Friday, June 15 we moved from base camp at 7200′ to Camp1 at 7800′ Not a lot of altitude given the summit is 20, 320′ but it was a lot of work.
Mid June is starting to be late to climb Denali. The day time temps are moderate – in the 30’s and night sees single digits below zero – downright balmy!
So the lower glacier becomes a very dangerous place with deep crevasse all over. The snow bridges become very soft and collapse with the slightest pressure. All this means travel at night.
After arriving at base camp, we had a quick bite and went to bed – at 11:00 AM! We awoke for dinner around 5 and promptly went back to bed. This climbing is hard work!
But at midnight we were up. After breakfast of coffee and rolls we tore down the tents, packed our backpacks and sleds and around 3:00 AM. Each of us had over 100lbs combined in our pack and sled.
The sun sets at midnight and rises at 4:00AM at this latitude but it never really gets dark. A mild breeze was blowing and at each rest stop we donned our heavy jackets. We made great time covering the 5 miles and arriving at camp at 7:30AM.
More later on setting up these winter camps but it is a work of art. Tonight we carry some gear up about 2000′ and dig a cache in the snow to hold it until we move the next night. The loads will be much lighter but it will be a 8 hour day.
Thanks for following along. My technology is giving me problems so I hope to be able to keep sending these every few days.
Climb On!
Alan