Summit on Sunday!

I got a call from the Traverse team last night from the summit of Denali!!!  They worked hard to get there, and were pretty excited.  

They returned to their camp on the upper Harper glacier last night, and will go over Denali Pass and begin their descent down the West Buttress today.  They will be down at basecamp where they can get on a ski plane and fly to Talkeetna in just a couple of days now. 

Congratulations to the whole team.

Photos from the Trailhead

Here are some photos of the crew, taken when they left the trailhead. i just returned from Alaska and have not been able to publish them until now. Sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy the shots.

The Crew, setting out from Wonder Lake

A rare sighting of the elusive Drewaboo, often pursued by Foxes and Cougars.

The first channel crossing was the easiest.

Heading across the glacially fed, braided McKinley River. The team was fortunate that the water level was low, so they didn't have to strip to their skivvies to wade through.

Another Snowy Day

It snowed again today, and wasn't a good summit day, but they were able to break the trail from camp up to Denali Pass thru the deep newly fallen snow.  This trail should help them save a lot of energy when they go for the summit (hopefully tomorrow).  They are still in great spirits, and pretty excited that carrying big loads up hill is almost completely in the past... until the next expedition.

A Lazy Day...

It snowed all day today, so the N. Side team hung out and ate too much beef jerky(ask Dave about eating Jerky at high altitude when you see him). 

They are doing great, and still hope to give the summit a shot tomorrow.

High Camp 17,200ft

They are working hard and moving slowly, but made their way up to high camp today!! They are just below Denali Pass, where they will drop down to the West Buttress route for the descent. They are in position to summit on the next nice day, hopefully that day will come soon.

Moving up slowly

Dave called last night from about 16,500 ft on the Harper Glacier.  They were able to move up yesterday, but Dave said they were shoveling a trail thru the new deep snow that has been falling.  They were wading thru waist deep snow for 6 hours yesterday before they had to call it good and set up camp.  They aren't moving fast anymore, but are making progress.  They are hoping to be to their high camp at almost 18,000 ft near Denali Pass today.   We'll see how the trail breaking goes...

Browne's Tower

The north side crew moved up to Browne's Tower, a prominent granite feature at about 14,800 ft yesterday. They are doing great, and taking a day off to eat up some more of their food to lighten the load.

Mike Says,"Skuek sialig to the Tohono O'odham legislative branch, especially Julie and Katrina"

Rest Day!

They awoke to snow and wind on Saturday morning giving them a great excuse to take a rest day.  They have been moving and working hard for 12 days in a row, so a rest day was welcome.   They hope to be able to continue up today rejuvenated.

Browne's Tower

They carried their loads up to Browne's Tower today, and will move on up to the Harper Glacier tomorrow. Still enjoying beautiful weather and having a great time. They are just sitting down to have some Pad Thai for dinner and watching the sun go around on the longest day of the year.

Camping on the Ridge

They moved camp up onto the ridge today, and are enjoying great views and perfect weather. They'll make a carry farther on up the ridge tomorrow and cover some of the most technical and fun climbing of the route.

Carried up to Karstens Ridge

They called from camp tonight after making a carry up to the ridge, which involved some of the most technical climbing of the route. They are still cruising right along, and have a great weather forecast for the next several days...

They called from 10,200 ft where they are settled comfortable in camp, and getting ready to sit down to dinner.  They made it thru the worst of the crevasses today, and nobody fell into any, which is a relief to the guys.  They are making great time, and plan to carry up onto the begining of Carstens Ridge tomorrow!

Mike says,"Hello to the Princess Monkey and the Dirty Dog, Michael, Zach, and Nate."

we're a bit concerned about his sanity, but apparently this is normal for him

Snowing at 7,700ft

Dave just called (noon Alaska time) and they were already back in camp after carrying a load up to 9,800 ft.  They have been getting up very early to beat the heat of the day as they make their way up thru the crevasses of the Great Icefall.

Everyones doing great, and it is snowing a bit this afternoon.  

6,500 ft

Drew got Sat Phone duties tonight and called from the new camp at 6,500ft on the lower Muldrow.  They carried a load up to this point yesterday, and moved up today with the rest of the gear.  Tomorrow they'll do it all again, carrying a load up thru the lower icefall section, cacheing it in the snow and returning to camp.  

The boys carried to the bottom of the lower icefall today, and are still on schedule and doing great.  They got to the cache yesterday and were relieved to see that everything was in good shape, and all the food and equipment were there unmolested by bears and ravens.  Dave said it is the nicest weather they have yet seen.  

They passed on a quote from Mikes diary:

 "Dave and Drew have proven merciless companions regularly forcing me to consume 5 or even 6000 calories per day. Still I struggle upwards."

Cache Creek!

The team called from near Cache Creek tonight.  They are moving right along and doing great.  They did see a bear up close this afternoon (just to keep things exciting) they stood together, and the bear ran away as is usual.  

Tomorrow they should be on the glacier and at their cache of food and supplies for the remainder of the climb.  The cache was hauled in by dogsled a couple of months ago when snow still covered most of Alaska.   

Clear Creek

Just talked to Dave Ahrens from Clear Creek.   They had a great night at Wonder Lake last night (almost mosquito free) and enjoyed dinner and a final bottle of wine.  The boys took off towards the mountain early this morning, and crossed the river accompanied by 12 caribou.  They made great time today, and are almost halfway to McGonagal pass, where they will get onto the glacier.

Wonder Lake

The North Side team left Anchorage early this morning, checked into the Park Service Ranger Station in Talkeetna at 8 am, and continued on to the N. Side Denali Park entrance area.  From here they caught the park service bus into Denali park to Wonder Lake.  Sonja accompanied the team to Wonder Lake, and we hope she will have some pictures of them crossing the river and departing towards Denali when she returns to the MT headquarters in Anchorage tomorrow night.  They were planning to get up early and start the 3 day trek towards the flanks of Denali.

Welcome to Mountain Trip's 2008 Muldrow Traverse Climb

Any attempt on a 20,000 foot mountain is a serious undertaking. When that mountain is located in Alaska, the arctic climate adds another level of challenge. Denali is the highest mountain in North America and is the pinnacle of many climber's mountaineering careers. The vast majority of climbers attempting the 20,320 foot summit of Denali begin their climb at the well established Base Camp located at 7,200' on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, to the south of the peak.

Mike Ehlerman contacted Mountain Trip, looking for an adventure. After much discussion and pursuing a variety of possible trips, we all decided that he was well suited for an attempt on the seldom climbed North Side of the mountain. As a result, on June 8, 2008, a team of three will attempt Denali via the Muldrow Glacier route. The starting point for these climbers is at 2,000 feet, adding an additional vertical mile to their climb over the fly-in approach to the south.

The Muldrow Glacier route was the route used by the famous Sourdough Expedition, who in 1910, departed the Fairbanks gold fields and mushed dog sleds in to the, at that time, unclimbed Mount McKinley. They climbed up and over McGonnagal Pass and onto the glacier itself. In a truly remarkable effort these sourdoughs reached the summit of the North Peak of Denali and planted a spruce pole in the hopes that it could be seen by their friends to the north. They mistakenly thought that the north summit was the higher of Denali's twin summits, due to their perspective of having studied it from Fairbanks. The south summit is actually a few hundred feet higher and is the focus of our expedition.

The climbers include Mike Ehlerman from Tuscon, Arizona, and Mountain Trip guides David Ahrens from Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Drew Ludwig from Ophir, Colorado.

The climbers left Anchorage in the wee hours of the morning today and hope to camp at an iconic spot called Wonder Lake, on the north side of Denali, this evening.

We will post expedition dispatches as we receive them, however, please understand that the team will occasionally be very busy and might not be able to call every day. Keep the following axiom at the forefront of your mind as you follow these dispatches: NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS!

We cannot guarantee that comments posted to these dispatches will be delivered to the team in a timely fashion, but we will try to keep current on them and will do our best to pass any messages along to the climbers. Friends and family are also invited to contact the Mountain Trip office for the latest updates at 970-369-1153.

Please use the links at the side to follow the current weather forecasts and to see what the weather on the mountain looks like via the web cam.

Enjoy!