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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 22, 2016 - 01:37pm PT
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Sounds brutal. I hope they get to fly soon and cover some ground the easy way.
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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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May 22, 2016 - 01:43pm PT
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Looks like they are taking an alternative route based on comparing their track to Gavin's website...
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 22, 2016 - 04:46pm PT
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yeah, that new route is, shall we say, interesting...
if i had to place money on it, i'd bet that they are bailing [or at least keeping the option of bailing more readily accessible]... that said given what the two of them have pulled off in the past i wouldn't bet much.
that they are heading north on the South Fork of the Kuskokwin River rather than heading eastish via the orginally planned Tatina River valley, likely means that if they are to keep going on, they'd either have to try and fly along the northerly slopes of the mountain range, [which while i'm no expert, i've done enough flying to suspect that that is going to be dubious at best], or they are going to have to try to backpack along the northern slope of the range [which as it's going to be basically impossible to stay in river valleys is, based on my experience backpacking north of denali, going to be a nightmare: that's because if those areas north of where they are at, are what it was like north of denali, the difficulty will be that one literally can not tell until one is actually walking on the terrain whether the "tundra" that one is looking at a half km away is head high alder, waist high alder or is actually nice mossy tundra... without exaggeration they often look exactly the same from even a hundred metres away...]
anyway long winded way of giving my reasoning as to why my guess is that they are bailing... there is also both a place to land a plane and a jeep trail roughly another ten miles north of where they are at.
all that said, i'm arm chairing it and i could be wrong... one option if they are going to head back in is to traverse the northerly slope for a bit to the NE and then head back in on the Dillinger River valley... this would get them some south facing slopes again and hopefully the ability to get in the air more without having to commit to the depth into the range that the Tatina River is at...
dunno though really... i'm sure we'll find out shortly...
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 22, 2016 - 10:36pm PT
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day 10: 9ish more miles all on the ground at valley bottom. Gavin wrote: "Made decent progress north today, but the worst bushwacking yet. Weather continues to be unflyable."
and so no word of quitting yet... forecast isn't very encouraging though... next four days are looking tough right now, with maybe finally a break in the weather starting friday... though that far out who knows...
looking forward to see what line they're looking to take... hopefully the weather will give them a break and they can get back into the air soon...
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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May 23, 2016 - 01:52am PT
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Brutal. Hope the winds and thermals pick up for these guys. Nothing worse than hiking through Alaskan bush when you could be high up!
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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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May 23, 2016 - 04:37pm PT
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Looks like they are aiming to fly soon as they're heading up to a ridge.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 23, 2016 - 08:23pm PT
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day 11: 5ish miles hiking, the bulk of which was gaining most of a sw facing ridge in order to hopefully fly soonish... G wrote "Time to fly! Weather still has us pinned down, but in position at high Bivvy to GO when sun returns."
unfortunately, the forecast for the next three days, still hasn't gotten better... oh well, cool to see their continued optimistic actions in the face of on-going challenges...
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 24, 2016 - 06:09pm PT
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day 12: so far, they've been stuck on the ground, waiting for some good weather today... G wrote: "Dave made backcountry oven, made cornbread! Sucker holes of sun, but wx still grounding us."
based on the forecast if they aren't able to fly today, the next two days are even less likely... but after that the forecast over the last few days is still holding and there will hopefully be a reprieve on friday afternoon from what looks to have been a fair bit of cloud cover and on and off rain/snow for the last couple days [and if the forecast comes true for the next couple as well]...
oh well if life gives you lemons, make cornbread is what i always say... hope they get to fly soon...
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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 24, 2016 - 07:20pm PT
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Thanks for the updates. High pressure coming a few days. They're on the north side of the range right now, maybe when the weather turns they can point into the wind and get a lift....
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Topic Author's Reply - May 24, 2016 - 08:54pm PT
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Another thanks for the updates. Much easier that trying to decipher the gps updates on my own.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 25, 2016 - 04:47pm PT
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day 13: another day holed up close to the top of a ridge, due to shitty weather. G wrote: "Making the best of it, but we need a change to fly and make next cache. Food running low again, long ways to go."
weather doesn't look great for tomorrow, but that forecast is better than the one that they had for today and the break that was looking to happen on friday seems to have moved up a bit, so maybe they'll get lucky. their next cache is roughly another 45 miles away as the crow flies... so far they have travelled roughly 100 miles over 11 days while on foot or in in the air, in order to make it roughly 80 miles as the crow flies...
so here's hoping they catch a break and get some big flights in, soonish...
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Topic Author's Reply - May 25, 2016 - 06:19pm PT
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They're probably wishing they shot that bear and ate it! Just kidding.
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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 25, 2016 - 09:43pm PT
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Waiting on good flying weather... Hope they get it. Tobin, Dial, Atkins did it with bikes and pack rafts in 6 weeks to Canada I think? Hopefully these guys can fly and smoke that time. If they can't fly, carrying a paraglider through isothermic snow and alders doesn't seem conducive to getting a better time on the 700 mile traverse. If you wait on the weather in AK, you might be waiting a looooong time. If they don't get to fly, at least they will be in killer hiking shape by July....
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 26, 2016 - 05:37am PT
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F: hmmm... the tobin/dial/atkins trip sounds epic... you [or anyone else] have any details or info sources regarding that trip?
here's the latest from G: "Has rained nonstop for 24 hours. If the sun doesn't return soon we're in trouble. Feels like we're slowly starving. Gotta get to next cache, and we gotta fly!"
not looking great, especially considering they came across an unplanned and food stocked cabin four days ago...
forecast continues to improve somewhat for today, but it's still a question of whether it's going to break soon enough today for them to be able to fly or whether friday is going to continue to be the great white hope...
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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 26, 2016 - 08:41am PT
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I don't know much more than Carl's understated 5 minute discription of it. Lightweight bikes that they rode, and carried a lot. Early generation pack rafts. Lake Clark to Canadia. Mid 90's.
It was long before Facebook though, so maybe it didn't happen?
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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May 26, 2016 - 08:54am PT
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Been following on FB, it is pretty incredible stuff. Dave has done A LOT OF REALLLY COOL STUFF over the years. The whole solo wall climbing, Baffin trip, paragliding across the Sierra, in Patagonia. That's a life worth living and my hat is off, BRAVO!
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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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May 26, 2016 - 12:41pm PT
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Here's a cool site with webcams all over Alaska. There are a couple in their area...
http://avcams.faa.gov/
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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May 26, 2016 - 05:22pm PT
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the tobin/dial/atkins trip sounds epic... you [or anyone else] have any details or info sources regarding that trip?
nah000, from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Range
Documented wilderness traverses of Alaska Range
Mentasta Lake to Kitchatna Mountains (1981): Scott Woolums, George Beilstein, Steve Eck, and Larry Coxen by skis: first traverse. 375 miles (604 km) in 45 days.
[3] American Alpine Journal (1982), Vol. 24. Pages 137-138
Canada to Lake Clark (1996): Roman Dial, Carl Tobin, and Paul Adkins by mountain bike and packraft: first full length traverse. 775 miles (1,247 km) in 42 days.
[4]"A Wild Ride," National Geographic Magazine (1997), Vol. 191. Pages 118-131
Tok to Lake Clark (1996): Kevin Armstrong, Doug Woody, and Jeff Ottmers by snowshoe, foot, and packraft: first foot traverse. 620 miles (1,000 km) in 90 days.
[5] American Alpine Journal (1997), Vol. 39. Pages 169-170
also: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/media/ngm/9705/hilights.html#f
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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May 26, 2016 - 05:29pm PT
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A little adversity doesn't put much of a dint in Dave and i'm sure, Gavin. If it was raining kryptonite I might worry.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 26, 2016 - 05:44pm PT
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while facebook didn't exist, nat geo did... :)
apparently they did a write-up on tobin, adkin and dial's adventure in vol. 191 p. 118-131 called A Wild Ride...
unfortunately there appears to be no online access to the full article, although there are a few photos from their trip on nat geo's site...
they travelled 775 miles across the alaska range in 42 days in 1996:
looks to have been burly...
edit: hey kunlun... looks like we cross posted... but thanks for the info nonetheless...
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