In Talkeetna!

The team has all flown from the glacier to the little hamlet of Talkeetna. They plan to spend the evening in town and will drive back to Anchorage tomorrow. It is a bit of an abrupt transition to go from the heart of the Alaska Range to downtown Anchorage too quickly.

I'll try to get the guides to add a post or two, and will encourage everyone to send me photos to add to this dispatch blog, but for now...that's all folks!

On their way to Base Camp

One of the guides from another Mountain Trip team called an hour ago, and reported that the crew had recently passed through Camp 1 at 7,800'. Temperatures are fairly cold, so the glacier between Camp 1 and Base Camp should be in good shape. They should arrive in the next few hours, and the weather looks great for flying!

Not much beats flying out from the glacier early in the morning, catching a quick shower, and heading down to the Talkeetna Roadhouse to challenge your appetite against their whopping "Full Talkeetna Standard" breakfast. Few, but Denali climbers, are up to the task...

The suspense is over!

I just received third-hand news from the team and we know know who made the summit.

Jack Strickland, Babptista Kwok and Martin Douthitt all reached the summit the day before yesterday.

I do not know the circumstances surrounding Christian, however he and the rest of the team are all at Camp 3 at 14,200' (4328 m), and should be descending shortly. They planned on sleeping late today, and will pack up and head down to Camp 1 at 7,800' (2380 m) this afternoon or evening, Alaska Time. Guide Bill Dwyer needed to get back for personal reasons, so he descended through the night last night and is currently in Talkeetna.

Congratulations to all the team. Climbing Denali is a lot of hard work and you all did great!

I'll keep posting as I receive updates on their descent.

Messages from 17,200 feet

I just received a barely intelligible message from Greg Nappi. Some of the climbers would like us to pass along the following messages. I'm sorry that I still can not give any more information as to who summitted, because I am still not certain. So much for high tech satellite communication!

Here are the messages:

Jack Strickland: (admittedly plagiarizing Sir Edmund Hillary) "We knocked the bastard off!"

Baptista: "To the Apex Dental staff, friends and family, and Christine, we're doing well and coming downtoday."

Christian: "To Krista and Franz, we're OK and coming down!"

A view from the top!

Here is a video I shot in 2007 from the summit of Denali on a day very similar to the one the crew experienced yesterday.

Summit!!!

I received word that the team made a push for the summit yesterday (Sunday, June 28) and that three of the four climbers made it to the summit!

Sorry for the suspense, but I do not know who the three climbers were, or which of the guides went to the top with them. The day looked like a beautiful summit day, so their views from the top of North America must have been absolutely stunning.

The route up from High Camp ascends a long, rising traverse up to a saddle that separated the north and south summits of Denali. From this saddle (Denali Pass), the team made a hard right hand turn and climbed up through some rolling terrain to reach a large plateau at 19,500, known as the Football Field. The Football Field is a great place to rest up and re-group for the push up to the summit ridge. There is a steep 500' hill to climb which puts the climbers on the knife edged summit ridge that leads to the summit. The climbing through the last several hundred feet is spectacular and very engaging, with big drop offs of either side of the ridge.

Congratulations to all the climbers for their hard work. I'll post more details as I receive them.

Still at High Camp

The team woke up to -15 F (-22 C) temperatures this morning, which is unseasonably cold for Denali. The wind higher up was ferocious and they sat tight and watched as clouds steamed past.

Tomorrow will be their 20th day on the mountain, and they are feeling all the emotions and pressures associated with spending so long in such an unforgiving environment. Hopefully the weather will improve and they will get a chance to head for the top tomorrow.

Today was a classic example of how the weather forecast can be completely wrong. It sure looked like a good day on the weather site, but I guess Denali does not get internet, and missed last night's weather call, because it did not cooperate.

Hang tough up there, fellows!