Mt. Marcus Baker, a success after all!
The crew is back from 26 days of an amazing time in ice and snow. And we had a lot of it…
The flight into the area took about 45 Minutes, above crevasses into which houses could disappear!
The scenerey is simply stunning…
Flight In
We built a huge camp and put up walls about 2.5m (8 feet) high around it. This turned out to be a good decision at the end.
Goodbye Plane
The first days were used for acclimatisation, and exploring the area. The snowpack was stable even though we had a record year of snow.
No setteling sounds, no avalanches! It looked good for the next days!
No winds however forced us to skin all the way to the mountain. This took more time than estimated, and the weather windows became shorter.
Just before the storms we had great winds to kite, but not the right directions to go towards Mount Marcus Baker.
Jumping Basecamp
Out of the air!
Eventually the storms came over us, and we had a tough time to shovel the tents and the camp, in order not to drown in snow.
Whiteout in Basecamp
After more than 8 days of stormy weather we finally were able to go for another try. Conditions seemed good, but
we found big cracks in the snow below us on the ridge… too big to continue, so we decided to better try earlier in the moring.
On the ridge
All following tries were cut off by the weather – storms coming in, massive snowfall, clouds…
The mountain seemed to no let us come even remotely close to him.
After more days in witheout, half of the crew had to fly out to catch flights back to Europe.
The rest stayed behind for 10 more days, to finally get the summit! More pics and first videos will follow!
Obie at the summit
Stay tuned,
Sebastian
Juni 26th, 2012 an 2:48 pm
I’m glad everyone is returning safely.
That kind of weather can have tragic consequences.
You’re still my favorite Flysurfer dude.
I finally got a whole quiver of used kites! Having a blast with the 19M S3 D. I also own the Unity 6M for nuclear conditions and the 12M S3 S and 15M S2 S(my first FS kite).
This year I talked my friends into buying the following new kites: 1 Unity 6M S, 1 Unity 12M S, 1 Speed 3 D 19M, 1 Unity 10M S, and 1 XL Flydoor! You could verify that with Ted Bautista, USA Importer.
Hey, just wondering if you could ask Armin if he could send me a used, beat up, Flyrace or prototype FR that I could demo at my local kiteboarding locations in NW Oregon USA (Columia River). Maybe I could sell one or two by letting folks try it out?