Post-Denali quickie

     We are back, safe and healthy, from our climbing trip to Denali.  This write-up will be short relative to all that I have to tell.  2.5 weeks worth is a lot to write about but a summary should do and there is plenty of information out there regarding the climb in general so most of this will be personal and random.
     We decided that the four of us would travel best in 2 roped teams of 2.  This worked smoothly for us.  The weather was pretty much perfect.  We had some spotty clouding and precipitation while at 14 camp, but hardly enough to prevent travel, we were just patient and cautious and got some good skiing in while waiting.  The group dynamic and communication couldn't get much better either, likely due to our previous experiences skiing the backcountry together.  We skied until 14 camp and used the traditional crampons from there to summit.
     2 of us summited on June 5 while the third summited the next day pretty much solo.  Our final member made it to 17 camp but was unable to summit due to a prolonged battle with nausea and the subsequent weakness.
     I learned a lot on this trip about myself, climbing, winter camping, the mountain, my climbing partners.  I was surprised that being Americans, we were in the minority.  We met many internationals mostly from Europe and Asia.  The sense of community was strong, and pleasantly so.  We were all there to climb the mountain and the interactions between climbers was refreshing in that information and tips/advice flowed so openly between everyone.  The park rangers were excellent resources.
     Pictures don't do it justice.  It was some of the most breath-taking and awesome places to be with stunning scale and scenery.  One can only appreciate this in real life.  My scale was way off. I was accustomed to the typical 4-5000 ft of vertical in the Chugach but surrounded by 3-4x that going up Denali.  Breathing was much more of a challenge than I anticipated.  I didn't sense it until 11 camp, but it was progressively difficult with elevation gain and still noticeable at 17 despite our length of stay and acclimatization at 14. 
     We saw the record for speed ascent on the West Buttress being broken as we were going up the Headwall by Edward Warren.  We had some pretty good skiing out of 14 camp with a picturesque carpet of clouds below, behemoth mountains jutting up through them, blocks of blue ice the size of buildings on one side and boulders/crevasses on the other.  I'm telling you this is national geographic stuff. 
     I will try to include a link to some photos at a later date.  It was more challenging to take pictures given that my attention was on climbing, breathing, rope management, breathing, taking the next step and carrying a heavy load.  And breathing. 
I lost 13 lbs during the trip. 
I did take a short fall but was able to arrest quickly. 
My total gear weight including ski stuff was 128lbs. 
We met Alex Honnold and shared a plan ride with him and his film crew up in the Ruth Gorge before we flew to Kahiltna base. 

PICS: https://plus.google.com/photos/116759503566424990671/albums/5891395918231480177