The real reason to climb. Unpacking and packing gear is our favorite past time.
Fun is over, and our 866 pounds of gear is ready to fly.
The Mosquito Incident. I thought I would give that mosquito a taste of it's own medicine and tried to bite it. But Chris was swatting at it at the same time and got me in the nose.
The team before we flew out of Talkeetna.
A typical view from the flight up to the glacier.
That appears to be a mountain.
I think we are going to land down there.
We landed! Base camp at 7,200 on the glacier. Looks pretty deserted.
The air taxi. A 1,000 hp Super Otter with magic controls to navigate in white outs, which came in handy later!
Our stuff.
Gabe digging the critical cache at base camp. It would later be cleaned out by hungry and thirst people.
The bathroom at base camp. I still wonder how deep the hole everyone pees in gets. It could be the cause increasing glacier movement.
Team Nacho packing stuff. The fun was about to end and we would start moving.
Colin carrying more stuff than he ever wants to carry again.
Rope Team Nacho is off to wander the glacier.
After a break Rope Team Alpha puts on their packs.
Pack is too heavy to lift. Colin attempts a seated start.
He is into the straps.
Now the push up.
He is off the ground!
Woops. Pack went over his head.
Good thing there is no sound track.
Wandering the flats, hopefully this trail leads somewhere.
Break time.
As mom would say, snow and rocks.
Camp 1 at 7,800 feet. It took about 6 hours to go from 7,200 ft down to 6,800 ft, and back up to 7,800 ft.
Chris and Colin at 7,800.
Kiefer using the bathroom with the view.
Colin and Gabe bundled up in the shade.
Me gear enjoys the alpenglow.
Pee bottles.
The sun came up over the ridge so we decided to get out of the tents.
A few hot drinks then some fun packing up camp.
As mom would say, more snow and rocks!
More wandering on the glacier.
Chris takes a break.
Rope Team Alpha away!
Gabe reaches top speed.
Snow and rocks.
Colin achieves cruising speed.
Hydrating at Camp 2 around 10,000ft.
The team takes a break from building a snow fort.
Gabe being told that he has been appointed camp chef, and will therafter be called Cookie.
Kiefer looks at mountains.
At 11k camp, we decide we should unpack and then repack everything. Notice the snow fort. Our designs and construction are making giant leaps.
Dan brings in snow for melting water.
Kiefer, Dan, and Colin discuss if we should move camp or repack everything a few more times.
Old Blue (the ice axe, biggest one on the mountain) stands guard over camp to ward off evil spirits, bad weather, and overly talkative climbers.
Dan finds a can of beans, and we decide to pack it somewhere.
Old Blue and the Summitpost flag.
As mom would say, mostly snow with a few rocks.
Scenery from 11k camp.
Rope Team Nacho ascends motorcycle hill. Camp 11k is in the background.
We stop for a break after Windy Corner, which wasn't that windy that day!
snow
Stopping to look at the scenery.
We stop to cache a bunch of food, fuel, and random other items at 14k.
Our ascent route came from down there 7,000 vertical feet below on the flat river of snow and ice (glacier).
Rope Team Nacho pulling a sled up motorcycle hill the next day after a rest that consisted mostly of packing things.
Kiefer's windy weather look.
Old Blue.
A mountain in the background with part of our snow fort in the foreground.
Our snow fort at 14,200 foot (14k camp).
The view of the Messner Coulior from 14k camp.
Cookie and Kiefer in our snow fort kitchen. Note the ergonomically correct stove location and large countertop space.
Chris does a final check on the construction of our kitchen and it starts to snow.
Cookie decides to learn how to operate the stoves on Day 5.
My snow sculpture, the great marmot.
Yucking it up in the tent.
Air must be thin, it wasn't that funny.
Climbers start up the route to the fixed lines.
Kiefer on the fixed lines with 14k camp city in the background.
Gabe starts up the bergschrund.
Up the bergschrund!
Farther up!
Past the bergschrund the route is easy stair climbing.
Craig on the fixed line by Kiefer.
View of the West Buttress with Foraker in the background.
Looking over the clouds.
Me with Old Blue on the ridge below 17,200 (17k) camp.
Dan heads up the ridge on our load carry to cache food (which we wouldn't need) at 17k camp.
Up the ridge.
A mountain peaks out of the clouds.
Chris descending after coming down the fixed lines.
I think that is either Hunter or Huntington.
Camp Nacho at 14k after "sunset".
It's all about style at 14k camp.
A line of climbers hears about a weather window and heads to 17 from 14k camp.
Craig and Kiefer with our latest addition to our snow fort.
The team, complete with mascot (Stephanie the gag blow up doll) at Camp Nacho.
An odd looking cloud hangs out in the sky.
Camp Nacho.
Chris and Gabe play with ropes on the ridge below 17k camp.
The weather looks pretty good.
Self portrait at 17k camp prior to summit day.
A view from 17k.
Camp at 17k.
A little after midnight, a view from 17k.
The sun not setting at 17k. It hung out in that spot for about a half hour.
Still a little after midnight, a view from 17k.
Camp 17k with alpenglow.
The little teensy specks are the city of tents at 14k, from 17k.
Me at 17k with the puffy jacket on.
A line of climbers head up to Denali Pass towards the summit.
We decided to play with ropes for a while, then get in line.
Two hours after we left 17k, we are at Denali Pass at about 18k waiting for the wind to die down.
A view back the route up Denali Pass.
After waiting an hour at Denali Pass we wander around the corner and get our first view of the summit!
Snow, a little bit of rock, blue sky and no wind!
Craig nears the summit.
Craig on the summit.
Craig and Old Blue on the summit of Denali.
That standing up thing is harder than it looks.
The summit marker! This must be the top.
View from the summit at about 8:45pm.
Looking south from the summit.
The summit ridge.
Climbers on the summit ridge.
A shot of the summit ridge by Kiefer.
View from the summit.
Descending pig hill towards the football field.
Descending Denali Pass in alpenglow.
Chris descending Denali Pass.
More alpenglow.
Self portrait at 17k camp after the summit.
Gabe descending from 17k.
Craig on Washburn's Thumb.
Craig on Washburn's thumb.
Gabe climbing Washburn's Thumb while a guided group fiddles with an old rope someone left in the snow.
Mark, the crazy Alaskan, descends the fixed line with a duffelbag of extra stuff they carried to 17k for exercize.
Gabe at 14k camp, time for some gear packing!
Dan eating the 5 lb bag of skittles because we didn't want to carry it anymore.
Chris poses with Old Blue.
Odd people rumaging through our extra food at 14k.
Little bit of a white out on the glacier below 9,000 feet.
Back at base camp!
Dan in a community cook tent we put up because we hadn't built a snow fort in a couple days and the storm prevented planes from getting anybody off the glacier for a day.
Chris, Kiefer, and Val enjoying the rest of the schnapps.
Mark and Gabe try to finish what the others couldn't.
A line forms up at base camp and airplanes start flying the next morning.
TAT flies us off the glacier. Other groups were stuck up there for another 3 or 4 days...
Back to civilization.
We check back in to let the rangers know we made it!
TAT bunkhouse guest book.
Signature on the wall at the West Rib Pub.
Kiefer checking how much weight he lost.
Dan checks his lack of body fat.
Kiefer skipping stones in the river.
Drying wet gear at the bunkhouse.
A couple thousand feet up Mt. Marathon above Seward.
Kiefer, Chris and Dan on Wolverine Peak in the Chugach Range near Anchorage.
