Hiking to Camp 2

Sunday night they slept at 7,800. Monday they carried the second half of their gear to Camp 2, passing their cache at 10,500. Today was very hard, especially for Andy. Steve and Ben helped out by carrying some of his weight, later in the day, however after resting for an hour at Camp 2 he regained some energy. He believes the problem was slight dehydration on Sunday. Tuesday they get to sleep in since they only have to hike down 500ft. to get their cache. Wednesday will be difficult as they will haul half their gear up to 13,700 ft. then return to sleep at 11,000. Danielle

Sunday May 18, 2008, 9 pm

Steve called at 9pm tonight. Weather is good. It got down to zero degrees last night and 2 inches of snow fell last night as well. They are sleeping at the 7800 foot camp tonight, after carrying a large load to 10,500 feet. It was a long but productive day. They are all feeling strong. They are happily ahead of schedule due to arriving ahead onto the mountain. Team ORCA is getting along well and the food is 'mostly' OK. Supplies and equipment are good.
No major problems encountered.

Sally

Pictures

Paul, on the GAP team, will be posting pictures to his website: http://www.paulelwell.net/ It is listed below in the second Blog in case this one doesn't work. -Danielle

They are on the glacier!

On Friday they flew out of Talkeetna towards the glacier and made it through "one shot pass" only to be told to turn around because the runway was fogged in.  They flew back and waited a few hours and at the last minute got the clearance to try again and made it.  They spent Friday night at Base Camp, and Saturday hiked to Camp 1.  They struggled, carrying about 150 pounds each.  Sunday they will carry about half their gear up to 9800 ft.  and then return to Camp 1.  It is about 6 miles round trip with a 3000 foot elevation gain.  The GAP team plans to take all their gear to 9800 ft.  The ORCA team will join them the next night.  Ben has a cold and is improving.  Andy tweaked his back on Friday, but did well today.    Danielle

Anchorage

Steve and Andy left our house at 5:15 this morning and had great weather to fly to Anchorage. Ben joined them; they rented a car, did their last minute shopping, verified their plans for the land shuttle and decided not to wait up for the GAP team as their flight was not slated to land until 11pm and they were tired. They hope to enjoy their next to last night sleeping in a bed until june 10th!!!!! -Danielle

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.

Current conditions on the mountain

We're leaving for Alaska next Thursday. Conditions on the mountain look good at this point. The following report was called in yesterday morning from a guide (Paul Ivaska) who is leading a group up the West Buttress route:

"We are at Camp 2 today, taking a rest day. At some point today, we will go down to cache at 10,000, but return to Camp 2 for the evening. And tomorrow, we will head for Windy Corner and make another carry.

Everybody is doing excellent, and the team's spirits are high. The bad weather never came, and although it was overcast today, the skies have been blue and sunny. Yesterday we ate a hearty breakfast of cereal and bars, and had some pasta for dinner. The team worked like clockwork to put together camp last night, and we are completely on schedule. This morning, we really relaxed by cooking a big dish of eggs and hasbrowns, and we all slept in late.

Overall, the conditions are great here - the lower Kahiltna is in incredible shape, compared to last year when there were four serious crevasse falls. This year, the snow has really set up well on the glacier."