March 15, 2010
Digging in and building a good camp is an important part of any Denali Prep Course.
The Seminar called to check in at 8:00 a.m. All is well. They spent a good night, with a snug camp established, at the base of Panorama Point at about 6,200 feet. They reported the weather as “nice, but not greatâ€. What that means in guide speak is snowing and windy with gusts up to 20mph. It was deemed too windy higher up to attempt to move to Muir today. Instead, the team will check out their route up the Muir snowfield in advance, do some snow stability tests, train with avalanche transceivers, and continue on with seminar training skills.
The current camp is in the best possible location for protection from the weather, so they will continue to train from this point until a move to Camp Muir looks favorable. Right now it appears that tomorrow will be good for the move with a clearing trend in store. The weather the rest of the week should be milder and provide for some good training opportunities.
George Dunn