I’ve been trying to find a valid email address for Pat Mettenbrink who I went to high school and college with. I believe that he was one of the NOLS instructors. If you happen to have Pat’s email address, would you forward along my information and ask him to get in touch.

Thanks
Rex Spell
spellr1@yahoo.com
rspell@cisco.com

Happy mountaineering to you!

Hello Everyone!

For those that don’t know, I’m Szu-ting’s husband, and I just received an update from her NOLS expedition. (Don’t worry, Szu-ting is not one of the people mentioned as evacuated) Here it is:

—

Hello,

I have been in touch with the NOLS Denali Expedition. It has been a busy few days on the mountain! Unfortunately, this has included two expedition members leaving due to minor medical issues (sore hips and a 1″ long cut). Those two climbers have been in touch with their families, so if you are receiving this you can rest assured that your climber (child, spouse, or friend) is healthy!

My name is Rick Rochelle and I’m the Assistant Director of NOLS Alaska. We collected an email address or two from each participant of the expedition anticipating that we would hear from the expedition leaders occasionally. They carry a satellite phone (and walkie-talkies and a ground-to-air radio), primarily for emergency use, but also to call us for a few minutes every 7-10 days to let us know how things are going. From experience, we know that you care deeply about their progress!

They started at the Eielson Visitor Center.
This is a great website you can use to follow their progress. You can change the scale and move around the map just by clicking on the map in the direction you want to go. If you want to download software, Google Earth is another good site.

They crossed the tundra to the south camping next to the Muldrow Glacier the first night in the field (6/3). (Their low point on the Thorofare River was 3000′ above sea level, heading towards the summit at 20,320′.) After 3.5 more days of hiking up the glacier to the south-southwest, they reached the cache of food and fuel about a mile up-valley from McGonagall Pass (6/7):

The cache is a story in itself. We took it by vehicle to Wonder Lake last September and then by dogsled from Wonder Lake to the Muldrow Glacier just southwest of McGonagall Pass in March. There was a feature article in Backpacker Magazine a year ago about the Yanuchi family that does this part of the expedition. The cache was nearly intact. Apparently ravens got through the kevlar and between the seams of aluminum sheeting on one bag and got about twenty pounds of food (out of nearly a thousand). The course has plenty of food and fuel for the next 22 days or so.

On 6/8, a young woman (Erin) who was quite sore from the trip up to the cache decided it was best to leave the mountain. So instructor Patrick Mettenbrink and students Jon, Geno, and Erin left to hike to Wonder Lake–a four-day round trip. (The expedition did not start at Wonder Lake because the road was not open yet.)

On 6/9, the course ferried a load of food and fuel up the mountain. On their way back to camp, a mile and a half above the cache, a young man (Seth) tripped and cut his knee as he hit a rock. He sustained a 1″ wide laceration which necessitated evacuation. On the morning of 6/10, instructor Ben Krasnow and students Dan, Naomi and Seth departed for Wonder Lake. Also on 6/10, we at NOLS Alaska dispatched three instructors to the park (a 10-hour drive to Wonder Lake) to support the evacuation. On the evening of 6/10, Patrick’s team reach Wonder Lake and Erin arrived here in Palmer via NOLS vehicle on the evening of 6/11.

Patrick’s team (heading back to the mountain) and Ben’s team (heading to Wonder Lake) camped together at the confluence of Cache and Clearwater Creeks on the night of 6/11. At 11 am on 6/12, Ben’s team met with the NOLS Alaska evacuation support team near Turtle Hill (two miles south of the McKinley River) and passed Seth off to them. They made it to a medical facility at 11 pm last night (6/12). Seth received four stitches. He told me it was remarkably not painful and he is in good spirits.

By this evening, I suspect the remaining 13 expedition members will be nearly re-united. Remarkably, expedition leader Erica Lorenzen and seven students have been able to make progress up the mountain–to the point that they are on schedule. They camped at 10,500′ last night and will be traveling back down get more supplies today. Once the course is re-united, the standard pattern will be to ferry a load up the mountain and camp back down low one night, then move camp up the next day. Essentially, from 5,700′ to 17,000′ they will climb everything twice. The summit is about two maps away, but they will be measuring things more in elevation gained than in miles now.

I usually send an update when folks first get to the cache near McGonagall Pass, but with so much in flux we focused on supporting the evacuations rather than sending confusing emails mid-evacuation! We average about one evacuation per two expeditions, so to have two on one course is unusual. Since Denali is in a wilderness area, the park only allows helicopter evacuation for the most serious injuries.

The course leader said everyone else is healthy with only the normal soreness as folks get used to heavy loads and double-layered plastic boots. I’ll update you regularly from now on (about once a week).

Let me know if you have questions!

Rick

Greetings,

News from the evacuees: Erin’s crew saw a fox den with kits on the hike out. Seth’s group saw a couple of grizzly bears 100-200 yards away while in the vehicle on the drive out. Erin flew home last night and Seth flew home this morning. They got to spend time sharing stories. It was sad to see them go.

I heard from the expedition again this morning (6/14) and I have a correction: Last time I heard from Erica and crew, she was at 7,300 feet, not 10,500′. They were about to back-ferry down through the Lower Icefall to the cache at 5,700′ yesterday, then go back up to camp at 7,300′. I misunderstood their elevation over a garbled satellite connection, which is why I was astonished at their progress.

The whole group of 13 reunited at 7,300 feet on the Muldrow Glacier at 7 pm last night approximately here:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=63.17878&lon=-150.85929&s=100&size=l&u=4&datum=nad83&layer=DRG50.
This was quite a push for the evacuation teams, so they are taking a rest day today. Erica and all the folks who originally stayed on the mountain are working on putting in a route through the Great Icefall to 10,000′ at the base of Karsten’s Ridge today. Everyone plans to camp together at 7,300′ tonight and hopefully move to 10,000′ tomorrow.

One of you asked about the weather. Erin and Seth tell me it was quite nice (aside from the clouds of mosquitos). I put a link to the weather in the previous email. Here is a webcam the park just announced this morning!
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/denacam/denacam.cfm
If you click on landmarks, you will see where the mountain is in perfect weather.

This shows where the webcam is and in what direction it is photograhing:
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/denacam/denamap.cfm

Finally, below is a photo of the group! This is from June 2nd just before leaving NOLS Alaska.
Back Row: Seth, Jon, Dan, Ben (Instructor), Mark
Middle Row: Lanie, Naomi, Erin, Robbie, Geno
Front Row: Geoff, Szu-Ting, Patrick (Instructor), Erica (Lead Instructor), John
All three instructors have been on Denali before–two of them while working and the other reaching the summit on a personal trip.

Best wishes,

Rick

wow..Xiao Po,

Wish you luck and have a great time there.
I haven’t read your blog for a while but whenever I read it, you are always doing something adventurous.

The Reality can be harsh, but also rewarding. You turned back, but only after giving it your best. That is just one more beneficial experience. Far better than canceling a trip due to dire weather predictions, only to see that the weather would have been fine after all…

Good link! I added it to the Mount Katahdin page of The Outdoor Map.

At least your lack of blogging isn’t due to an evil virus like I have!

cyberhobo,
Hope you have already gotten rid of the virus!

kathy,
are you planning to move to the States? I thought you already settled down in Germany. Welcome you to participate in my future outings, of course. =)

Sounds fun, good luck!

[...] Wednesday, March 7. The group retreats from Chimney Pond campsite and hauls sleds all the way back to the parking lot. The group stays for the night in Millinocket, Maine and drives back the next morning. Reference: Other than the links I provided in Katahdin – High Point of Maine, SummitPost.org also has a great page about Katahdin. [...]

好有意義的活動呀! 是冬天要去爬Grand Teton嗎?

Szu-Ting, a Merry Christmas to you and your household!

And to the rest of y’all, what’s keeping you from donating to her cause? (I gave; it did not hurt).

[...] To learn LittlePo’s motivation for this fund-raising climb, please visit: http://www.littlepo.com/2006/12/21/help-littlepo-climb-grand-teton/ [...]