April 30, 2015
The upper mountain in a lenticular cloud. (Photo Tom Allred)
Lead Guide Austin Shannon called in this morning from high camp on Mt. Bona. All day yesterday, the team sat out high winds that transported a lot of snow, making avalanche conditions a growing concern on the mountain. The guides calculated the risk of going for the summit, and determined it was not a risk the team could take. Instead, the group will descend today to the landing site. If they are able to make it down by this evening, they could be picked up by the bush pilot as early as tomorrow morning.
Of course, their pickup will be determined by the weather, mountain conditions and the pilot’s ability to fly in safely.
I’m proud of the team for making the right call.
George Dunn
Update, 9pm PDT
Austin called in just a minute ago. They got down to the pickup site on the lower Russell Glacier about 5pm this evening, and bush pilot extraordinaire Paul Claus decided to fly in and pick the team up this evening due to more approaching bad weather. So the team is now camping at the McCarthy airstrip where Paul dropped them off for the night. He will pick them up at 9am in the morning tomorrow and fly the team to Chitina. They’ll then be on their way to Anchorage tomorrow afternoon. What a quick, sudden exodus from the mountain!