Sunday, July 7, 2013

AC Denali Post 19: Moving on up...

We talked to Anders late yesterday after his very long day.  They awoke to reasonable weather, ate breakfast and broke down their camp at 11,200 feet where they have lived the last week.  They loaded up their packs and sleds and headed up Motorcycle Hill.  Anders was with Max, his tentmate and the two younger guides.  Dave Hahn had 3 clients on his rope and the other guide had 2.

Despite having climbed to 13,600 feet yesterday, today was considerably more challenging as they had to not only shoulder their packs but control heavily weighted sleds.  The terrain up to Windy Corner is steep and has deadly exposure.  There are significant sidehills that must be mastered with the sled hanging off your harness down the slope and conspiring with gravity to pull you down....

Anders reported that it was harder and scarier than he had imagined and certainly anything he had done before.  Several of his team were "on the rivets" but all persevered and after 6+ hours rolled into Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 14,000.  Then the team had to unpack and build their new campsite (levelling the ground, building snow walls, digging a pit and snow table for the POSH tent, etc.).  Anders called after all of the above and as he had just collapsed into his tent.  He was very satisfied with the accomplishments of the day and was very upbeat about their current situation and prospects.  He was also very physically drained and was planning to sleep a few hours before dinner later last night.

Their next task will be to retreat back to Windy Corner to retrieve their cache at 13,600 feet and then prepare to move higher.  The weather will be less critical for the trip to 13,600 and back and they should be able to get that done today.  After that, they need 3 reasonable climbing days to put themselves in position to make a summit bid.  First, they'll have to navigate the fixed ropes of the 55 degree Headwall above ABC and then place a cache around 16,000 feet.  Then they'll move to High Camp at 17,000 feet and subsequently retrieve their cache and prepare for a hopeful summit window.  It's still premature to speculate when that might be but perhaps sometime mid-month.

We, of-course are very nervous about Anders' well-being.  As we sit here on the East Coast all that we can do is provide encouragement during our few minutes of discourse each day and then pray for his safe-keeping.  The challenging part of the climb is now upon him and we have confidence in his fitness, capabilities and determination.  Here are a few pics of the terrain leading up to and around ABC--the first picture is from "The End of the World" near where they are sleeping as this is posted...













No comments: