Entries By ben thorneycroft

Friday, May 23, 2025 - 2:24pm PDT

Yesterday It was a cold, clear morning that promised to warm quickly with the sun. The ridge above looked calm, and everything pointed to a great day to go climbing. We watched a few other teams with similar intentions start out as we packed, and then set out ourselves. We made smooth progress to the fixed lines and then up to the ridge at 16,200. Surprisingly, we found ourselves effectively at the front of the pack, and feeling spry, we continued on along the West Buttress to 17k camp. It is some of the most engaging and interesting climbing on the route, and the views were stunning. We dropped our small caches at 17 and headed back for 14. It was a long, big-effort day, but 9.5 hours of work got the job done and got us back to camp happy and hungry. We’ll take a rest day tomorrow and then start looking for our summit window.

RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben, and Team

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - 10:29 pm PT

Things started to turn nicer up on our big hill. The snow and clouds blew out today, winds quieted, and we spent the day addressing logistical hurdles. The first was that we found out last night that the downline of the fixed lines hadn’t been freed of its icy tomb, so there was a rope going up but not down- recipe for a traffic jam. We made a plan with teams from AMS to send a couple of guides from each team up to sledge hammer out the lines. Accordingly that meant we couldn’t go for a carry as a team. Additionally another guided team needed a guide loan to get their back carry in. So, Nick helped another team with their carry, got back in time for Ben and Pete to head uphill, then Nick took the group to the Edge of the World to look down on the lower Kahiltna Glacier and our first camp at Ski Hill. We were all reunited this evening over a tortellini dinner, and we’ll assess whether to get our carry in tomorrow!

Full team day.

RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben, and team

PC: Pete Van Deventer, Edge of the World. From Previous Expedition

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - 9:59 pm PT

We had a brief burst of excitement waking up this morning as it was clearer than it’s been in awhile, but as we watched and inspected more closely, it was quite clear that the wind was quite strong along the West Buttress. We continued to watch and hope, but by mid morning it was evident that today was a day to rest. The sun did spend a good amount of time out, turning the tents into saunas. Several skiers in camp also went for laps below the fixed lines, so we watched the ski show as well. We’ll keep getting up early to check and see if it is our day and when it presents, the team is primed and ready!

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Monday, May 19, 2025 - 6:37 pm PT

We took a full and proper rest day today. It has been snowing more or less all day in camp, and the winds started to pick up a bit this afternoon. That made it easy to take a long breakfast, rest and read in tents, and take naps throughout the day. We spent a bit of time building some snow walls, which everyone got quite excited about, and some more time reviewing fixed line techniques for when we go higher. We are working on a reindeer sausage jambalaya for dinner, and we'll see if the snow and wind let up over night.

RMI Guides Pete, Nick, Ben and team

Sunday, May 18, 2025 - 11:35 pm PT

Cache retrieval complete! It was an in and out snowy day, at time hot, at times cold, but winds stayed light so we bopped back to 13,500ft and retrieved our goodies. The rest of the day we rested and took stock. Most realized they have some work ahead to catch up on lunch food eating. Tomorrow looks snowy so we’ll take a full rest day, probably build some walls, and Ben has a short seminar called “get your fix” to get everyone ready for the fixed lines above. And though this will post tomorrow morning, Brian wants to wish Lacey a very happy anniversary (and we wish the same to them both!). 

Best from 14,000' Camp to everyone at home,
RMI Guides Pete, Ben, Nick, and team

Sunday, May 18, 2025 - 1:41 pm PT

We woke up yesterday and though there were thick clouds above that moved in and out, it was clear that the air was incredibly calm. We packed up camp shouldered some heavy loads, and said goodbye to our camp at 11,000'. We were in those clouds nearly all the way to 14,000', but they were holding in the solar gain and it was one of the hottest days of the trip. Overall, it was quite smooth and we made it to 14,000' Camp yesterday evening, set up camp, and crashed for a night of well deserved rest. It’s great to finally be at 14,000'. This is our home away from home, where we’ll rest, acclimate, get strong, and wait for our shot at the summit. The views out over the rest of the range are stunning. We’re prepping right now for a quick trip back to 13,500' to grab our cache, and then we’ll rest the remainder of the day. It’s starting to snow lightly and the next couple of days do look snowy.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Friday May 16, 2025 11:10 pm PDT

We had the perfect rest day. It was in turns quite snowy, whiteout and incredibly hot, and blue and calm. We crushed a breakfast hash scramble, then some cinnamon buns, then lingered in the cook tent swapping stories and stretching. That gave way to midday siesta/saunas. Eventually Nick and Ben got motivated and dug a pit to hang skis over and make a passable pull-up bar (#lookatmenowpaul). Video evidence was collected of numbers 100 and 101 from both Ben and Nick. No wasting away and getting weak on Denali for those two. A good dinner, and we’re hoping to wake to weather that lets us make the next move.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer & Team

Thursday, May 15, 2025 9:49 pm PDT

In the words of Thornjamin “when we awoke the weather was like nahhh, but then it was like jahhh”, and we carried to 13,500’.

It was windy when we woke but it quieted enough to convince us to go walking and turned out to be a quite smooth day. Tomorrow looks snowy and we intend to chill hard. These are times that lead us to say thanks to those in our life providing a multitude of remote weather advice, especially to Henry, whose whiteboard of weather models, maps, sharpies, and seemingly random red lines have yielded incredibly accurate results. Ask him how he does it?

But in all seriousness, we are psyched to have a cache up high and be looking at a rest day tomorrow. Things are going smoothly, the snow makes climbing quite forgiving for this time of year, and temps have been balmy (relatively) as well.

Best from 11,000’,

RMI Guides Thornjamin Bennycroft, Nick, Pete, and Team

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 - 7:34 pm PT

It’s been a quiet, calm day here at 11,000 ft Camp. We slept in as sun doesn’t reach camp until 9:20 AM, though it never gets dark either, and then cooked up some blueberry pancakes. That started the conversation of Canadian or Vermont maple syrup of which there is only one correct answer. But all agreed New York maple syrup loses to both. We set out just after noon for a quick and light mission to retrieve our cache from below. The rest of the day has been spent relaxing and resting after a big couple of days on the lower Kahiltna. We are now done for the time being with sleds and snowshoes - and there was much rejoicing. It’s snowing lightly in camp and there are snow showers in the forecast for the next several days, so we’ll look for the right moment to get our cache put in at 13,500'.

RMI Guides Pete, Ben, Nick, and team.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025  - 10:27 pm PT

11,200’ is our new home! We weren’t entirely psyched when we woke this morning as there was a thick cloud bank and ripping winds where we needed to go. We did a partial pack and stalled and waited. As the sun climbed and warmed our camp, the clouds began to rise, and the wind began to die. That was enough for us - we pulled the rest of the camp down, loaded up sleds (all have names, goose and Tinkerbell are a few) and started uphill.

We had as smooth and steady of a climb as we could wish for and rolled into 11k this evening after a 7-hour walk. We are happily dug in and working towards dinner. Tomorrow we’ll go back to retrieve our cache which is a short day, and then be set to keep looking uphill.

RMI Guides Pete, Ben, Nick, and Team