It has been over a year in the making, hundreds of emails, whatsapps, phone calls between all potential team members, guiding company, family, friends. We used to think of it as a project in the distant future. It is finally here and now, 3 weeks before our meeting with the Denali park rangers in Talkeetna, the little town at the entrance of Denali National Park. Close to the Arctic Circle, land of forests, grizzly bears, gigantic glaciers, wild & sumptuous landscapes.

Our team

Xav, Pat and I would form the core team for this expedition. We managed to find a few more connections who brought in friends and were able to form a private expedition with 9 members: Marc and Mike from the USA friends of Kai / Josh from the US and living in HK / Matt, Stephanie his fiance and David his Dad from the US (Matt climbed Everest with Josh last year) / And Kai, our lead guide

Sadly Patrick is now unable to join us due to family issues that require his presence in HK at the time of the expedition. It is tough and upsetting losing such a strong team member and friend when we have been preparing, training and building the project together. Mike is also unable to join due to work commitments, so we are now 7.

Expedition Schedule – Tentative

7 May: Meet in Talkeetna, meet our guides, gear check, crevasse rescue training, sleds and packs packing

8 May: Fly from Talkeetna and land at base camp with all the equipment for 1 month + survival gear and food

9 May: We are off with sleds and packs to camp 1 and the adventure begins

10 May: Carry and cache to 9700ft and back to camp 1

11 May: move to Camp 2 at 11000ft – progressive acclimatisation to altitude

13 May: Carry and cache to 13000ft

14 May: move to the famous ’14 Camp’ – usually the second base to attempt high camp and the summit

16 May: up the fixed-ropes, long and technical section on the bergschrund up to 16000ft to cache

17 May: acclimatization, rest, weather day

18 May: move to 17000ft, Camp 4, a long day of fixed ropes, difficult ridge, cold and extreme altitude

20 to 25 May: summit days / weather contingency days

28 May: base camp to talkeetna on de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter

29 to 31 May: Talkeetna -> Anchorage -> Hong Kong