneled my way out of the tent, this time with the camera and shot this.

Due to the very heavy snowfall we decided to not move our camp today and just work on camp mantinence since it looked like it would be an all day job.

I spent most of the day in the tent and the rest of it digging.

The next morning.

Another day of heavy snowfall so we continued to dig camp.  The next morning. 

We now estimated that we had 3 meters of snow.  If the wind picked up we would have no chance of digging out our tents.  It was time to leave.  That however was easier said than done.  Moving in snow that deep is very difficult and very tiring.  There was also a real threat of avalanche.

It was still snowing hard as we made out way out and I shot this.

After hours of wading though sometimes chest deep snow we made it to the ski area and were able to move down the groomed run to the car.  45 minutes of digging later, the car moved and we were on our way back to Bellingham to learn the technical skills needed for Denali.

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The Alaska Range From the Air - Black and White Photos of Alaska's Biggest Mountain Range

Since 1999 I have been to the Alaska Range five times. Over those five trips I have taken numerous photo flights over the range. I am currently putting together a slide show with my photos from Alaska trips, this group of photos will be my next art show. This group of photos show the Alaska Range from the air and some of the planes that I have now spent quite a bit of time photographing from. None of these photos would have been possible without K2 Aviation so if you are looking to do a flight to the Alaska Range give them a call.

The Aircraft...
A Beaver sits on the tarmac in Talkeetna in the rain. No flights on this day.

An Otter on the Kahiltna Glacier.

A Otter makes a late flight into Kahiltna base camp

A Beaver Engine
Not all of the flying in the Alaska goes as planned.
The Alaska Range...

The Glaciers...

The glaciers really make some of the best subjects when flying in the Alaska Range. Even when the clouds are hiding the peaks there are always interesting glacier patterns to photograph.









The Climbers...

One thing that always adds interest to the glaciers are the added patterns of human presence. From the huge runway in the snow next to the busy camp of the Kahiltna Base, to a solitary track weaving through crevasses, these added patterns make some of my favorite photos.





The Mountains...

The mountains of the range make up some of the steepest, largest and most beautiful mountains in the world.

Mount Hunters north face

The Moose's ToothMount Foraker

Mt. Foraker as the early morning moisture dissipates.
Mount Hunter.

A ridge somewhere between the Kahiltna and Ruth Glaciers.
An unknown peak somewhere in the range.
Denali from the south.

Gold Creek drainage.
Small peaks at the base of the range.
Peaks in the lower Ruth Gorge
The summit of Mt. Hunter pokes through the clouds.
The Cassin Ridge on Denali

Mount Hunter's summit