Archive for the Denali June 2007 Blog Category

Wednesday Evening

June 13, 2007 by Lei.

Same drill in the morning. Stick at airport waiting for the landing window. 11:30, Dave came to announce: we need 3 people be ready to go! So Ian (bristish climber), Christian (german) and I, plus guide Zach got ready to go. we load stuff on to the airplane, changed into climbing boots, and stand by the airplane.
12:30, pilot came, but instead, started to unload our stuff from the airplane. So we took off boots, and went off to lunch. We put in order, but before the meal even arrived, Zach (assistant guide) showed up: we need 2 people to go! 4 others already there, just need 2 to go. So we all hurried the waitress to pack up our lunch and run back (Zach actually came with shuttle van to pick us up even it’s just 10 minutes walk from airport). When we got to the airport, we learned that the place already left with 3 climbers. So we now got more time to enjoy the last lunch. While I’m typing this email, I heard that plane already landed in basecamp and is on the way back (2:15pm). So highly likely, we will be all at base camp today (otherwise, the other 3 climbers would stuck there because the guides are here), though unlikely to move up the hill as I had hopefully wished.

A funny story heard from Jeff: once at the base camp airport, there are a lot of fresh snow that plane can’t land. So the base camp manager announced: who wants to go home? put on your snow shoes and run on the runway! So all climbers packed in lines to run to pack down the run way. Another time, the plane can’t land because of clouds. The plane made several dancing in the clouds to disturb the dynamics of cloud, finally break up an opening to land.

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

Wednesday morning, we are still waiting.

June 13, 2007 by Lei.

There was one brief window this morning at 6am, but pilot said it was too brief that it would have been closed when we arrive there even if we tried to fly. So the waiting game again. The pilot said that normally June is flyable every day, the weather pattern is abnormal this year. Al Gore should have done somethings much earlier!:)

the condition on upper mountain is getting warm and calm these days. I read that a few teams are going for summit today, though 50 climbers from earlier expeditions are waiting at base camp to get get out as anxious as we are to get in.

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

No go again tonight

June 12, 2007 by Lei.

The weather has been improving over the day, and we got more and more optimistic as time passes by. Earlier in the day, we were told to check back every hour if we
were to wander around in the town. So some people made several back and forth walk between the town of Talkeetna and the little airport. Later in the afternoon, we
were told to stick around, no one goes anywhere. 7:30, we were told to get ready. 8pm, we loaded up all our luggage by the loading area, changed into climbing boots.
Then Dave came back with a “cut-off” signal, no go again! The sky is definitely clearing up, but the word is that the cloud is still hanging around at the base camp level
that can’t land the airplane. We were a bit dissapointed, but think about those tired climbers who had stuck in the storm for weeks, now stuck at base camp waiting for
their flights out, how much dissapointment they have. At least, we can still enjoy a bed and shower here, and nice meals and drinks. Hopefully, we will go early
tomorrow morning, then possiblly skip base camp to go for camp 0.5 or camp 1 directly.
 
This morning, Dave went over the techniques about rigging sleds. There’re a lot of tricks to make sled traveling safe, especially when one falls into crevasse, it’s
important to prevent double jeapody (sled hitting the fallen one), rather, by using the double tag line connected by zip pull, sled can be used to help hold up the
fall, and make it easier for the person behind to hold the fallen one. Dave also shared funny stories of sleds traveling by themselves. Often climbers left the
sled unattended after untied it at camp site, the sled could start going by itself, and dissapeared off the crevasse . Once a sled with three sleeping bags on it
went off by itself, the unlucky three climbers had to call off their climb. So at least, don’t put your personal essentials on the sled!
 
Stories from yesterday, just in case I forgot later: Dave once discovered a cache at high camp marked “THEMIS project”, which had many air-dropped millatary style cardborad
cases of all kinds of supplies. No one knows what that project is. Until one day, in an accidental chat, someone said “I used to work on THEMIS project”, turned out it
stands for “The Men In Space” project the government (NASA) secretly experimented during cold war (1960s?) crisis time. They were trying to simulate human in space
by doing that on thin-aired mountain top.  There were a lot of abandoned cache stories.

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

It’s Tuesday morning, we are still waiting in Talkeetna

June 12, 2007 by Lei.

We drove up to Talkeetna yesterday morning. After enjoyed a sunny weekend, we got a cloudy anad breezy start for the week. On the way up, the condition looked very
marginal for flying. We stopped by the airoport first once we got in Talkeetna. To our excitement, it was said that the “airport” on glacier is open. But we still
have to check in with the park ranger’s office first. There we got a brief introduction about the climbing routes and leave no trace practice. There’re brochers
about Denali in all kinds of language, including Japanese and Korean, but no Chinese. I talked to the ranger, Chinese climbers are rare on Denali.
 
At noon, we checked in at airport, but it’s already closed because of weather on glacier. Anyway, we all changed into our climbing clothes, so we could jump on the
plane immediately when the cloud breaks. Unfortunately, the whole afternoon passed just in waiting. Lead guide Dave used this time to teach us glacier travel and self
rescue. I volunteered to be the first victim. But there was one little move that required me to do a quick short pullup with my 50lb pack on my back. I couldn’t
even move up a few inches. So we had a good laugh and had to modify my self rescue system. Dave spent quite some time to cutomize my system to accomodate my
narrower chest size and weaker arm strength.
 
We waited until 7pm when the pilots all went home, then called off the night.
 
Tuesday morning, it’s again cloudy. Pilots require line of vision to land on glacier. So we are just waiting here for a break in the clouds. Yesterday, only one
flight was able to fly in and fly out. Sometimes, the flight had to turn around half way when the condition sunddenly changed. Sometimes, half of the team was able
to fly in, the other half was left behind. So we had to be flexible and be ready to jump on plane at a short notice. 

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

Day 2 - Insomnia

June 10, 2007 by Lei.

The first night really reminds me of the movie “Insomnia”. At 10pm, it’s already 2 am EST for me, so I called off the night early. But it’s still bright day light outside, feel like the middle of the day. No wonder the most prominent thing I see when I walked into my room is the eye mask. I woke up at 3am, it’s already bright day light outside, and hard to say if night ever fell here last night. I still felt tired (from what? I don’t even understand why I felt tired), so continued to sleep until it’s time for my breakfast around 8.

We got a full house at breakfast table. The other 10 or so guests here either come for a wedding, or just a short vacation. Our host Sandy and Jerry are both retired university professors. They spend the summer here, and winter in Mexico. Seem quite a lot of retired people come live here just for the summer then spend winter in south. I chatted with them about the living cost in Alaska. Last night at dinner, I noticed that the food here is not cheap at all, even locally produced food like crab and salmon is at as expensive as any other city. They told me that living cost outside anchorage is even higher. Food, gas, nothing comes cheap here. As usual, I eat more than two person’s serving at breakfast that kept our host busy. The reindeer sausage is delicious.

 

10 o’clock is our team meeting time. Our team consists of three guides and ten clients. Lead guide, Dave Staeheli has been guiding on Denali for several decades; Assistant guide, Pablo from Ecuador and Zach from Colorado both are new to Denali, but had been on one previous (unlucky) expedition this season. Of the 10 clients, there are three British that is trying to make a world record by climbing all 7 summits within 150 days, and this is the last one for them. They just came off Everest, then went to Elbrus, now the last stop. Two of them are actually professional mountain guides themselves. This makes our team no short of professional hands.

 

Our plan is to fly off to glacier tomorrow (Monday) afternoon around 3pm if condition allows. Then set up base camp and practice some technical skills. We will then do a single carry the next day to camp 1, and plan to arrive at 11,000ft camp 2 within four days (with day 1 being the day we start moving from Base camp to camp 1). We are also plan to have one guide staying team members in each tent at high camp, so everyone can have access to cooking easily when weather is bad outside. Weather has been so bad in May, Dave is optimistic about some break in June. Mountain Trip also buried a big cache (that take up 8 long, 5 feet wide, 4 feet deep in the snow) of extra food at high camp. So we only need to carry up 14 days worth supply. By normal weight calculation, at least 2 pounds of food and a quarter litter of fuel per person per day. One week’s cache would mean 20-30 pounds per person! How nice is that!

 

We spend the rest of day doing last minute gear shopping and packing. I got some nice collapsible 96oz Nelgene container to be my dedicated pee bottle, no more worry about stuck with a full and frozen pee bottle in a stormy night.

 

Now, I’m off for the last civilized dinner. Hopefully, I will be able to report from glacier tomorrow. If I’m lucky to get connection there, it will be just some succinct message.

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

First impression of Anchorage

June 9, 2007 by Lei.

After a hungry flight (airline now cutting cost, no food on the flight), I landed in Anchorage on time. It’s a sunny day with some light clouds and no wind. The first impression of Anchorage is: where are all the people? It’s Saturday, but I don’t see people anywhere.

Streets here are very wide, even just a “lane” in residential community could be four lanes wide. Commercial properties do not have those protruding architectural signatures that you could recognize them from far away. When I was looking for the supermarket, I walked by the blue brick block building without noticing it until I turned around to read the printed name on the brick wall. Sometimes I confuse myself whether I’m in America. By the cleanness and quality of city construction, it’s an American city. But by life style, I feel like in a foreign country. There’re no bar scenes (though I do find a crowded bar/restaurant when I headed into heart of downtown for dinner) or party crowds walking on the street, there’re no convenient stores or coffee shops at street corners, there are very few cars on the wide street. I walked around my B&B that is just outside the downtown for 20 blocks, didn’t even find a place to buy water at 9pm. Except for a group of parents and kids at a public park, I occasionally see a few kids playing in a backyard here and a car pulled into a house there.

 

Weather in Alaska is unpredictable. When I talked to people in the shop, I realized how lucky I am. It was still miserable just yesterday; high wind, bitter bold temperature, rain and cloud had dominated the area for two weeks. I know that people up high on Denali had been suffering during the past two weeks, but didn’t realize that people in city was also living in the “hell” at the same time. Seems there’s no pattern for Alaska weather, sometimes May could be the best month, sometimes the whole season could all be cold and rainy. I just hope please give me a few good days to let me summit!

 

Today I met my teammates Jeff and Stefan. We had dinner together. Jeff came last year with Mountain Trip, but injured his knee during a small fall into crevasse, and had to turn around from camp 1. So here he comes again, and plan to quit high mountain climbing after finishing Denali.

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

Denali!

June 2, 2007 by Lei.

My turn to climb Denali is coming up fast! Denali (6194m, 20320 ft), also called Mt McKinley, is the highest peak in North America. I’m on Mountain Trip’s June 10th 2007 expedition. I will try to send updated information as much as I can, but please stay patient.

I have been following this year’s earlier expeditions closely, which helps me mentally prepare myself. The season on Denali started at the beginning of May. For the first month, there seems to have been only two brief summit windows. Most of the time, the mountain was in heavy snow storm and high wind. Two of the early expeditions were held down at high camp by storm for a week and had to descend after their food and fuel supply came to an end. I hope June will bring better climbing conditions on the higher mountain though there are more crevasse opening at lower slopes. I heard global warming also helps open up crevasse early:)

 

Posted in Denali June 2007 Blog | No Comments »

« Previous Entries |