Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The trip starts tomorrow!

After all of this planning and training, its hard to believe that we leave for Alaska tomorrow. Steve and Andy have a 7 a.m. flight out of Portland on Thursday, stopping in Seattle and arriving in Anchorage at 11:30 a.m. Ben arrives at about 11:30 a.m. We'll rent a car, do some last minute shopping and meet the GAP team at a hotel in Anchorage.

On Friday at 8 a.m., we take a land shuttle to Talkeetna, arriving at around 11 a.m. We'll register with the National Park Service and go to the required orientation. Then we'll head to the Talkeetna Air Taxi and stay in their overnight facility (where we can leave our non-climbing gear).

Assuming the weather is good, on Saturday, we will fly on the Talkeetna Air Taxi to the base camp, landing at 7,200 feet on the glacier. If we land early enough, we will travel that same day with all of our gear to camp 1 at 7,800 ft (about 5 miles).

The latest date we need to be back at base camp is June 10 to catch our flight home from Anchorage on June 12. Hopefully, we will have good weather and beat that date by up to a week.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck and safe travels. Have a cinamon roll or two at the Talkeetna Roadhouse to fill your stomach. You start on the Ruth Glacier correct? Amazing up there!
Rahul

Unknown said...

Have fun. We'll clink glasses of Barolo to your safe travels while we gaze out from a verandah overlooking the warm, sunny Mediterranean.

Ciao.

Mark

Anonymous said...

Hey Andy and friends,

Have an amazing adventure. We'll be thinking of you all and will await all of your news. Amy, Mark, Phil, James, Alec and Natalie the cat

Anonymous said...

Whoops...Nick sends his best too. Sorry....I so bleery eyed I forgot one of my kids!!! Have a blast!
Amy

Anonymous said...

Andy,

I'll take care of DairyAir while you breath rarified air. Please take a couple of air samples when you summit and get your smelly selves home safe and sound.

Sam

Susan said...

We're all excited for you. The weather just turned warm and sunny in Oregon, the best predictor for folks who leave to have a great time. As they say, "it was the most wonderful weather here while you were gone..."
Sue

Anonymous said...

have a beautiful, safe trip. i'll keep good thoughts for you and look forward to pix and blog postings.

Diana