Flying onto Denali...!

And I'm off! I'm about to fly onto the glaciers of Denali on a 1:30pm Talkeetna Air Taxi flight. I arrived in Anchorage yesterday and did my gear check with my six expedition guides: Joe Butler, Yoshiko, Ted, Ian, Sam, and Travis--my Aconcagua guide. We went out to lunch at a fantastic restaurant called the Bear Tooth Grill. Yum! I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman with Greg Harris, an expedition teammate who arrived early. I'm actually heading onto the glacier a day earlier than everyone else so that I can do a skills course with Yoshiko and Ted. We are going to focus on crevasses and avalanches. On that note, I wanted to extend my condolences to the families of the four Japanese climbers killed in the Avalanche on Denali two days ago. Mountain climbing is a dangerous sport and at moments like this we must pause to reflect on our choices and make sure we have said all that we would like to say to the people we love. It is very sad that the climbers died, and very amazing that one climber was able to survive. I hope he is able to recover from his injuries and grief. We will go on the same route as these climbers did, and I am praying that we and all the other climbers on the mountain have a safe and successful trip. On a happier note, I am very excited to be heading onto such a beautiful mountain. I never expected it to be this beautiful. Soon the lush green forests of lower Alaska will be replaced by snow and rock. Before we fly, we ate at the historic Roadhouse Cafe. The portions were huge! I had the lasagne. It was delicious. Ok well this will probably be the last blog post for a while. In the meantime, you can stay updated on our expedition progress through my Spot tracker, on the RS Facebook page (Facebook.com/rainbowsummits), or on the Mountain Trip website under Trip Dispatches. See you on the other side!

And the Bad Weather Arrives...

Day 5, June 7^th, 2012: High Camp to Lenz Rocks Acclimatization Hike

And up we go!

Today started beautifully. Clear blue skies, not a cloud in sight. In fact, it was our third such day. Today’s agenda: climb up to the black rocks that appear (falsely) to be near the summit of the mountain. In fact, it is only a climb of 800 vertical meters (3,800m to 4,600m). It wasn’t so bad actually…long, but pretty and uneventful. I listened to my iPod the whole time and it seemed to pass pretty quickly. I was so absorbed in climbing and listening to my music that I didn’t notice when white clouds began to fill up the sky. It wasn’t until we were resting up at Lenz Rocks that I noticed a wave of cloud and fog rolling towards us. Andrey, our guide, warned us to move away from the actual rocks, as they attract lighting in electrical storms. That kind of freaked me out. I hadn’t really ever thought about what one might do when caught in an electrical storm on a mountain. We hurriedly finished the rest of our snack and descended in record time, making it back to base camp in an hour (it had taken us four to get up there…).

Bad weather = warm clothes... this was actually the only time I wore my parka all expedition!

A Visit to Magical Mushroom Rock Land

Day 2, June 4^th, 2012: Base Camp to Mushroom Rocks Acclimatization Hike

Today was our first real acclimatization hike, since the previous day’s hike actually was a decrease in altitude. We went up along the path towards High Camp before veering off to visit the mountain’s famed “Mushroom Rocks.” This is basically a collection of rocks that resemble mushrooms for their convection shape. We hopped up one and ate our lunch looking over the northern Caucuses. It is certainly a beautiful sight! The only unfortunate part of the day was the last 50m of the ascent, when the rocky path turned into a dangerous scree slope very similar to the one that nearly took out my friend Pearl Going on Aconcagua. Somehow we all made it up (and down) safely. It was a good lesson in mountain safety though.

I’m excited (and kind of nervous) for tomorrow…it’s the first time I’ll have to carry 20+ kg on my back on a real mountain. I’ve been training for this (as it will become even more of an issue when I get to Denali…) but have yet to be tested “in the field.” I hope it goes well!

Our first real acclimatization hike, with Elbrus in the background.

Arrival and some not-so-Hot Springs

Day 1, June 3^rd, 2012: Kislovodsk to Base Camp, Hot Springs Acclimatization Hike

As I wrote yesterday, I was given the choice of climbing the south side of the mountain with a guide but no one else or joining a large expedition going up the difficult north side of Elbrus. I chose to do the north side based on my life philosophy that everything happens for a reason. I had signed up to climb the south side but it wasn’t meant to be, and now I’m on the north side… I hope I made the right choice!

Anyway, we drove the 90km between Kislovodsk and Elbrus Base Camp in five hours this morning. Due to a recent downpour of rain, we were warned that we might have to hike the last 20km of road to Base Camp. Luckily, the mud wasn’t too bad and we made it all the way in our crazy, communist-looking 4WD jeeps. Since we arrived around lunch time, we were able to take a fun hike over to the nearby hot springs. Elbrus is a volcano, and has sulphur and iron hot springs located on the north side close to Base Camp. It was roughly 40mins walk, but instead of the 80-90˚ F temperatures we were expecting, the water was a chilly 70˚ F. Despite this, I and three of my teammates (Tim, Mikael, and Ali) got in. It was quite an experience! The spring acted like a (very aggressive) massage if you pressed your back up against the stone wall. It was a bit too much for me, to be honest.

We headed back after and ate a light meal before heading to bed. Our first night on the mountain! Woo hoo! I hope we have some crazy altitude dreams...those are the best.

Approaching the mountain in our Russian van.