Success on Denali

I just got back from guiding another successful trip on Denali.  We climbed the West Buttress in good style this year.  A total of 15 days on the mountain.  Good weather and a great crew made this years trip super enjoyable.  Here are a few pics, both courtesy of Tim Amos.  The top one is our summit photo, the other is a cool panoramic taken from the "Edge of the world."  I will get my pics sorted and do a more in depth report here in the near future.

Flying On!

We are all packed up, gear has been flown in along with half our team.  I am sitting in the hanger at Hudson Air Service waiting for the planes to make the round trip back to Talkeetna to pick the rest of us up.  I will be out of touch for the next few weeks.  If you want to follow our trip, check out the dispatches at the RMI website...

Wish us luck!

In Alaska Again!

So I am back in the great state of Alaska!  It is always fun coming up here.  Returning to Talkeetna always seems to take on the feeling of some sort of homecoming.  There are so many people to see and catch up with.  I think the energy here is so great because everyone is either prepping to fly into the mountains, or they are super psyched to be back out of them.  

Most of the crew for this years West Buttress trip arrived at the airport with Walter, Patrick, (the other guides) and I yesterday.  Our final climber will be meeting us this morning for breakfast.  It seems like a good crew.  We are guiding a full group this year, so that means 9 climbers and 3 guides.  It is little different beast from the smaller groups.  It seems like I have been alternating between large and small groups for the last several years.  

Today will consist of us spilling our backpacks and prepping all our gear and food in the hopes to fly on tomorrow.  We also have to go to the NPS and have a climber orientation.  These few tasks will certainly eat up our entire day.