May 12 Weather: sun and clouds Altitude: 3300 to 4300 Time climbing: 6h13 (Pix of Xavier holding my monster pack before a 6 hour climb) Most brutal day so far. Carrying everything up to camp 3, Basin Camp in monster sized backpacks. This is the gateway to the high part of the mountain through a […]

Video Blog, daily debrief, May 11 2017

May 11 Altitude: 3300 to 4100 meters Weather: sunny, cold (-10 to -15), cloudy, snow / yes, all in one day Time climbing: 7h37 Rushing the morning packing, I feel a little overwhelmed with what to pack. We are going to cache at 4000 meters and come down and need to plan for the coming […]

May 10 Altitude: 3300 Weather: perfect, sunny The night was cold, probably -10 in the tent but the forecast from base camp is announcing a high pressure system and better weather. We wake up to a sea of clouds under us. It is beautiful, for hundreds of miles all around us, clouds are everywhere, nature […]

May 9, stationary at camp 2, no altitude gain It’s 3am when I wake up and exchange looks with Patrick. He mentions he finds it hard to breathe and stuffy. It’s been snowing for the past 10 hours or more and the tent is half buried in snow. Not much air is getting in. Pat […]

May 8 Altitude: 2300 to 3300 meters   (My new Garmin Fenix 5X and its maps function do a great job telling me that I am right on the West Buttress path to the top of Denali – not that I needed confirmation but its fun to see how technology has become incredibly precise and reliable […]

May 7 – Altitude: 2300 meters What do you do when you are carrying too much gear for mountain climbing travel? you ‘cache’ the gear that you will not need for the coming days for example food bags, high altitude warm down gear, crampons, snow pickets, gas for stove etc. Obviously we had to carry […]

May 6 2017 – Altitude: 2000 meters It’s another beautiful day but cold. We are totally geared up, harnesses with ascenders, 3 locking and 9 non-locking carabiners on the harness loops, all for a purpose, cordelettes for building crevasse rescue anchors, various pieces of webbing for chest harness and for securing the sled to the […]

The plane (Otter skiplane) flies past Denali. Lian, the female pilot, nicely turns the plane so both side can see the stunning views of North Americas giant. It’s a beautiful day, sunny as we land on the Glacier after a steep descent. Skis are down and we glide on the snow. Welcome to basecamp says […]

The big day has come. National park service briefing in the morning, getting serious about how hard this mountain is. Then skills practice, finalising bags and sleds, personal briefing from Colby Coombs owner of this mountaineering company. Quite intense and deep! And off to the airport for a 4pm flight to Denali base camp. Tonight […]