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<title>VFTT Expedition to Denali</title>
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<h1>Highpointers Up The Butt<br />VFTT and Highpointers Expedition to Denali, 2004</h1>
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<div class="C"><img src="images/Denali.jpeg"
alt="Planned Route up West Buttress" />
<p class="C"><b>Planned Route up West Buttress</b></p>
<hr />
</div>
<h3>May 29<sup>th</sup></h3>
<p>Highpointers Up The Butt - what the heck is that? We're glad you
asked. First the name: Highpointers Up The Butt is our team name and
is derived from being members of the Highpointers Club and our route
on Mount McKinley is the West Buttress. Our team consists of six
individuals: Peter Anderson, team coordinator of New Windsor, N.Y.,
Thom Davis of Thornton, N.H., Garret Oswald of New Portland, ME,
Robert Williams of Wilmington, MA, Ben Baranko of Downers Grove, IL,
and John Christiana of San Francisco CA. Thom, Robert, and Garret are
regular contributors to VFTT.</p>
<p>We came together through a HP Club inquiry that Peter posted about
2½ years ago; our climb dates are May 31 through June 18,
2004. The results of the advertisement lead to 12 interested
individuals or groups. With time, the current team developed, a group
of individuals who love mountain adventures and are hoping to become
50 state completers. Peter is working on visiting all state highpoints
a second time.</p>
<p>What's wrong with these guys who want to climb Mount McKinley,
spending 3 weeks on a block of ice, with temperatures plunging to
-25° below zero, and gasping for air while carrying loads of more
than 60 pounds? Hey, what's wrong with all of these guys! It's a life
enhancing experience, one that excites the inner being, and takes you
to places you'll always treasure. Friendships are made that can last a
lifetime.</p>
<p>This explanation may not satisfy many people as to why we climb
mountains, particularly a mountain with a summit of 20,320
feet. Friends have asked us about the climb: the preparation, such as
training, gear, food, etc., the team members, and what the climb is
like. We were asked if we would be posting trip reports on the
internet. Originally no, because we had no way to communicate from the
mountain. But we then decided to rent a satellite phone to communicate
with friends and family. After some discussion, we pursued the obvious
next step by asking Mohamed Ellozy if he would be willing to receive
some calls from the mountain and post our trip reports on VFTT and the
HP Club forum. We hope you will enjoy 'climbing the mountain' with us;
sorry no pictures this time.</p>
<p>As a final thought, although the West Buttress route is considered
technically easy as a mountaineering climb, there are plenty of
hazards to engage our knowledge, skills, and experience. Our
philosophy is: safety first, summit second. We hope the weather is in
our favor, only -25° versus -40° and the winds top out
at less than 50-60 mile per hour. If the summit is not attained for a
variety of reasons, but all of us return with no injuries, the
adventure is a success. For all of us, the summit is the bonus, one we
all hope and climb for.</p>
<p>Stay tuned for our postings via sat phone and Mohamed Ellozy.</p>
<p>The first entry was emailed from Anchorage, all the others will be
dictated to my (Mohamed Ellozy) answering machine and transcribed as
accurately as possible (no warranties).</p>
<h3>May 31<sup>st</sup></h3>
<p>On Sunday (May 30<sup>th</sup>) the weather was nice in Anchorage
but the mountain was pretty much closed and the airstrip was closed.
Later that day there was a break in the weather and three of the group
(Bob, John and Ben) were allowed to fly in under beautiful skies.
They got in at 9:30 PM and set up quick base camp on Kahiltna Glacier.
Next day (Monday, May 31<sup>st</sup>) the other three (Garrett, Peter
and Thom) flew in. Pretty nice day, but too warm (I <i>think</i> they
were worried about crevasses, but message was not very clear) so they
hung around in camp in the sun. Then clouds came in and temeratures
dropped, snowy, so they headed out, each with over 100 pounds (half on
back, half in sled). They went in about five miles and set up camp at
7,500 feet.</p>
<p>They were not quite sure what they would do next day, they expected
that they would carry half their gear some way up and return for the
night.</p>
<p>An interesting observation is the perpetual daylight; it is
difficult to sleep with the sun shining through the tent at 3 AM!</p>
<p>Everything is going well!</p>
<h3>June 1<sup>st</sup>-2<sup>nd</sup></h3>
<p>On Tuesday (June 1<sup>st</sup>) they stayed at the camp most of
the day, it was a pleasant warm day. In the evening they left camp
around 8:30 PM (remember the perpetual daylight!) and climbed 2,000
feet to set up camp at 9,500 feet. Bitterly cold! They found an old
abandoned site, and spent about half an hour digging it out and
improving it. Then Ben discovered a nearby site in excellent
condition, complete with great snow walls. So they moved their tents
there. Good views of the top of Denali. </p>
<p>They keep hearing avalanches coming down, pretty intense as Frodo
put it! They also saw "beautiful" crevasses, but planned to keep out
of them!</p>
<p>They spent Wednesday (June 2<sup>nd</sup>) there, and plan to move
up to about 11,000 feet next day (Thursday), which will get them off
the Kahiltna Glacier and onto the mountain proper. After that they
will see how the weather develops (a storm is forecast for the
weekend).</p>
<h3>June 3<sup>rd</sup></h3>
<p>The day started with the leader, Peter Anderson, not feeling well
(unrelated to altitude, bad head cold) and deciding to go down. That
led to a couple of hours of decision making (who would go down with
him, what to do with the storm approaching). Ultimately both Thom
Davis and Garret Oswald decided to also leave, from what I was able to
understand Thom had not been feeling well for a few days, Garret went
down for "personal reasons". On his return to New England Thom posted
a <a
href="http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&t=2584">trip
report</a> with some further details about the decision to turn
around.</p>
<p>The other three then proceded up to 11,200 feet and made camp. A
storm is still forecast for Saturday, the Sunday weather is not yet
clear. They plan to carry some stuff to around 13,500 feet on Friday
and return to 11,200 and wait out the storm there.</p>
<p>They are stll on schedule, and feel sorry for their three comrades
who have had to turn around but, as Frodo put it: "That's the way
things go on expeditions".</p>
<h3>June 6<sup>th</sup></h3>
<p>On Friday (June 4<sup>th</sup>) they climbed to 13,500 feet and
dropped some gear, returning to 11,200. I seem to understand that
they climbed to 14,200 feet on Saturday, the last message said that
the forecast was for bad weather that day.</p>
<p>They are now at "high base camp" at 14,200 feet, lots of people, a
very international group. Also lots of guided trips. Weather is
beautiful. On Tuesday they plan to climb up to 16,200 or 17,200 feet
for acclimatization. After that they are thinking of a summit attempt
directly from 14,200 feet, which they figure is easier than
establishing a high camp at 17,000 feet. That is a big climb: 6,000
vertical feet, 16 hours round trip.</p>
<h3>June 9<sup>th</sup></h3>
<p>Bad connection, parts of the message were garbled.</p>
<p>Monday was a rest day. On Tuesday (June 8<sup>th</sup>) they
climbed to over 17,000 feet for acclimatization. Up a headwall that
is 2,000 vertical feet in one mile, very steep as Bob put it. This is
the section which has fixed lines for the last 800 feet. Then they
went up the less steep West Buttress. It is narrow, with tremendous
falloff, as Bob said "You had better know what you are doing". Near a
rock formation called "Washburn's Thumb" it is again steep, with fixed
lines.</p>
<p>Feeling a little effect of altitude, not much. Wednesday was again
a rest day, on Thursday they plan to repeat the acclimatization
climb.</p>
<h3>June 11<sup>th</sup></h3>
<p>Worst connection so far, most of message was garbled.</p>
<p>They are still at 14,200 feet (have been there for six nights), and
climbed (I am not sure when) again to 16,200 feet for
acclimatization. It seems that the weather is not good, Bob said
something about having had bad weather for four days. It seems that
they are waiting for better weather for a summit attempt directly from
their camp at 14,200 feet.</p>
<h3>June 12<sup>th</sup></h3>
<p>On Monday morning I found a brief and garbled message saying that
they had summitted in bad weather and were on their way back. Many congratulations!</p>
<h3>Bob's First Post After Returning</h3>
<p>Just got back to Boston about 2 hours ago, and all I have to say is
it's great to be home! It's also awesome to see the beautiful,
beautiful night, which is something I haven't seen for 19 days. The
Boston driving is something that I haven't missed though...</p>
<p>I just want to thank everyone for all of the support. It is
somewhat overwhelming to read all of these posts. I know most of you
and there might be more spectacular mountains outside of the
Northeast, but the people here in the NE hiking community are top
notch, and can not be surpassed. You people are fantastic!</p>
<p>Just a few more things before I head to bed;</p>
<p>I will try and post a trip report by the end of the weekend, which
will likely be just summit day (the rest of the time we were either
just pack animals hauling supplies and gear up and down the mountain,
or stuck in our tents due to bad weather) . I will also post some
pictures which will likely keep evolving once Ben, John, and I start
sharing each others. AND, to answer the question.... yes I was wearing
a Yankees cap on the summit. I had a lightweight balaclava under it,
and a heavy balaclava over it along with a down hood and a gortex
hood. (The summit was -20F with 20-25mph winds, brrrrr.....) It was
also nice to come off of the glacier after 16 days to see that the
Yanks were up by 5-1/2</p>
<p>Thank you Mohamed for doing such a fantastic job deciphering my
messages, and for taking the time to post them. A few of the latter
ones I either had reception problems or I was just sheer exhausted. As
for the summit message, our summit attempt was in beautiful weather,
but due to sheer bad timing (or maybe the spirit of Ted Williams had
something to do with it), the clouds started rolling in off the
N. Summit and headed towards us as we started ascended towards the
S. summit ridge. Before we could make it to the ridge we found
ourselves in a whiteout. The rest I will leave for the trip
report...</p>
<p>I want to thank Peter Anderson for being the key organizer for this
whole adventure. Without him, this wouldn't have happened. He also
was Ben, John, and myself's inspiration for attempting the summit
from 14,200' (99% of the people do not attempt the summit from
here, and most people thought we were nuts, but it's good to be a
little different). Peter did it in 97.</p>
<p>I also want to thank Thom Davis for all of the guidance and
planning over the past 8 months. You were also key in making this trip
happen. By the way, thanks for leaving that large cache of food at
7200' basecamp. We spent 17 hours there waiting for a flight off of
the glacier, and ravaged the goodies out of your cache like 3 crazed
wolverines...</p>
<p>I also want to thank GO for being another key part of this
adventure, and for renting the Sat phone. You are like a big brother
to me, and I was saddened to see you leave...</p>
<p>As for Ben and John, even though we suffered together, occasionally
argued, spent many days roped together, and underwent a severe lack of
hygiene that even thru hikers would have envied, I will never forget
our experience together, ever... You two were fantastic partners to
share this adventure with.</p>
<p>But the number one person to thank is my wife, who lets me keep
living my dreams, and prevents my re-occurring nightmare from
happening, which is me coming home and finding all of my stuff out by
the curb... I am a lucky guy!</p>
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