Field Report, June 8, 2022

June 08, 2022 Posted by: Maureen Gualtieri

 

TODAY'S STATS - 6/8/22	Denali	Mt. Foraker
Registered Climbers	1,126	13
Climbers Currently On Mountain	388	8
Completed Climbs	539	5
Number of Summits	363	0
Summit Percentage	67%	0%

The Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station also maintains an almost daily automated statistics phone line, so if this blog is lagging behind and you need up-to-date registration numbers, call [phone].

Additionally, there are 18 registered backcountry users in the Alaska Range as of today.

Mountain Weather

Sent today at 8:00 am:  “All good in 11K. Snow and wind most of the evening. Seems to be clearning up now. 2-3" of cold pow. My team is great."   ~Ranger Dave Weber

Travis Baldwin at 14K reported 6" of new snow at 14K last night, while at 7K, there was no new snow, just a little bit of light rain.

Weather station telemetry data from 7K and 14K are transmitted hourly to the MesoWest website, including temperatures, wind speed, wind direction, snowfall, and solar radiation.  MountainWeather.com compiles a Denali Weather page, complete with links to the MesoWest data, the NWS Denali Climbing Forecasts, as well as links to FAA webcams. 

Click here for the National Weather Service Denali Climbing Forecast

The FAA webcam on the Kahiltna Glacier is fully operational as of this past weekend. Look for the green dot labelled Kahiltna Glacier.

Conditions Reports

It's hot out there!  A ranger team at 7,800' camp re-set 27 caches that melted out yesterday. Remember, caches should be 1.5 meters deep to avoid melting out and being raided by clever ravens.

Despite the warm temperatures, both Ranger Dave Weber and Alan Davis report good lower glacier travel.

Air taxi operators are reportedly limiting most flights to the morning hours only when the glacier surface is still frozen.  At least until the weather pattern changes and the glacier sees more snow and cooler temperatures.

Climbing conditions are great further up the mountain. From the 9K camp up, all seems in fine shape -- Windy Corner, the fixed lines, the Denali Pass Traverse.      

Search and Rescue 
 

Delighted to report no recent SAR activity...

Ranger Reports
 

NPS 14K Patrol #3 (Baldwin/Ramos-Leon) The whole team went to the summit yesterday, a sweet, albeit tiring ending to the month on patrol.  Today they descend to basecamp, where they will fly out to Talkeetna on Thursday.

NPS 14K Patrol #4 (Bomba)  In addition to chores around camp and maintenance and recreational activities up higher, Chelsea and crew will await Patrol #5's arrival before heading up ot 17K on a more permanent basis.

NPS 14K Patrol #5 (Weber)  Currently camped at 11,000 feet, intending to spend another night there.  As mentioned above, the team re-buried/re-secured 27 caches at 11 camp yesterday that had started to melt out in the warm temperatures.

NPS 7K Patrol #4 (Davis)  Alan and Austin, with the help of ranger Joe Reichert and helo pilot Erik Ridington, assisted researchers from Dartmouth College and the University of Maine in shuttling research equipment up to the plateau on Begguya (aka Mount Hunter) for their continuing climate research. The project team has already analyzed ice core samples from this site in previous years, with the current effort designed to sample and study the accumulated precipitation since 2018.


 

Denali Rescue Volunteers

 

Learn more about Denali Rescue Volunteers, an organization that helps make Denali National Park and Preserve's mountaineering operations whole! Thank you for all that you do each season, from helping equipping our volunteers, housing them before and after patrols, and supporting our recruitment process! 
 
 

Photo of the Day
 

Working their way up to High Camp.  (Photo courtesy of Team Mustache Madness)

On top!  (Photo courtesy of Team Mustache Madness)