Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #5

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2

Guides: Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers: Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Mike Pond called on Saturday at 7:04pm Alaska time with the following update:

“Hi.  This is Mike Pond calling from Team Excellence on Denali.  We’re at 11,200 camp – we got here this morning.  We’re on a night schedule still, and it’s working great. It’s beautiful out, and we’ve had  excellent traveling conditions.  It’s nice and cold at night, so the snowpack is very firm.  In the day, it’s sunny and fairly warm.  The team has been climbing extremely well together, and we’re made really good progress. 

We’re going to cache tomorrow.

I have two shout outs for you.

Dennis says 'Hi' to Job [? – hard to hear in the message]  and Hanna and Jason [? Hard to hear – Ethan?]

Leslie says to Tina, ‘Things are good!’

And I’d like to close with a haiku:

Clear and cloudless skies

Cold at night, but hot in day

Such is the way here

That’s it for today!”

[laughter]