Welcome to Mountain Trip's May 24, 2009 West Buttress Expedition

In the far north lies one of the most magnificent ranges of mountains in the world. The Alaska Range stretches 400 miles across southcentral Alaska. It is a wild place, covered in glaciers and punctuated by rugged peaks. The crown of the range is Denali, at 20,320 feet (6194 m), the highest peak in North America. Located so close to the Arctic circle, Denali can present some of the most challenging and rugged conditions of any mountain on earth.

Each year a relatively few climbers from around the world migrate to test themselves on the slopes of Denali. Mountain Trip has been assisting these climbers achieve their Denali dreams since 1976. We love what we do and are happy to help provide you a taste of what these climbers are experiencing by updating their progress in this blog. Following the expedition, we will post numerous photos from the expedition, so please keep checking in.

On May 24, 2009, a team of climbers will arrive in Anchorage. They will be accompanied by three Mountain Trip guides:

Chris Kerrick from Tacoma, WA
Caitlin Hague from Anchorage, AK
Sebastian Grau from Santiago, Chile

The climbers are:

Peter Kinloch from the UK
Aljosa Hribar from the UK
Pascal Pinz from the UK
Richard Kenworthy from the UK
George Seehaver from Canada
Ansi Genis from South Africa
Manoel Morgado from Brazil
Andrea Cardona from Guatemala
Anush Elangovan from San Francisco, CA

Please keep in mind that communication from the big mountains can be challenging and occasionally intermittent. We will post updates as often as possible, but please keep in mind the old adage, "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS!" when it comes to communications from the Range.

Also, please be advised that while we will attempt to pass comments along to the climbers, this is not always possible. The intent of this dispatch blog is to keep you up to date on your friends' and loved ones' progress while on the expedition, and to give you an opportunity to express your support of their dreams. We are certain they will love to read all of your comments when they get back to civilization, so please do post comments.