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| NPS image of Denali's West Buttress route and camps marked. AMS is at every camp today! |
6/10 Military Training Expedition with Colby Coombs
Have reached to the top of North America today. CONGRATULATIONS! They experienced a variety of weather from crisp and clear early this morning to clouds and hot (!) temperatures this evening. They have had clouds moving around them with light to no winds. Big congratulations to these teams and what a surprise that this day came to be, with a gloomy forecast for today.
The Military Training team is back in high camp now and the June 4th team estimates that they will be there in 2-3 hours. Both teams were strong today and are moving well. Summit day is a big deal this climbing season, its been fairly elusive this year. today we celebrate the "nowcast".
It is lightly snowing at high camp now. And camp is in the clouds, the route down to camp is well marked with both a packed snow trail and wands to visually mark the way.
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| AMS photo by Josh Hoeschen on the top of North America, Summit of Denali, 20,310' |
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| AMS headed back to high camp 18,300' nearing the top of Denali Pass. Photo By Tom Toreklson |
6/ 8 Denali, West Buttress Expedition led by Mark Postle and Michael Gardner plan to move to high camp 17,200' tomorrow, weather permitting. They are feeling rested and ready. Mark reported that they had a nice weather day at 14,200' today, which was much appreciated by all.
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| AMS climbers making their way to high camp at 16,400' |
6/11 Denali West Buttress led by Mike Hamill and Simon Frez-Albrecht carried to 13,500', past Windy Corner, yesterday and today had a rest day a 11,000' camp. They plan to move to 14,200' camp tomorrow and Mike reports in that: ALL IS GOOD.
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| AMS at Windy Corner, 13,200' lloking to the cloud covered north western wilderness areas of Denali National Park. |
6/16 Denali West Buttress "Team Hiro" led by Alex Stroud, Curtis Green and Dave Wade are doing well. They plan to move camp tonight either to 9,600' or 11,000' camp. Last night / early this morning they carried some extra food, fuel and equipment to 9,600' this helps lighten the backpack loads and aids in acclimatization. They are having a good time out there in the middle of the Alaska Range wilderness.
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| AMS making the carry in day time temperatures toward 10,500' with the vast Kahiltna Glacier beyond. |
6/18 Denali, West Buttress Expedition led by Josh Hoeschen and Chelsea Bomba sent a message today: "Moved to 7,800' camp. Got here at 9:30am. 4.5 hour move. Everything is going smoothly." 4.5 hours is a good time, which means this team is strong, that is a great way to start, especially on the first day. Congrats team!
AMS teams move in the middle of the night to take optimal advantage of the colder temperatures for heat regulation and for the better frozen snow travel conditions. It doesn't get dark here, at latitude 62 degrees north in the height of summer, we see dusk and dawn light, so all night travel is particularly beautiful too.
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| Previous AMS team AMS Heading to 7,800' camp on the Kahiltna Glacier, Photo by AMS Guide, Josh Hoeschen |
