A quick update

Hey all,

It has been quite awhile since our last update. Winslow is trying to organize the pictures so I won't post any here, but you can click on our web albums and check out the photos we have posted there.
Winslow returned from Nepal the end of April. Three days later she had knee surgery. Nothing too bad, just a little meniscus clean up and bone scraping. Less than a week later we were off for AK. We were excited to have time to visit our friends Jimmie and Laura's place (they are the homesteaders/sailors some of you have heard us tell stories). They have an amazing organic garden and a few quaint little cabins in the woods north of Denali National Park.
Winslow's recovery was fast, just 2.5 weeks after the surgury we were off to climb the southwest ridge of Peak 11,300. We flew to the Mountain House in the Ruth Gorge and skied 3 miles to the base of the climb. The next day we got an alpine start and summitted in less than 8 hours, beating our own estimated time by nearly four hours. So decided to head part way down. We had brought bivy gear, but only two sleeping bags and a very small tent and there were three of us. Our friend Leighann was with us as well and we were going light.
The snow was super soft after a long sunny Alaskan day, making the snow ball up on the bottoms of our crampons. This made the down climbing very slow and quite dangerous, so after two hours of this we decided it would be best to bivy and continue in the early morning when the snow would be frozen. We were tightly packed in like sardines, and sleep did not come easily, but we were warm. The next morning we finished the descent in a couple of hours uneventfully.
The following day we woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast, where we hatched plans to climb and ski a coulior nearby. It was great and maybe even more fun than the climb.
That afternoon we skied down to the mountain house and flew back to Talkeetna. A quick trip, but I had to start packing for my Denali trip.
Winslow took a few rest days and then flew back into the Ruth with a friend Meagan and attempted Mt. Dan Beard. They made it to within a couple hours of the summit where heavy snow fall made them turn around. They did not want to get avalanched off, good decision don't you think?
Winslow then climbed London tower in the lower Ruth Gorge and flew back to Talkeetna. She packed and headed out just as my group was making it's summit bid. It was great to run into Winslow and her crew as they were headed up and we were headed down. It was our ten year wedding anniversary and this was a close as we thought we might get to celebrating, a hug and a kiss as we passed on the glacier.
When I got off the plane a friend Dave Morton was waiting for me, We had plans to fly back in and climb the Cassin Ridge (It is a technical and committing route on Denali). I had hoped for a few days rest, but the weather looked good so after just one day of rest we flew back onto the Kahiltna glacier and began our climb. We climbed from our camp in the northeast fork to the summit and down to 14,000' camp in 3 days and 2 nights.
Winslow had made it to 14,000' with her group by now. We contacted her by radio and she said she had hamburgers and hot drinks waiting for us. So Dave and I kicked in the overdrive and high tailed it to her camp.
The climb was awesome, challenging and eye opening. But when I got to the 14,000' camp and had a hamburger in one hand and Winslow beside me, as they say on the commercial "priceless".
Winslow finished her Denali trip and I headed back to Seattle. The season Washington is beginning to wrap up and we are beginning our own little vacation. We are planning to do a bunch of climbing. We'll update after our vacation.