Friday, June 10, 2011

Denali Team 6: June 5 to June 25 Dispatch #6
Bacon Grease


Denali Team 6: June 5 to June 25
Guides: Aidan Loehr, Andrew Yasso, and Erin Smart

Climbers: Simon Thomas Gower (Australia), Richard Van Der Sprenkel (UK), Alan Laidlaw (UK), Anna Koufos-Slade (Virginia), Chok Lin Lui (Australia), Kevin Fourie (South Africa), Luke Richmond (Thailand), and Bill Strycharz (Oregon).

Andrew called at 4:30pm on June 10th with this dispatch:

“Hi! Just calling in to make a dispatch. We woke up at 4:30 am to make our cache, but it was so cold, we really didn’t want to leave our tents. I mean, it was really, really cold. REALLY cold. 

"So, we slept in for an hour and Aidan treated everyone to Denali sandwiches...which is bacon, with bagels fried in bacon grease, then cheese, then more bacon grease. Needless to say, we were warmed up after that and headed out a 8 am." 

"Our cache around Windy Corner went well – actually it wasn’t super windy up there today! It took us 4.5 hours to get up and 47 minutes to get down. When you turn around, you can fly!"

"Everyone’s doing really well. Our Team is really enjoying each others company right now. Tomorrow, we’ll move up to 14,000 camp."

"Here is a message from Bill – I touched rock on the West Buttress today. And, the whole team misses Anna, who went down safely yesterday. Talk to you later.”
  

3 comments:

Preets said...

Baby, I hope you are feeling good and acclimatising well. I can't believe this time next week you guys might be at the summit! Not long to go.

I suddenly feel cold over here after reading Andrew's dispatch! Hope all your 'fancy' clothes are keeping you warm enough over there.

Be strong and keep each other motivated. Good luck for the next ascent. I miss you. Preets.

Anonymous said...

Bill: Watch out for the Yeti - Scott

Anna said...

Wishing you the best weather, health and motivation! The mates from the "pick-up" team adopted me...We had a great time in Talkeetna, and took the train to Denali Park for an overnight. The mountain smiled to us every night in Talkeetna. Bitter-sweet feelings... Miss you all!