We are home!

Team Rhema Grace is officially safe off the mountain.

2 members made it to the summit at 20,320', 2 members had to retreat at 19,000' and everyone came home with all the fingers and toes they started with.

Stay tuned for pictures and journal entries I will be posting on this blog.

Thanks to everyone who has made a contribution. I will get a tally soon on the amount we have raised with the climb.

Cheers,
Garrett

High Camp - 17,200 feet of elevation

The team arrived at High Camp (17,200 feet) today after spending 4 days acclimating to the altitude at the 14,200 foot camp. Acclimatizing is essential to completing the climb without injury or illness. The 17,200 foot camp is the highest camp on Denali, hence the name. High Camp is the windiest and coldest camp and requires the most fortification from the elements, which makes it an exhausting camp to build at the high elevation. Usually a day of rest is needed after arriving at High Camp.

The forecast at 17,000 feet is a low of -10 F tonight and a high of 5 F tomorrow. Wind is blowing 15-25 mph. Over the next few days the team will decide whether to attempt the summit of Denali. Most teams will not spend more than 5 days at High Camp. The conditions are extremely cold, dry and can be quite windy. There is half as much oxygen in the air at 17,000 feet, which makes even simple tasks laborious. The forecast from Thursday to Saturday calls for continued high pressure, which means it will be fairly clear and snowfall isn't expected. Winds on the summit should be light, less than 20 mph.

To follow the weather forecast on Denali, view the following link: http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=SXAK49PAFG&type=public

The Climb Begins

On Friday, May 14th the team landed on the Kahiltna Glacier and began their adventure in earnest.

Final preperations

With only days left till we depart on our climb, I wanted to describe the necessary gear we have had to aquire.

Denali weather presents prehaps the greatest challenge when climbing the West Buttress route.  The high latitude and close proximity to the ocean result in cold,wet storms with very high sustained winds.  To protect ourselves from these conditions we have aquired gear that is typically not necessary on mountains in lower latitudes. This specialized gear includes:
-expedition down parka-fully baffled, hooded parka
-Plastic climbing boots with liners
-Overboots-boots that go over your boots to protect your feet from the cold
And many other pieces of Specialized equipment.  I have an entire room in our house devoted to packing gear for this trip.

There is a fine line between bringing too much gear and not being prepared.  Too much gear or food can really slow the team down and might jeperdize a summit attempt where as missing critical pieces, or having gear that is problematic may also force the team to turn around early. 

Cheers,
Garrett  

UAA-EWB Update

I just received an update from the UAA-EWB team.

They have submitted the preliminary design report for the water catchment system and the ventilating stove system for approval from the national project manager. The original cooking facility was over an open pit fire, located inside the kitchen which posed health concerns as the smoke would just collect inside (see picture). They have been working on the designs with local professional engineers do develop the most efficient and sustainable systems possible.

The team is working on the final design report and preparing to travel in August for the implementation trip. They are working with our liaison in Cameroon, Peter Njodzeka (founder and director of LWDG-Cameroon, a nonprofit organization devoted to clean water development in Cameroon) to find available materials for the project. Determining materials that are available for construction dictates much of the design.

To learn more about the project and their progress please visit their webpage:

http://ewbuaa.uaa.alaska.edu/Projects.html

Training Weekend at Reed Lakes

We finally got the entire team out for a weekend of training up in the Reed Lakes basin in the Talkeetna Mountains. We hauled just about all the gear we have accumulated thus far on our back and in our sleds. Saturday was a beautiful April morning, then the clouds rolled in for the afternoon. It got pretty chilly that evening, but nothing like we will see on the mountain. We woke to a couple inches of new snow on Sunday morning. Chris gave us some great avalanche tips, and Ivan enlighten everyone with stories from last years attempt on what and what not to do on the mountain.

We will have to be prepared for crevasses when we travel on the glaciers. Crevasses are large voids (cracks) in the ice and form where the glacier is turing or going over a hill. They can be very deep and have been known to swallow many unfortunate climbers. As a precaution, we will be roped together so that if someone falls into a crevasse, the other climbers can stop the fall and pull them out. This requires practicing crevasse rescue. The rescue techniques consist of setting snow or ice anchors and constructing a pulley system to gain a mechanical advantage to pull the fallen climber out. We practiced setting up these systems and pulling each other out of a ravine. We also practiced traveling on rope teams and the communication necessary for safe and efficient travel.

Most importantly, we bonded as a team and gained the confidence that we can survive in the cold Alaskan wilderness together.

Denali 101

It occurred to me that many of you reading this blog may not be familiar with mountain climbing or climbing in cold Alaska. So I will post some on what a climb up Denali entails. I will try to hit on some of the major points and keep post short.

Denali was first climbed in 1913 by Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper and Robert Tatum. The elevation of Denali is 20,320 ft. We will be traveling on the West Buttress route which is the most popular and considered the least difficult (relatively speaking of course). First we fly into the Kahiltna Glacier (7,200 ft) on a small plane especially equipped with skies for landing. I am still learning the route details, so I will save that for another post. We will be on the mountain for 2.5-3 weeks. Initially we will travel by skies, carrying sleds full of gear and food behind us to about 14000 ft. After that we will be shuttling gear between camps without the skies and sleds till we reach the high camp at 17,200 ft. The day to day physical requirements of climbing followed by building snow shelters, to protect us from winds up to 100 mph, requires our team to be in top physical shape.

Denali is known to be an extremely cold environment. We can expect to see temperatures as low as -40 F. There is a massive amount of gear we must all take to protect ourselves from such conditions. I will write more about the necessary gear in another post.

On that note I better throw another water bottle in my pack and hit the stairs.

Cheers,
Garrett