At Camp 1

The team woke in the very early hours of the morning, packed up their tents, loaded all their kit, supplies and gear into their packs and onto their sleds and headed out of Base Camp. The glacier drops for about 600 feet as the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna merges with the main body of the Kahiltna Glacier.

The "confluence" of the two is one of the most troublesome stretches for crevasses, but the crew found easy and straightforward travel this morning. The nighttime temps dropped low enough that everything froze hard, and a foot of recent snow helped make for a great day of glacier travel.

They are safely camped at a sppot located at 7,800' (2380 m) on the Kahiltna Glacier, just across from the confluence with the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna. The view up the NE Fork looks up at the west side of the South Face of Denali, and the climbers could see most of the mountain as they rested in camp throughout the day. The very summit was obscured by clouds, but the view was impressive, by all accounts.

Here is a view looking up the NE Fork, from a previous expedition.