Mountain Updates - June 4

It is a beautiful day on the West Buttress route today! 

The May 21 Expedition, led by Tyler Thompson, Madelyn Ferdock, and Will Plovanic, are making the move to 17,000-foot camp. A 3,000-ft increase in elevation followed by building a camp. It is a hard day but the weather is beautiful! Here are a few photographs of 17K taken by our team that returned this morning. This is the highest elevation they will camp. Summit attempts are made from this camp.

Two images from 17,000-foot camp, June 1, 2026 (photo by Hector Landa)

The May 25th Expedition, led by Cody Pitz, Nicole De Petris, and Joe Grout, is settling into life at the 14K camp. They will need to descend to 13,500 to retrieve their cache and take some well deserved rest. Then they will prepare for the next move of gear to the 16,400 ridge.

This photo, taken last week, shows the 14K camp with climbers on the route to the 16K ridge (left side in distance).

All teams will practice clipping in and out of the fixed lines. The fixed lines are just that... climbing rope anchored into the snow and ice on the steep headwall. Each time a climber comes to an anchor point they have to unclip to get around that point. There is a technique to doing it correctly, easily and quickly. Not doing it this way means frustration and backups on the line.

Climbers being shown the clipping technique.

Climber practicing clipping.

This is a mechanical ascender which is placed on the fixed lines and used to ascend a steep slope. It has a 'brake' on it that bites the rope and keeps you secure.

The May 30th Custom Expedition, led by Eric Roberts and Corey Cooke will spend the next few days at the 14K camp here acclimating and preparing for the upper mountain. Today they are resting and tomorrow they will hike up to 15K to acclimate and then cover some skills.  

The June 2nd Expedition led by Guides Simon Frez-Albrecht, Taylor Guetschow, and Claire Pennell left base camp around 5:00 AM this morning and made the single-carry trek to the 7,800-foot camp. Because the weather has turned warm, it is much better to climb in the early morning or late evening. If not, the heat melts the snow, making travel slower, and it is too hot! It is better to rest in the tent during the "heat of the day." They are settled in their camp.

The red line shows where they started and the camp they are currently in. The yellow is the route above them. (Google Earth image)