All photographs are courtesy of the Colorado "CO2 Expedition" that climbed the West Rib in 2002.
The CO2 members: Stan Kaliszan, Doug Kruesi, Jim Rickard, Mike Teger, and Kurt Wibbenmeyer. Thanks so much guys!
The West Rib is in red, West Buttress in blue.
For a larger map (2.33MB),
click here.
Flying into the Kahiltna Glacier airstrip. We will use this as our basecamp and cache 3 days worth of food here in case bad weather prevents us from flying out for a few days at the end of the expedition.
All the wands in the snow mark each expeditions' cache of post-expedition supplies of food and fuel.
The West Rib route is in the upper-middle of this picture. Between Camp 1 and the West Rib is a vast glacier field, and you can see some of the "hanging glaciers" on the sides of the mountains. There have been at least two whole teams over the years that have disappeared here in the "Valley of Death". Click here for the same picture with the route and camps drawn in.
The snow walls are necessary to protect the tents and camp area from high winds.
The summit bid will start from the high camp and will be, by far, the longest and hardest day of the expedition. This picture is of the 16,260 ft camp.
After the summit attempt, the team will sleep in Camp 6. The next day they will leave the West Rib at about 16,200 ft. and climb down to the east to the 14,200-foot West Buttress Medical camp. The NPS maintains a medical camp here to assist climbers and coordinate rescues. The team will make Camp 7 at 14,200 and spend the night. This picture looks down into the 14,200 camp from the West Rib.
This picture looks up at the West Rib from the 14,200 camp.
