A view of Denali while they crew was hunkered down

I woke up at Camp 1 the first morning that the crew was at High Camp and looked up in almost horror at the upper portions of Denali. The pioneer Alaska explorer and climber Bradford Washburn would have described the cloud covering the upper mountain as a "Lenticularis Sonofabitchicus." I don't mean to offend, but what he meant was that the lenticular cloud is representative of extremely high winds. When I saw this, I didn't even bother trying to raise the team on the radio, as I knew they weren't going anywhere. This is the sort of weather that Denali can throw at a team, and this crew is to be commended for hanging tough for a week in this sort of wind.

In Talkeetna

They are all out of the mountains and in the relative civilization of Talkeetna.  They are obviously a bit disappointed, but it sounds like they had a great trip.  They will spend the night in Talkeetna tonight probably eating and drinking too much, and then back to Anchorage tomorrow and on home. 

Good effort to all of the climbers, sorry for your bad luck with the weather.

Coming Down

Well I'm sure they are all a bit disappointed, but they gave it a great shot.  They left from high camp yesterday afternoon and descended to 14,000 camp.   They had been at high camp for a week, and watched a bunch of snow fall and the wind blow up high for most of their stay.  High camp is a tough place to hang out and most groups are pretty tired and weakened by the end of a 7 day stay at that altitude.  The forecast isn't looking good thru the weekend and it sounds like everyone was ready to come on down.  

Sometimes it just comes down to luck on Denali...   They did everything they could to position themselves to summit, they worked very hard to get there, and the weather shut them down.  

They will be working their way down to basecamp in the next day or so and fly out to Talkeetna by the end of the week.

Another Stormy Day...

Talked to Zach again this morning, and they are not going to be able to summit again today.  The forecast is not looking promising for the next few days, and they are running out of days.  They have been up there for 7 days now, and may have to make some hard decisions soon.  Hopefully they get a break in the weather soon.

Same Story...

They are hanging tough at high camp, which is a beautiful place, but not the most comfortable spot in the world to spend many days.  

We'll hope for a break in the weather soon.

Windy up High

Another day of high winds prevented them from attempting the summit on Saturday.   They'll hope to get a shot today...   

Not Today

Zach called still hanging at high camp today.  There were some high winds up over the summit today, not a good summit day...

They'll be ready to try again tomorrow.

Sue says" Hello to the staff and patients at the Kidney Center of Columbus South.  You're the best!!"

High Camp

They enjoyed a beautiful day at high camp, resting and acclimating for their summit attempt.   Zach said everyone was feeling great today, and walked around enjoying the spectacular views from camp.

They will try for the summit tomorrow!

High Camp Today!

Zach called from High Camp just a few minutes ago.  They moved up today in beautiful weather and are settling in for a rest day tomorrow.  There are some tired climbers up there, but everyone is doing great. 

They hope to summit as early as Friday!  

Paul Ruedi wants to pass a hello on to his family.

Rest Day at 14,000 ft

The team took a well deserved rest/acclimitization day today, and are hoping to move up to high camp tomorrow.  

Up to 14,000 ft

Zach called and they are already at 14,000 ft camp this afternoon.   The weather is great, temps are reasonably warm, and everyones doing good.   They'll set up a pretty comfortable camp here and be here for 3 or 4 nights before moving to high camp.

Windy Corner

Just got off the Sat Phone with Zach, and they are all doing great.  They carried a load of food and fuel up around the notorious Windy Corner in great weather today and made a cache at 13,500 ft. 

They have enjoyed warm(ish) temps and good weather and will move on up to 14,000 camp tomorrow.

At 11,000

They made it to Camp 2 at 11,000 ft today.   The team is moving great and everyone is feeling good.  Tomorrow they will go back down the hill to 10,500 ft to pick up the cache they left yesterday and move this cache up to camp.  This is called a "backcarry" and is one of the ways to break up the long days of hauling loads, and a great way to acclimate.  

On The Glacier!

The team flew into basecamp yesterday, and they took off for Camp 1 this morning. They travelled the 5+ miles up the Kahiltna glacier to 7,800ft. They carried all of the food, fuel, clothes, tents, kitchen, etc. for the next 20 days, so these loads were big.