Alaska Range 2023 | Day 8 Turning Around...

Yesterday, Lonnie attempted the crux. He made it to approximately 11,000 or so when the new route became simply too risky to solo climb. He chose not to go further into the steepening rock, made slick by a thin layer of ice/snow/verglas. He turned his tracker off at this turnaround point, before it had time to send the last elevation location. He then downclimbed back to his icy ledge and set up camp, once again anchoring everything on his precarious perch.

He then sent a checkin from the icy camp this morning and his glacier camp tonight. All is good. He's sorry that disabling the tracking during decent caused some friends to worry. He has pushed on and descended from 10,000' to 6,000' today - he is well on his way back to Kahiltna Base Camp for a pickup.

He's got a story to tell about today's decent... about his advanced base camp...

When he called in last night after abandoning the attempt, he was tired. He was depleted from cutting in that ledge the previous night and then barely sleeping due to the wind storm the next night. We will have to wait for his voice update to understand how he is feeling about turning around and hear more about his experience on the mountain.