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The climb is planned to start June 11, 2005 and the teams consist of:

I. Advanced Base Camp only

Professionals Amateurs
Heidi Richards Christy Balsiger
Brandon Tanguay Avery Balsiger


II. Summit Team

Professionals Amateur
Tap Richards Chris Balsiger
Lhawang Dhondup  
Mike Horst  

We expect the summit climb to take 16 - 21 days and we will take the West Buttress route. We will land on the mountain at about 7,000 ft. and then descend 1,000 ft. to find the route and begin the climb. We will establish three camps down below ABC (Advanced Base Camp) at 8,000 ft., 9,500 ft. and 11,000 ft. After building ABC at 14,500 ft. we will build an auxiliary camp at 16,200 ft. and establish a high camp at 17,500 ft. from which we will attempt to summit.

This will be Chris' second attempt at McKinley. His first attempt came over one year ago and ended at ABC when two weeks of bad weather eliminated any possibility of a summit attempt.

This will be Mike and Lhawang's first attempt at McKinley. Mike is an experienced guide with many summits of Rainier and international summits of Aconcagua, Huayna Potosi, Orizaba and Ixta. Lhawang is one of the world's premier mountaineers with three Everest summits (from the north and south sides), one without oxygen. Lhawang has many international summits including Aconcagua and Orizaba and has been on over 15 Himalayan expeditions including Cho Oyu, Shisha Pangma and Kangchenjunga.

Jun 12We arrived in Anchorage on June 9th. Then we went up to Talkeetna on the 10th to prepare to fly on the 11th. Bad weather kept us off and we didn’t land until today around 2 p.m. on the 12th. We proceeded directly to camp one, which is about 8,000 ft (2,438 meters). Everyone is strong, yet tired. After a good rest we’ll decide what to do tomorrow. But, it’s good to be back and everyone is doing well.

Jun 13We enter day two on the mountain. We move during the night so today is June 13, early morning the 14th.

We moved to camp two. It is about 9,600 ft (2,926 meters). Everyone is well and everyone is strong. We moved during the night, if you can call it night here. The sun goes down a bit, but it is still light out. It is a lot colder, which makes it a lot easier to travel without snow shoes and makes it a heck of a lot safer as the snow bridges hold up more strongly.

Everyone is well. Plan is to sleep since our time it is about three in the morning. We will sleep and rest all day tomorrow and then try to go up to camp three at 11,000 ft (3,353 meters) at about 10 o'clock tomorrow night. We will be on a night schedule until we get up to about 11,000 ft in the upper mountain and then we will re-adjust back to day.

Communication Manager's Note — June 14:
Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service...JUNE 14...WIND SPEEDS LESS THAN 20 MPH ARE NOT INCLUDED...7,000 FT TO 14,000 FT...PARTLY CLOUDY...HIGH AT 7,000 FT...45°F TO 50°F DURING THE DAY AND 30°F TO 35°F DURING THE NIGHT...HIGH AT 14,000 FT...AROUND 30°F DURING THE DAY AND AROUND 10°F AT NIGHT.

Jun 14I’ll talk quick. I’ve tried twice to call in. We’re in a little bit of a canyon here. We are at camp three, 11,000 ft (3,352 meters). Everyone is strong. Again, we went on the night schedule. The mountain showed signs of being a little bit unstable so we waited again for it to be cold. And we had to climb hard — this was a very, very hard stretch. But everyone did great. The campsite is beautiful. We’ll do a carry tomorrow, the 14th and try to move there as quickly as we can. Christy and Ave’s last day is tomorrow and they’ve done a great job. And they’re thrilled with being at 11, it is one of the most gorgeous sites here.

Communication Manager’s Note — June 15:
Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service…JUNE 15…WIND SPEEDS LESS THAN 20 MPH ARE NOT INCLUDED…7,000 FT TO 14,000 FT…HIGH AT 7,000 FT…50ºF DURING THE DAY AND 30ºF DURING THE NIGHT…HIGH AT 14,000 FT…30ºF DURING THE DAY AND 10ºF DURING THE NIGHT.

Jun 16

Sorry I didn't call in yesterday, we got a little sidetracked by weather, and got a late start. But the summit team moved on to the advance base camp. It was a hard day, but everyone is in good shape.

Christy, Avery, Heidi and Brandon left camp at 11,000 ft and went down and flew out and got off the glacier safely which we’re real pleased with. They had a great visit and great trip with us. We’re real happy to have had them along and they performed well and enjoyed themselves.

We’ll probably do a little work tomorrow, but mainly a rest day. We’ll do a little bit of hiking and try to put ourselves in a summit position in about five to seven days.

Communication Manager's Note - June 17:
Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service...WIND SPEEDS LESS THAN 20 MPH ARE NOT INCLUDED...JUNE 17...14,000 FT...HIGH 35ºF...LOW 15ºF.



Jun 17
It was a rest day.  We're here at advanced base camp at 14,000 ft (4,267 meters).  Everything is going well.  We didn't much today other than rest.  Tomorrow we will do a carry assuming the weather permits.  Carry some supplies up to around 16,000 ft (4,877 meters).  Come back down and rest some more.  We expect some weather to move in over the next 2-3 days which we actually think is some pretty good news because we wouldn't be in a position to do anything anyways.  It's always good to see the weather cycle through.
 
Communication Manager's Note - June 19:
Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service...JUNE 19...WINDS DIMINISHING...14,000 FT...HIGH 15ºF...LOW 0ºF.


Jun 18(static) - We’ve got about a foot and a half of snow blowing hard. We’re safe, just resting, seeing what tomorrow brings. We think some high pressure is going to move in around Monday or Tuesday so we think we’re still right on schedule. So no worries yet.

Jun 19It's Sunday night. The storm broke about 3 or 4 hours ago. Clearing teams are moving again and clearing out the high camp. Some people moved down. We had a rest day. Did a little bit of hiking up to get some altitude. Everyone feels real strong. Plan now is that there appears to be a weather opening appearing Wednesday or Thursday. Our A plan is to make a single carry, move up to High Camp tomorrow if weather allows it, take a rest on Tuesday and if the forecast is true, go for the summit on Wednesday. If the weather is so-so tomorrow, we'll make a carry, come back down, rest, move and look for a weather window on Friday or Saturday.

Eating well. Sleeping well. Everyone has acclimatized well. So we would prefer to take the first break we can. If that doesn't go well, then we can reset and have a 2nd attempt as well.

Tomorrow night, when I call in, you'll know if the A plan worked and that we hit the weather plan just right.

Jun 20It's the end of the day Monday. The weather was bad again. We didn't move. Right now it appears a high pressure is moving in which is good. We plan to move tomorrow. We still don't feel we're behind schedule and we're going to make one push up to 17,500 ft which is the High Camp. It should be a long day. About an eight hour day. It'll be a hard day. We'll get in, rest, and see what the weather brings. It appears that a good high front is moving in. We're still looking for the latter part of the week to be on top if we get our chance and to at least get further than we did last year.

Communication Manager's Note - June 20:
Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service...JUNE 21...17,000 FT...A FEW CLOUDS...HIGH 10ºF...LOW -10ºF...WEST 20MPH WINDS.

Jun 21

It’s Tuesday night. We did move today, the weather was nice so we’re at High Camp (17,500 ft). Probably rest tomorrow. Everyone is doing well. It’s a bit cold up here. I’m a bit tired, but we moved in and things are good. We have enough food to go through another weather cycle so we’re psyched and feel pretty safe taking a rest day.

Communication Manager's Note - June 22:

Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service...JUNE 22...17,000 FT...INCREASING CLOUDS...HIGH 5ºF...LOW -10ºF...WEST 30 MPH WINDS.

Jun 22It's coming to a close Wednesday evening. We had a planned rest day here at about 17,200 - 17,500 ft, I'm not quit sure. Weather is mild, few clouds, little misty snow, but not much. Everyone took advantage of the day. Everyone is in good shape. Plan tomorrow is if we get good weather, reasonable to good weather, then we'll make a shot for the top. If not, we have plenty of time and plenty of supplies to wait. At this time, we see no sense to push it.

Communication Manager's Note - June 23:
Current McKinley weather report from the National Weather Service...JUNE 23...17,000 FT...CLOUDY...CHANCE OF SNOW...HIGH 0ºF...LOW -10ºF...SOUTHEAST 15 MPH WINDS.

Jun 23It's Thursday night. We summitted Thursday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Alaska time. Got safely back down into High Camp at 8:30 p.m. Team did great for me. Gosh, I'll tell you what, it was tough. I didn't think I would ever get this one, but it's in the books. We're really only on the 12th day on the mountain. Depending on how we feel, we'll try to descend to 14,000 ft or 11,000 ft tomorrow. Then we'll try to fly off the glacier, depending on the weather, on Saturday and eat some hamburgers. Felt the support up here and thanks. Everyone is well. Man this is a tough mountain. Thanks.

Communication Manager's Note - June 24:
Congratulations Mr. Balsiger on your summit of Mt. McKinley!

Jun 24It's at the end of the day Friday. We're going to eat some dinner and walk out toward the airfield. Today we got up at 17,500 ft, left camp at about 10:30 a.m., got down in here in about 4 hours at Advanced Base Camp at around 14,000 ft.  It was very hot to continue on down so we just took a rest and now we're going to continue on down and see how far we get. Everyone is doing well.

Jun 26Been awhile since I called in, I believe it was Friday afternoon. We pulled down from 17,000 ft, it was about 4 in the afternoon, if I recall. We did a rest for about 5 hours until 9 on Friday night. Got up and headed down the mountain. Our goal was to walk during the night when the lower glacier was more stable. We pulled down to around 11,000 ft. Got their about 1 or 2 in the morning. Ran into some friends who made us some coffee and hot drinks. Left there and walked all the way out to the air strip to get out. Walk was long and hard. Pulled into the airstrip about 7 a.m. on Saturday. The lower glacier was pretty unstable. We had a few mishaps punching some holes through some bridges but everything was ok and got through fine. Weather was pretty dicey, but we were able to fly out around 1 p.m. on Saturday. Everyone got in safe. Trip went well.

I'll call in one more time when I get back to El Paso with some afterthoughts about the climb. Everyone is on the ground and had our first meal a few hours ago.

Jun 27Final Thoughts:

It's Monday afternoon. I'm back in El Paso. The other team members are wrapping things up in Talkeetna. It was a great climb.

As always, I put in a few afterthoughts of the climb. The first part, of course, is on Saturday afternoon when we got our last member of the team off the mountain the first objective was achieved...everyone was safe and sound. If you could have been there and seen the fact that we had achieved the summit, which was so far back in our minds until we knew that the last member of our team was off the mountain, it was only then that we showered and then went out and celebrated the summit. The two objectives, but one being the first and foremost...being on the mountain and off the mountain safe and sound...was achieved.

My second point is that for me this was a mountain that I thought I would never get. Last year was not a good year for us. We revamped the way we approached the mountains, approached the training and since May of last year we have had nothing but success. We have gotten a lot of summits since then. Both on the training climbs and on the majors and feel good with the changes we made and the new approach. Personally, I thought I would never get McKinley. It was a big one for me. It was a real pleasure, well, more than a pleasure, it was a very great thing that Kristy and Ave came on the mountain to give a few days of their summer to show support. I think that was the basis. I felt that support all through the trip and a big part of why we were able to get success. McKinley was a major mountain for me and feel real pleased.

Last thought is that we are a lot closer to getting our major goal of the Seven Summits. We have five of the seven. We have two summits left, which would be Vinson in Antarctica and, of course, Everest on the Asia continent. We feel it is very much within our reach. We will do a training trek and climb in the Himalayan in October. We have already secured our permits to do Vinson in January. Kristy will go on both of those trips. We are going full speed ahead with our planning and preparations for our Everest assault which will be March through May of next year. Well, the end of March. We are very happy. We are very safe.

What a difference a year makes. We go from last year with over 20 days on the mountain and didn't get above 14,000 ft because of the weather. There was weather this time, but we went in with a different plan, smaller team, and better ideas. We were on and off the mountain in 13 days. So, we feel we're living right.

We thank everyone who has been going in on the Web site. You can actually feel the support in your body up there. Thanks to everybody and we're home safe. Thanks.