Justin and Bobby (Bolt) flew to Alaska today for the long-awaited attempt to climb Denali.
The boys are climbing with RMI Expeditions. This is the same guiding service we used to climb Rainier and that Justin used to climb Shuksan. There are 9 clients and 3 guides. The lead guide is Pete Van Deventer, again the same guide we had for Rainier. Pete is a well-traveled and trusted guide, including 7 expeditions up Denali. As soon as we finished climbing Rainier, Justin said, "that's who I want to climb Denali with."
I am going to do my best to update the blog with any details I know about his climb. His guide service tries hard to update their blog regularly, and J will hit his Spot personal locator beacon everyday with a generic message showing his location (link here on the blog and tied to our Facebook account). So between those details, I hope to have updates at least every other day.
For this week, the rough schedule looks like this:
*Tuesday, May 10 - Meet with other climbers and guides in Anchorage and take a bus to Talkeetna
*Wednesday, May 11 - Orientation/Equipment Check in Talkeetna
*Thursday, May 12 - Weather permitting, fly from Talkeetna to Kahiltna Glacier for base camp setup at 7,300 feet.
And now, I'd like to present the MASSIVE gear list. FYI, if you need more of a visual of the individual pieces of gear, J put up a video on YouTube.
FOOTWEAR
Mountaineering Boots - La Sportiva Spantiks
Snowshoes - Atlas Peak Series Serrate 24
I am testing these snowshoes for Backpacker Magazine (not available for purchase yet)
Crampons - Black Diamond Contact
Overboots - Forty Below Purple Haze
Gaiters - REI Mountain Gaiters
Insoles - Superfeet Redhot
Socks - Cloudline Apparel (light and medium combination) and Lorpen Technical Expedition Socks
Booties - Exped Down Booty WB
CLOTHING
Underwear - ExOfficio Give N Go Boxer
Long Underwear - Patagonia Capilene Midweight and Lightweight Bottoms
Pants - Marmot Scree Softshell Pant
Shell Pants - Montane Spine Pant
I am testing these shell pants for Backpacker Magazine (not available for purchase yet)
Base layer - Patagonia Capilene t-shirt
Long Sleeve Mid Layers
Jackets
Arc'Teryx Proton LT Hoody
I am testing this jacket for Backpacker Magazine (not available for purchase yet)
Columbia OutDry Ex Diamond Snow Shell
I am testing this jacket for Columbia (not available for purchase yet)
Gloves
Hats
Boco Gear Sun Hat
Gregory Trucker Hat
Goggles - Stage Stunt Photo-chromatic
Glasses - Jublo Dolgan
Headlight - Princeton Tec Vizz
SLEEP SYSTEM
Sleeping Pads-
Sleeping Pads-
Pillow - Therm-a-rest Air Head Pillow
Sleeping Bag - Big Agnes Pomer Hoit UL 0 with an over bag of the Big Agnes Pitchpine UL45 or Big Agnes Crosho SL -20
Our nephew Owen testing the -20 bag for Justin.
COOKWARE
Outdoor Research water bottle insulators (2)
OTHER EQUIPMENT
Trekking poles - Helinox Ridgeline Lever Lock
Ice Ax - Black Diamond Raven Pro
Helmet - Black Diamond Half Dome
ESSENTIALS
MISC ELECTRONICS
Garmin Fenix (1st generation)
Solar chargers - I am testing the new Goal Zero Gregory Backpack for Gregory. It is a Baltoro 75 but I took the Goal Zero lid off this pack and put it on the Denali 100. (not available for purchase yet)
iPad Mini2 (32GB) with LifeProof case
He also brought some food ...
Stay tuned for more updates this week!
That's quite the gear list! Wow!!!
ReplyDeleteVan
That's a heck of a gear list! Thanks for posting this extensive list and I'll look forward to the reviews!
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