Lenticular clouds are a source of awe and terror for mountaineers. Awe as they are so surreal looking that they have been mistaken for UFO’s and terror as they signify ripping summit winds.
Courtney Phillips ponders his options as a lenticular cloud forms on the 12,800′ peak of Mt. Crossen.
Patagonia is a contender for the some of the best lenticular clouds in the world, but in the US, Mt. Shasta has some of the most consistent and unique lenticular clouds around. Lenticular clouds are particular to mountains as they are formed by water vapor being condensed or squeezed out of the atmosphere as it passes over high peaks in high winds. In mountaineering terms, lenticulars are warning signs as you can have almost no wind down in the valleys, yet if there is a lenticular cloud on the summit… rat-a-tat-tat hang on to to your hat! The higher you climb, the windier it will get.
In the case of the video below, we started up Mt. Crossen in fairly nice weather, then halfway up, a lenticular cloud started to form on top of the peak. Hmmmm. We kept climbing as there was the option of dumping our loads and coming back for them later, but fortunately the strong winds just held steady and didn’t increase. It is hard to see, but at the summit we are actually in a lenticular cloud, which, like the eye of a hurricane, doesn’t seem so bad. The winds were probably in the 30-40 mph range, which is annoying, but not too bad. I wouldn’t make a habit out of climbing directly into lenticulars, but in this case it worked out and was actually kind of fun.
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I can’t play Hearts or Poker to save my life and have yet to make it through a single crossword or Soduko puzzle, but I do like playing Scrabble and Cribbage. For the sake of our marriage, I hardly ever get to play Scrabble as my main partner is my wife, Polly, who views it as a blood-sport and locks the board up with high scoring two letter words that not only dwarfs my score, but makes it impossible to play anything. Fortunately, Kip is into Scrabble and brought a board, so we played endless rounds will waiting for the weather to clear on Foraker.
Courtney & Kip after game #374.
Courtney claims he was a rank novice, but he says that about a lot of things before instantly picking them up (like skiing). While Kip was the most consistent winner, Courtney had two of the bigger plays, including triples like JESTER with the J on a triple tile and BUXOM which were worth something like 75 points. Noah Howell was also a stellar Scrabble player and probably would have been the glacier champ, except he was only around for a few games.
The video below sums up the Kahiltna Glacier Subterranean Scrabble Championships. Fred, who is Swedish, plays a mean game of Scrab, although having English as a second language can be a distinct, but humorous, disadvantage.
(Caution – strong language)
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Yow! What a great ride that was! Kip Garre, Fred Marmsater, Courtney Phillips and I ended up skiing off the tippy-top of Mt. Foraker (aka Sultana) in the Alaska Mountain Range on Monday morning, June 2nd. We prepaid for our four-day window of good weather with two weeks of sitting in the tents in a crevasse riddled camp while we played Scrabble, read books and drank grit-infused water. It was painful at times, but all of that has been forgotten now and the whole thing was an excellent adventure. A big hug and thanks to Polly for posting update while we were gone.
Alaska Family Values - L to R: Foraker/Sultana (The Mother), Hunter (The Child) and Denali (The Father).
I’m swapping over to a new photo management program (Adobe Lightroom), so my photo editing and posting is a bit behind the curve, however I promise photos and a trip report or two, or three will be forthcoming. In the meantime, I also shot a lot of video, including this little clip of sitting in the tent, on a glacier…. in the rain.
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Last night I got the happy phone call directly from Andrew’s cell phone. They are back in civilization! They had a small window to get to the summit and back before the weather was going to change and they pushed and got it done and got back down safe and sound. I am eagerly awaiting hearing about the trip, seeing photos and hearing about the weather. The Sultana ridge is a very exposed spot- it gets weather from the north and the south. There is no real weather indicators other than their barometers – which I assume they were using and getting updates from the north (Denali recreation forecast) and the south (Talkeetna). But the distances are far and I’m sure that Denali creates it own weather. In any case, they are down and out. So the next post will probably be from the man himself sometime early next week. Even Mira recognizes that he was having fun out there – when we talk about where Daddy is – she says: skiing, wheee! Polly
Looks like they made it safe and sound! Just got a “spot” that they are down back at base camp. My guess is that they took down their camp on the top of Mt. Crosson and made it back down to their main base camp today. Can’t wait to see the pics and hear about their time out there. What a great accomplishment for the entire team and assuming Andrew skied down (and how else would he descend?), he is the only person to have skied Denali (the father), Sultana/Foraker (the mother) and Hunter (the child)! Pretty cool.
I’ve been getting “SPOT” -we’re ok messages from andrew (posted below) and you can see how they have made it up to the top and are on their way down! I also got a voice message from him last night – they were at the base of Foraker on the Sultana Ridge and were planning on pushing through this morning and skiing down today (monday).
As always the weather has been very unpredictable. I’ve been trying to figure out what the denali recreation forecast means, and then what it will mean for them on Foraker. On Denali, a low pressure trough was suppose to come in this afternoon from the South, and then go to the North. Hopefully, it stayed stable enough for them until they can get back to the top of Crosson.
The progression is pretty cool to see – those guys climb fast! They started on Saturday and went strong every day. Looking forward to hearing that they’ve made it all the way down safe and sound, and then hearing about all of their adventures. Way to go!!!!
The weather is fickle. I spoke to Andrew a few nights ago and they were trying to get a handle on the weather. I’ve only been able to get forecasts for Denali and Talkeetna, but there is nothing for Foraker. I guess the weather is always apart of the challenge of an expedition. They need to be able to rely on a couple of non-storm days in order to attempt the climb. The forecasts have talked about a lot of cloudy weather. I’m not sure what that translates to on Foraker. In speaking to a ranger for DNP (Denali Nat’l Park), I was told that Foraker, and the Sultana Ridge in particular was notorious for bad weather. It gets both the weather from Denali and from the South. I received another OK message tonight and they are still at base camp. There is suppose to be a wind event on Friday with winds up to 70 mph.
On a brighter note, Andrew said that they’ve gotten some turns in on Mt. Crosson. And I know they have a lot of food!
I’ve gotten several “we are OK” emails from the Sultana Team. They have all been from their base camp which makes me think that the weather has been bad and they haven’t been able to start their ascent. A look at the Denali Recreation Forecast talks about high pressure on the East side of the mountain, but precipitation and unsettled weather on the west side of Denali. Foraker is in the south west side of Denali.
