Lisa has arrived at her camp for the next 2 1/2 months, where she will be there to meet and greet climbers that come from all over the globe to climb Denali. She and her troop of strong volunteers flew into the Kahiltna Glacier on Friday April 27th to shovel her tent spot for the season. They dug down about 8 feet to provide shelter from the wind, cold temperatures and the inevitable meltage from the Alaskan midnight sun.
TAT's Downtown Superstar Randi volunteered to help set up basecamp. Here she is resting her back from shoveling while basking in the sun. Seems like one of the first years that basecamp set up has happened without delays on a beautiful bluebird day. Hopefully that weather trend will continue this summer with beautiful days of mountain flying and taking climbers to their next adventures.
Masatoshi Kuriaki is back for another attempt at the first Winter solo attempt of Mt. Hunter. This is Masatoshi's 6th attempt, and will be ascending via the West Ridge of Hunter. When he was flown into Kahiltna basecamp where the conditions were surprisingly good after the windy begin to the winter. The temperature was reading minus 5 with a chilling 10 mph down glacier wind at basecamp. Best of Luck to Masatoshi on his solo attempt.
This is the kick off of the winter climbing in the Alaska Range. Stay tuned for update on all of our winter climbs this year, and next.
Come one, come all! Just come dressed up as a TV character. Think Jersey
Shore, Gilligan's Island, Fat Albert, The Office, The Lone Ranger,
MASH, Charlies Angels, Fantasy Island, Starsky and Hutch... the list can
go on and on.
Team Salamander spent 10 fun days on the Pika, flying out July 1, 2011. Weather was in-and-out sun, allowing a total of 5 climbing days. The trend was toward evening clearing, with two days of full sun. The moats are in but with rain and warming things are quickly melting. There is still a decent snow bridge to the Gargoyle Buttress. The start of the first pitch had some ice which we attacked with ice axes (though one could climb with rock shoes and creative route finding). An Anchorage team replaced the webbing on the first 9 anchors last week. The Middle Troll has widening moats as well, but there are still a couple of intact bridges. The first 200' are loose gravel and boulders, and are not safe for more than one party to be on at a time. Lost Marsupials approach was straightforward. Summit ridge with corniced, soft snow. AMS arete approach without major crevasses, though the glaciers on either side are bare to the dust layer and snow cover melting fast.
