May 5th West Buttress Expedition

Mountain Trip's Cinco De Mayo Denali Expedition

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Summit

Sorry, correction. . the intern (me) corrected the wrong blog. Clark's ENTIRE EXPEDITION Summited on May 22, 2006 as the first crew ALL SEASON to summit. Congrats you guys did a fantastic job. They booked it down to base camp by Wednesday but missed the flight time by an hour and a half. They spent the night celebrating at base camp and this morning flew into Talkeena at 11am. Now everyone is happy to be back to civilization, fresh showers, etc. Tonight they will all meet at 8pm at Humpy's for dinner and good bye.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

High Camp

Everyone moved to high camp yesterday, today and probably for the next few days they will be taking some time to acclimate, or they could just go for the summit. We hope to hear from them this evening.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Rest Day

The May 5th expedition has been marching right up the mountain so far. They have had good weather, and have a strong crew. They are at the 14K camp now, and have been acclimitizing there for a couple of days. The next move will be to high camp at 17,000ft from where they will be able to attempt the summit. They hope to move to high camp as early as Thursday, as always weather permitting.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Camp 1

The hard work has begun. After spending one extra night in Talkeetna waiting for the weather to improve the team has started moving up the mountain. The first move from base camp 7,200ft to Camp 1 7,800ft doesn't gain a whole bunch of altitude. They will however be carrying 20+ days of food, fuel, and all of their personal gear for the 5 mile trudge up the glacier. "The only easy day was yesterday" is the saying every day on Denali. They are set up now on the Kahiltna glacier right under the SW face of Denali and the veiws are enough to make you forget about your aching muscles. They will spend the next several days moving up to 11,000 feet, and finally to the 14,000 foot camp. This will take 6-7 days, during this time they do not have regular cell phone contact, so no news is still good news for now. We'll keep you all posted, send them all some good thoughts.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Base Camp

Everyone is doing great and moving up to base camp today. They should be setting up camp and taking in the views.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Still in Talkeetna

As of 5 pm Saturday the team is still in Talkeetna. The clouds have been in and out all day, but not clear enough for the 60 mile flight to base camp. The flight to basecamp is by ski plane, and over some mountain passes. It is a spectacular way to start the trip. We'll keep you updated if we hear any news....

Friday, May 05, 2006

Everybody is in Anchorage

The team met today in Anchorage and went thru all of the gear that they are going to need for their Denali Expedition. Everyone was excited, and after another trip to the gear shop to pick up last minute items they are ready to climb. Tommorow they will hop in the van for the 100 mile drive to Talkeetna, check in with the National Park, and fly to basecamp. They are going to have a busy day.

Stay Tuned...