July 10, 2013
Heading for the barn. (Heli Suokko)
Greg called in yesterday evening. They were able to get high camp cleaned up and packed up and then worked their way back down the West Buttress and descended the fixed ropes from 16K down to 15K and completed the descent to the 14K camp. 14K was a nice place to spend the night. Today, they’ll work their way down past Windy Corner, past Squirrel Hill, down Motorcycle Hill and into the 11K camp. The team will likely brew up a hot drink and a quick meal prior to continuing their descent to the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier at about 7800’. They’ll spend a quick night here to let the lower Kahiltna freeze up as much as possible and the team will make the last 5 hours of descent to the landing strip when conditions are as cold as possible.
No celebrating yet. Two days of care and work still need to be completed.
Phil Ershler