Denali Team 3: May 15-June 4 Dispatch #14 . . at Camp 1 - Heading Down

Denali Team 3: May 15 – June 4

Guides: Tom Kirby, and Matt Erpelding

Climbers: Allen Borgardts (Missouri), Robert “Alex” Borgardts (Missouri), Jonathan Fischer (Colorado), David Haimsky (Virginia), Jeffrey Gephart (Michigan), Helle Dam Sorensen (Denmark), Brandon McNalley (Washington), Ryan Canfield (Washington)

Mat called at 9:05am on June 2 with this dispatch:

Team 3 is currently at 7,800 feet, at Camp 1. "We spent the night here last night.  There was no rush to get out.  It's pretty soupy out, cloudy with light rain." Mat sighed and then sarcastically said, "awesome weather."

Mat continued, "we called K2," the flight carrier, "and they said that there are about thirty people waiting to get in and quite a number of people waiting to fly out.  We should be at the airstrip this afternoon, but we might log some tent time at basecamp waiting for the weather to clear.  It could be a few days until we're off the mountain..."

There was some concern from family members that there wasn't a lot of clarity as to who summitted and who didn't.  Mat assured me that all of the people who made it to high camp made the summit.  This includes Allen, Alex, David, Jon F., Jeff, and Ryan.

We did spend approximately ten minutes reading all of your well wishes to the team.  And it appears that everyone is genuinely happy.  That said, we suspect that they will be even happier when the weather clears and when they can fly out, get a shower, a burger and a beer!