Denali Team 5: June 13–July 3
Guides: Paul Ivaska, Richard Riquelme, Kristen Looper
Apprentice: Andrew Yasso
Climbers: Walt, Ann, and Luke Hampton (Canton, Connecticut), Caitriona Strain (Burnfoot, Ireland), Brendan McDyer (Glenties, Ireland), Skye O'Donnell (Sydney, Australia), Colin Stalnecker (Chicago, Illinois), Ryan Derrigan (Rickmansworth, England), and Stephen Williams (Oxon, United Kingdom)
Paul called on Monday, June 21st, at 4:15pm Pacific time with the following update. Posting of this update was delayed because Blogspot made some access and administrative changes to their software that left us without access until now. Sorry for the delay!
“Hello again. This is Paul calling from 14,000 feet. We arrived here yesterday at 5:00pm and had a good evening together. The team did really well. It was calm coming around Windy Corner, and we were grateful for that.
Today we did a back carry, bringing up supplies from our 13,500-foot cache. The itinerary for the rest of today has been a hike out to the "Edge of the World" for the great views. Tomorrow we’ll do fixed line practice, and on Wednesday we hope to climb the face of the Buttress and put in our cache at 16,000 feet.
The weather is very nice and the forecast is looking pretty good, so we’re all very happy about that. It looks like it will be a drier week over the next seven days than this past week which was not good at all. Winds are predicted to be 10-30 miles per hour for the next couple of days. That’s not too bad. How much of a problem the wind is depends on the temperature. Today at the 17,200-foot high camp the high temp was 10 degrees Fahrenheit; the low was –5 last night. The summit has a cloud cap today. The wind isn’t too bad, but visibility is an issue up there.
Here are some messages from us to you. First off, everyone says thanks for sending the messages. It’s a lot of fun to get them.
From Steve: Love to my family and happy belated Father’s Day! Enjoy Glastonbury!
From Luke to Abby: I’m safe. Watch your phone tomorrow. 1434
From Brendan: Happy belated Father’s Day. Lots of love. All is well.
From Colin: Happy Father’s Day!
Ann and Walt: We send greetings to the head jammers and lady head jammers and to our climbing friend Patrick Kral. And Happy Father’s Day!
From Ryan: Happy Father’s Day to Robert and Gary!
That’s it for now. We’ll call again when we can."
We were able to pass on messages posted by Ryan, Rachel, and Trisha on Dispatch #9, and from the Dispatch #8 posted June 18, the comments posted there by rowingmum, Jim, antipodean, Abbey, Laura, Thisha, Katie, Birdie and Hugh, and Cary. Messages for Caitriona were not passed on because she has decided to head down the mountain (in the care of another guided group that was going down; our understanding is that is was a general decision she made and not a health decision).
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6 comments:
Andrew, We are following you closely. We love to read the updates. Dad and I miss you but are glad your enjoying yourself. Stay safe, warm and dry. Big hugs from your mama. XOXO
Luke, i'm glad you're safe. and i've been watching my phone for the past 2 days! (: hope to talk to ya today! 1434
Walt, Ann & Luke: we R following your progress on the blog.
Remeber the Route Goes UP! - Hope you brought enough FUEL.
Great progress so far. Stay Safe
DTT & the girls
Ryan,
Glad to hear things are going well so far. Stay safe.
DD
Hey guys, I'm back down in talkeetna and stuffing my face. I drank d Swiss Alaska Inn out of diet coke this morning. Wishing u all good weather for a successful summit and hope Brendan and Luke are still keeping up my high standards of tent etiquette!! Luv Caitxx
Steve – updates are great & sounds as if you are all doing so well. Missing you lots – the house is very quiet without you. My Mum sends her love. I’m looking forward to spending some time with her at the weekend. Take care & stay safe. Lots of love & a big hug, Katie xx
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