Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Final Dispatch

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)


Andrew Yasso called on Thursday, May 31 at 9:50am PST with the following dispatch: 


"Hey everyone!  We are all safe and sound back in Talkeetna.  We had a great team lunch/dinner last night, and I wanted to send you this quick image of the team.  

I had a great time climbing with you all, and wish you well in your future mountain adventures!"

Denali Team 5: May 27 to June 16 - Dispatch # 4

Guides: Alasdair Turner, Chad Cochran, Higinio Gonzalez

Climbers: Mary Neave (UK), James Neave (UK), Alex Round (UK), Daniel Hughes (UK), Knut Heggland (Norway), Guy Manning (Cayman Islands), Michael Rieder (Idaho)

Chad called May 30th at 5:15pm PST from Camp 1:


"Hey, it's Chad calling.  Things are going well ... we cached food and fuel at 10,000 feet today, somewhat below Kahiltna Pass.  Now we're back at Camp 1 getting ready to eat our dinner of burritos. 


"Everyone is looking really strong ... it's impressive.  The whole team is very fit. 


"Tomorrow we head up to Camp 2 at 11,200 ft.


"Okay, gotta go!"

Denali Team 4: May 20-June 9 - Dispatch #7

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele


Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)



AAI Guide Paul Ivaska called at 12:30pm on Wednesday May 30th.

Paul called from camp at 14,000 feet on Denali.  The plan was to complete a cache today at 16,000 feet.  Unfortunately, the weather had a different plan.

It is extremely windy up high.  So the team has decided to stay at camp and has been reinforcing snow walls.

Manish Kumar left Team 4 the other day and descended to basecamp with Team 3. He was having some problems acclimatizing.  In any case, all of Team 4 wanted to let Manish know that they thought he was a great team-mate and that they will miss him on the summit...

There were a few other messages:

Michael would like to thank his mother for being born...  It wasn't clear in the message whether Michael was thanking his mother for her birth or for his.  But he definitely wanted to say thank-you!

Jane wanted to say hi to Ian and to Mum from 14 camp.

And Brian says hi to his mom, sis, and to Chuck back in Oz.

Denali Team 5: May 27-June 16 - Dispatch #3

Guides: Alasdair Turner, Chad Cochran, Higinio Gonzalez

Climbers: Mary Neave (UK), James Neave (UK), Alex Round (UK), Daniel Hughes (UK), Knut Heggland (Norway), Guy Manning (Cayman Islands), Michael Rieder (Idaho)

Chad Cochran called at 9:40am on May 30th with the following dispatch:

The team found a window through the clouds and successfully made their way to the glacier by noon yesterday.  They unloaded as quickly as possible and elected to get to work climbing the mountain right away.

By 1pm the team was moving toward camp one, making a single carry.  In other words, they were carrying all of their gear instead of moving part of the gear and then returning later.  Exhausted, the team arrived in camp at 6pm where they eagerly wolfed down cheeseburgers.

Today the team is going to complete a carry to 10,000 feet where they will bury a cache.  Then tomorrow they will attempt to move up to 11,000 feet.  This strategy should get the team back on track.

Everybody is strong and excited to be on the mountain. The entire team is in great spirits!

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #16

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Guide Andrew Yasso called on May 30 at 9:00am PST with the following dispatch: Team 3 is down now. We retreated through the night to a beautiful sunset. The light was glaring off of freshly fallen snow and there was pink light on Mt. Foraker and the Alaska range. It was really spectacular. We're just keeping our fingers crossed for a flight off the Kahiltna soon. Now we're having adult beverages and snacking while we wait to fly.

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #15

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Guide Andrew Yasso called on  Tuesday May 29th at 11:45am PST with the following dispatch: Right now we're at 14,200 feet about to make a huge breakfast of all leftover food. Bacon, egg, salsa, rice, beans cheddar mozz. fried up in a buttered Tortilla. We're heading to base camp between 8 and 10pm tonight. We want to take advantage of colder temps for safety and comfort. Once we're down we'll dig up our cache and have some celebratory libations.

Eating and sleeping is the only goal for today. Thanks for all the comments everybody we're looking forward to getting out and talking to you all soon.

Denali Team 5: May 27 to June 16 - Dispatch #2

Guides: Alasdair Turner, Chad Cochran, Higinio Gonzalez

Climbers: Mary Neave (UK), James Neave (UK), Alex Round (UK), Daniel Hughes (UK), Knut Heggland (Norway), Guy Manning (Cayman Islands), Michael Rieder (Idaho)

Guide Alasdair Turner called May 29th at 9:00am PST with the following dispatch: Hi this Alasdair calling from Talkeetna. We are still waiting to fly into the glacier. We actually got up in the air and flew a bit yesterday but still couldn't get into the glacier. The glacier is plugged with clouds so they can't land. There are at least 50 people stacked up in Talkeetna waiting to fly in and it's looking promising today so hopefully we'll be calling from the Kahiltna soon.

Denali Team 4: May 20th - June 9th - Dispatch #6

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele


Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)


Guide Jeremy Allyn called Monday May 28th at 11:46am PST with this dispatch: Hi all this is Jeremy calling from Camp 3 at 14,200 ft on behalf of team four on Monday morning. We got in at a pretty reasonable hour last night and set up our camp. We are going to build up our snow walls and pick up our cache today. The weather is cold it was about minus ten last night and sunny today. There are light winds on the summit it looks like so we are hoping to see Angela and her team soon. We had a huge burrito meal last night and bagel sandwiches this morning. Everyone is fed and happy, so all is well. We will check in tomorrow. 

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #14

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Guide Angela Seidling called on Monday May 28th at 10:50am PST with the following dispatch: Hey everybody it’s Angela from Team 3. We had a successful summit day yesterday. We summited at about 7pm. The Entire team made it to the top in some of the warmest calmest weather I’ve ever seen up here. It was a pretty awesome day. We all made it back to camp around midnight and had a late dinner. 


We are kind of having a lazy morning and eventually we will pack up camp here and head back down the mountain to camp 3 at 14,200 feet and maybe spend the night there or continue on, we’ll just see how we feel. Hello to everyone back home. We missed you all very much and look forward to talking to everyone soon.

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #12.5

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

(...with apologies, I overlooked this message so it is out of order.)

Guide Andrew Yasso called on May 25th at 9:22pm PST with the following dispatch: Today was an excellent day we got to get intimately knowledgeable of our tents. Our tents have four pockets, two doors one at the front and one at the back. A good area at the front for cooking. If you don’t get it by now we spent a lot of time in our tents today. The wind is blowing pretty hard and drifting the snow around. We just focused on keeping eating right, drinking lots of water and keeping our mental spirits high. The forecast is looking about the same for the next few days. We may or may not get an attempt at the summit but we are trying our best to keep dry and stay positive while we wait for our shot at it.

-On a personal note I’d like to congratulate Natasha for her job offer at Harvard. Way to go!

Denali Team 5: May 27 to June 16 - Dispatch #1

Guides: Alasdair Turner, Chad Cochran, Higinio Gonzalez

Climbers: Mary Neave (UK), James Neave (UK), Alex Round (UK), Daniel Hughes (UK), Knut Heggland (Norway), Guy Manning (Cayman Islands), Michael Rieder (Idaho)

Alasdair Turner called May 27th at 7:54pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey there it’s Alasdair and we have abandoned our climb for the day. The weather is not allowing us to fly in so we are going to try again in the morning at 8 am.

Denali Team 4: May 20th - June 9th - Dispatch # 5

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele


Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)


Guide Jeremy Allyn called May 26th at 4:15 pm PST with this dispatch: Jeremy Allyn calling from our cache at 13,500 feet, just past Windy Corner. We have a bunch of messages to shout out to people back home. We'll save those for a second though. 


Right now we're going to hightail it down to Camp 2 for some dinner. We left this morning and it was super cold and clear after getting about a foot of snow yesterday. The weather is deteriorating so we'll see what the morning bears and hopefully we'll move to Camp 2 tomorrow; Sunday. Everything is looking solid. Over and out.



-Manish wants to say happy 75th Birthday to his dad and love to Joshna and Artya (spelling?) he loves you the most.


-Jeff says: Tanya, Tiffany, Chloe and the ducks miss you all.


-Greg sends love to Melissa and Nian (spelling?)

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #13

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Guide Andrew Yasso called on May 26th at 5:30pm PST with the following dispatch: 

Hi this is Andrew calling from High Camp at 17,200 feet on Denali. We woke up to clear blue skies and pretty amazing conditions. We said alright everyone get ready lets go, and then the winds started to pick up and the weather turned so it turned into a hurry up and wait situation.


We pretty much get one shot at the mountain and we've got a couple days to wait for more ideal conditions so we decided not to rush it. We're just hanging out, resting up, watching the weather, eating lots of food, and drinking lots of water. We're staying healthy and hopefully we'll take a shot at it tomorrow. Every one else is doing well they're just taking photos, reading books, all the little things you do when you're just sitting around camp. We'll talk to you soon. 

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #12

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Guide Andrew Yasso called May 24th at 9:29pm PST with the following dispatch: Hi everybody back home this is Andrew Calling from high camp at 17,200 feet on Denali. We made our move to high camp today. I was able to catch back up to the team after doing some hitchhiking on the lower Kahiltna. 

The weather was decent but then as we got onto the ridge it was kind of like we were inside a ping pong ball; a little bit of a white out. We're in camp we're settling in getting ready for a rest day tomorrow. We'll probably check in again tomorrow. Depending on what the weather does we'll be making our summit bid in the next few days here. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for following us and we'll look forward to hopefully giving you good news soon.

Denali Team 4: May 20 to June 9 - Dispatch # 4

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele


Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)

Paul Ivaska called at 4:18 Alaska time with the following update:


"Greetings everyone!  We just arrived at Camp 2 and established camp.  Everyone is doing very well.  Tomorrow we'll do a back carry.  We got the cache in pretty high, so we're not going to have to drop down very far to retrieve it and bring the supplies here to Camp 2.  As a result, tomorrow will almost be like a rest day.  It will be a good day, no doubt about it.

Here are some messages for folks back home:

Roland says, 'Hi Mum!'

Lloyd says, 'Love and peace to Ivy, my three girls, and all family and friends following me.'

Jane says, 'Hi mom - so far so good.  Lots of love, hugs, and kisses.'

That's it for now.  We'll keep you posted on how we are doing.  Ok, bye for now."

Denali Team 2: May 6 to May 26 - Dispatch #12

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Alan Rousseau

Climbers: Garry McMahon (UK), Roy Cursley (UK), Kayla Cooper (Washington), Damon Vincent (Missouri), Greg Lamarche (B), Margaret St. Hill (Australia), Vijay Kumar (New Jersey), Christine Burke (Australia)

Mike Pond called on May 24th at 2pm  PST with the following dispatch: We are back in Talkeetna safe and sound. Overall it was a really good expedition and the team did excellent. Congratulations to Chris on summiting her sixth of the seven summits and good luck on your seventh!

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch # 11

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Angela Seidling called at 2:20 PST on May 23, 2012 with the following dispatch: 

"Hi, It's Angela.  We're making good progress! Yesterday we ascended the fixed lines above Camp 3 and cached food and fuel at 16,200 feet to prepare for a trip up to high camp.  It was a classic Denali day ... cold temps, wind, snow.  And the team did great.  It was definitely a hard day of climbing and everyone stayed psyched. 

"We're all a little melancholy though ... we were sad to see three members of our mountain family head down.  The cook tent is a little less lively at dinner time.


"So ... today we're taking a rest day, but we'll be working to fortify the camp ... build a few walls, reinforce others.  There's a little bit of weather coming in.  So we'll just have to hunker down and wait for a window.


"Take care, over and out!"

Denali Team 4: May 20 to June 9 - Dispatch # 3

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele


Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)


Jeremy Allyn called at about 1:15 pm PST with this dispatch:


"Hey, it's Jeremy...  We are digging our cache hole at about 10,500 feet, just below Kahiltna Pass.  We sledded some food and fuel up from 7800' under mostly clear skies, a super nice day, really.  Made it up here in about four hours.  We were pretty surprised that the morning dawned clear ... we had 3 inches of snow yesterday moving to Camp 1 and over last night.


"So back to Camp 1 this afternoon ... already looking forward to Mediterranean Cous-cous.  Then we'll move up to Camp 2 at 11,200 tomorrow.


"Andrew Yasso is with us ... he had taken Michael, Carol, and David from his team back to the airstrip ... he hitched a ride with us today and is hitching on with another team now to rejoin his group at 14.


"Gotta go.  Take Care."

Denali Team 2: May 6 to May 26 - Dispatch #10

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Alan Rousseau

Climbers: Garry McMahon (UK), Roy Cursley (UK), Kayla Cooper (Washington), Damon Vincent (Missouri), Greg Lamarche (B), Margaret St. Hill (Australia), Vijay Kumar (New Jersey), Christine Burke (Australia)

Mike Pond called May 23rd at 11:00am PST with the following dispatch: Hooray! Our summit team consisting of Chris, Roy, Kayla and Greg guided by Mike and Alan summited yesterday. It took us 11 hours round trip. 

We were very skeptical as the weather wasn't looking very good at all. There were lenticulars everywhere and there was wind and snow so it definitely felt like we might have to turn around at any point if the weather deteriorated. It turned out that as we got higher and higher the weather just kept getting nicer. We felt exceptionally fortunate. The views from the summit were spectacular. There was a cloud layer up to 14,000 feet so everyone lower on the mountain was socked in. 

We were descending with the setting sun over the cloud layer below and peaks in the distance. Truly amazing. 

Thanks for all your messages from home, the team will be really excited to hear these and we will try to call later today and deliver some new messages to all of you out there. 


We're sorry that our dispatches have been so spotty. Our phone has not been performing well in the cold so it's been very hard to make calls. We usually get cut off before we ever really get connected. That said, we've been reporting sparingly to save our battery and keep the phone as warm as possible in case of any emergencies. We are hoping to fly out to talkeetna tomorrow night so you should all be hearing from us soon.

Denali Team 2: May 6 to May 26 - Dispatch #9

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Alan Rousseau

Climbers:  Roy Cursley (UK), Kayla Cooper (Washington), Damon Vincent (Missouri), Greg Lamarche (B),  Christine Burke (Australia)

Mike Pond called Monday May 21st at 7:24pm PST with the following dispatch: This is Mike with Team 2. We are getting excited for our summit attempt tomorrow. For the last two days, yesterday and today, parties have been reasonably successful. 

It's pretty windy up there so that's going to be the biggest barrier to overcome. That compiled with fairly cold temperatures will make for fairly challenging conditions up there. That said, there's no storm coming so at least that's good. All of our five remaining people are fairly strong. Chris, Kayla, Greg and Roy. They're all feeling really strong, and are pumped up to have our chance at the summit. We're just doing our final preparations this evening and plan on leaving tomorrow about 10am. That should put us on the summit, at the latest, at about 7pm. Best wishes to everyone out there, we know you're rooting for us, so thanks a lot and talk to you tomorrow. 

Denali Team 4: May 20-June 9 - Dispatch #2

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele

Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)

Jeremy just called in and started a dispatch. The first thing he said is that he left his mother's and his girlfriend's numbers back in Talkeetna and wanted them to send them to us. We can give him their numbers when he calls next time. So Ms. Allyn and Laura, it would be great if you two could email Jason your phone numbers at jason@alpineinstitute.com.

Jeremy went on to say that they were going to have dinner in about an hour (veggie burgers) and plan on leaving for Camp 1 early in the morning. It was very hot on the glacier today, and the best way to avoid wallowing in slush will be to leave at two or three in the morning.

There is a bit of snow in the forecast, so it's likely that the heat on the lower mountain will subside in the next couple of days.

--Jason Martin

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)


Guide Andrew Yasso called on Monday, May 21st at 12:45 pm PST with the following dispatch: 

We are all moved in at the 14,000' camp today and have the camp fortified with bombproof snow walls.  The team will spend today practicing fixed line skills that we'll need higher up on the mountain.  Everyone has worked super hard to get to this point.  The altitude has been particularly tough on Michael, Carol, and David.  All three are having trouble catching their breath in the thin air and they've decided  to head down today with me. 

The 14 camp is a gorgeous place and it is an awesome achievement for these three to have made it up this high.  The four of us should be in basecamp tonight and Michael, Carol and David will fly back to Talkeetna tomorrow.  Carol is an Alaska native and has offered to show David and Michael around once they are off the mountain.  The three are talking about taking the train into Denali National Park, so they'll be making the most of their time in the north!  

Tomorrow the rest of the team will likely put in the next cache in preparation for our next move.  However, low pressure is on the way and poor weather long with it, so we probably won't leave 14 camp until Saturday.  This should give me time to make it back up from basecamp to rejoin the crew.

 

Denali Team 4: May to June 9 - Dispatch #1

Guides: Paul Ivaska, Jeremy Allyn, Paul Rachele

Climbers: Manish Kumar (New York), Brian Burkholder (MIssissippi), Jeff Smith (UK), Roland Thomas (UK), Michael Palij (UK), Jane Amies (UK), Greg Umbach (Canada), Lloyd Cook (Canada)

Paul Rachele called May 20th at 8:35pm PST with the following dispatch: This is Paul Rachele calling from the "Kahiltna International Airport." We flew in today about 4:30 with some time to watch the eclipse. Everyone's here safe and sound. We're planning on staying here tomorrow. We are rigging up, doing a skills day, and then on the 22nd we'll be moving up in the wee hours of the morning to avoid hight temperatures on the lower glacier. We'll be in touch. 

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #9

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)


Guide Andrew Yasso called on May 20th at 8:07pm PST with the following dispatch: Hi all this is Andrew calling from 14,200' at Camp 3. Otherwise known as Banff Base Camp. Today is the first time I can say we had somewhat different weather. There was some light wind and a little tiny bit of gusting snow. There are some clouds but overall it's still pretty sunny and mostly blue skies which has been great. It was a really cold evening though, a lot of us ended up sleeping in all our layers. Which is why we brought them I guess. 


We fortified camp today and actually "borrowed", some might say stole, the blocks that Team 2 had used. They made snow blocks cut out of the snow and we co-opted them to fortify our camp. It's okay that we stole them, Team 2 has moved up to high camp today and hopefully is headed toward the summit soon, we wish them luck! After fortifying camp and making this place feel like home, at least for the next couple days, we did a back carry to get our cache at 13,500 feet. 


We just enjoyed our first day of really sleeping in. Our breakfast was at 10am which everyone thought was a huge luxury. We're going to sit down and enjoy a nice dinner and call back tomorrow when the office is open and hopefully get some messages passed along and maybe get some back. We will talk to you then. Thanks for all the support from home. We are very happy that our expedition is going so well thus far and that our whole team is still together. 

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #8

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Guide Andrew Yasso called on May 19th at 9:54pm PST with the following dispatch: Hi again, this is Andrew calling from 14,200 feet. Today we moved up to 14,200 feet. We had a mostly balmy day, it was pretty warm going around windy corner. Windy corner definitely didn't live up to its name today; but we certainly know it can after our experience placing our cache there. 

It was quite warm and we got through without any altercations or difficulties. We made it to camp in 6.5 - 7 hours and jumped right in to building our camp. We saw Team 2 and got to say hi to them. Everyone's super excited to be here, we're sitting above a layer of clouds that are just blanketing the valley underneath Mount Hunter and Mount Foraker so you can just see the tops of them it's absolutely gorgeous. And, I'm calling off my cell phone  instead of a sat phone, so that's pretty cool. Tomorrow, we're going to fortify camp a little more and go retrieve our cache and will call again after we finish the back carry. 

Everyone here misses friends and family at home, but we're all excited to be at 14,200 camp and are ready to move up into the rest of the climb. 

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2: Dispatch #7

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)


Guide Andrew Yasso called on May 18th at 7:12pm PST with the following dispatch: This is Andrew with Team 3 calling from 11,200 feet. We just got back after our cache around windy corner at 13,500 feet. 


Lucky for us, the weather has been absolutely beautiful. Windy corner lived up to its name a little bit today and people were a little chilled. Overall we're psyched to be get our cache in and are looking forward to a big dinner and some dessert. We've got a jello pie, vanilla pudding thing; it's gonna' be awesome. Right now we're all just sitting around snacking and getting excited to get to 14,200 feet tomorrow. Thank you for all the messages you left and we hope you are getting ours. We'll talk to you soon.

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #6

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Angela asked on Thursday that her mom wish her brother "Happy Birthday!"

Denali Team 2: May 6 to May 26 - Dispatch #8

[this dispatch was posted earlier, removed by accident for a few minutes, and reposted May 18]

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Alan Rousseau

Climbers: Garry McMahon (UK), Roy Cursley (UK), Kayla Cooper (Washington), Damon Vincent (Missouri), Greg Lamarche (B), Margaret St. Hill (Australia), Vijay Kumar (New Jersey), Christine Burke (Australia)

Mike Pond called May 17th at 11:04pm PST with the following dispatch: This is Mike Pond calling on behalf of Team 2: We are safe and sound at Camp 3; 14,200 feet. We are super psyched to have an awesome weather window in and around us right now. We arrived here yesterday evening with the help of some good friends. We set up camp today and we are going to take a rest day tomorrow. On Saturday we will move to ascend the fixed lines and get to high camp. Assuming this amazing weather holds we hope to make a summit attempt on Monday or Tuesday. 

This weather window is really amazing and it's looking warmer than it has been. it's crystal clear and there's a light wind. We are really excited and just couldn't ask for anything much more right now. 

Another benefit of this amazing weather is the sunsets. It's crystal clear so we've got a beautiful sunset over Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter and we can see all the way to Avalanche Spire. It's really quite beautiful. We're just overwhelmed by our good fortune and can't wait to move up the mountain. We'll have to wait to acclimatize so we don't rush it and blow our attempt due to altitude sickness or something. In the meantime, we've got a cricket match against another team that we are most definitely going to win. In think on Saturday our cricket victory will be a little extra boost to our spirits as we head into the fixed lines and toward high camp. 

Messages:

Chris says to an un-named friend "I was wrong!!! We'll be one day later than I said we would over the phone."

A "soccer aficionado" on the team would like the results of the English Premiere league Manchester United vs. Manchester game. (Manchester City 1, Manchester United 0 both teams have won both their games since this game and Manchester is Ranked #1 while Manchester United is Ranked #2)

Damon says "Hi" to Samantha and "good luck studying for the boards?.
 (sorry I think Mike said "boards" but it was muffled)

Greg gives a big hug to Evelien, and the two doggies, everything is going great and he has not opened the small envelope yet.

Kayla would like to tell her mother that she is significantly warmer than she expected and that she is doing really well. 

Ecuador Antisana/Illiniza: May 11 - 19 - Dispatch #3

Guide: Henry Moya; Climbers: Nick Jansen and Luke Shedivy.

When the team got to Saquisili, they sent this dispatch summary of their activies over the last few days.
This is Henry Moya reporting from Ecuador

Monday, May 14th - Corazon

Corazon (4800 masl, 15748 feet) is another eroded and extinct volcano located about 40 km south west of Quito. It was a perfect and good second acclimatization hike after Pasochoa.

We decided to climb Corazon instead of Guagua Pichincha due the positive advantages of doing this mountain instead of Pichincha. It is a slightly higher peak, also this mountain is closer to Iliniza. The hike took us 4 hours up and 2 down, we found one steep section where I needed to set up a belay on a rock. After the hike we descended to the village of Chaupi where we stayed the night at Llovizna lodge.

Tuesday 15th North Iliniza

We left the Ilinizas hut at 2 pm, and after 1 ½ hours of climbing we decided to put on the crampons due the hard snow in the traverse sector (5000 m, 16400 ft) and I had to set up a belay on rock and hard snow. We made the summit at 5 pm and return at the Ilinizas Refuge by 7 pm.

Wednesday 16th South Iliniza

We left the Ilinizas hut at 4:30, the morning was cloudy and windy. At 6 am we started climbing the South Iliniza ramp and averages 40 degrees in angle, and 2 hours later we reached the summit. Return at the Ilinizas hut by 11 am.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate in these two climbs, but Nick and Luke are very pleased with the success achieved.

17th May Saquisili Market

Today Nick and Luke have bought some gifts for their families in Saquisili Market.

Sincerely,

Henry Moya

Mountain Guide

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #6

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Andrew Yasso called today May 17th at 4:30pm PST with the following dispatch: 

"I don't want to sound like a a broken record, but the weather is still beautiful here at Camp 2.  We have picked up our cache from 9600' and spent today practicing skills for tomorrow's carry around Windy Corner.  Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments on the blog, it is great to hear from home!  Today's treat:  Pancakes and bacon!" 

Here are some messages from the team:


Dave to Helly, "All my love and the old man is keeping up."

Carol says, "Sunny and beautiful!"

Mary says,  "Beats being on the north slope."

Loren says, "I love you Mom and Dad, hi from 11,200."

Adam says, "Emily, please send pizza and beer also I love you."

Tim says, "Hi to Steve and love to MJ."

Dan says, "Happy birthday Maggie."

Michael says,  "Hi to the Allseas guys."

Chris says, "Great weather, feeling strong, tpglt."

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #5

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Andrew Yasso called May 16th at 5:20pm PST with the following dispatch: We are on the glacier at Camp 2, 11,200 feet. Nothing but blue skies above us, it's absolutely beautiful! We had another day that was almost too warm, man this glacier is crazy how hot it is. It reflects all the heat. The weather is absolutely beautiful It's almost scary how good it's been. 

We're here at Camp 2 looking forward to a big huge dinner of Thai Peanut noodles. We're building a new camp site getting ready to spend the next couple nights here. -cutoff-

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #4

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Andrew Yasso called May 15th at 7:19pm PST with the following dispatch: Hi all, this is Andrew calling from Camp 1. We just got back after caching, man is Alaska a place of extremes. I don't think I've ever been hotter or colder in my life! Last  night was pretty cold, but we all did well considering. 

We had a later breakfast and let ourselves warm up a bit before getting moving. We had some delicious french toast, that really helped. Following our breakfast we got moving and the sky opened up for us. We got sun and blue skies as we made our way to our cache site. Man was that sun extreme though. We were sweltering, and as a result had some "wardrobe malfunctions" where people had to take off their long johns on the trail. Considering there is no option for privacy this makes for some group entertainment, so to speak. Despite the heat we got to 9,600 feet and decided to call it good. We put in our cache there and headed back down. We are back to Camp 1 now and will be headed to Camp 2 tomorrow. 

Today as we were heading down there was all kinds of interesting cloud action. It was amazing. The clouds were kind of rolling in and out. It was really cool to get just the tips of peaks showing themselves through the clouds as the clouds danced around them. 

We are looking forward to a big hearty dinner tonight; and Indian/Middle Eastern meal. A blend of cous cous and Quinoa. It should be very tasty. I think it will be good fuel for a long day tomorrow. We will move to Camp 2 tomorrow. The weather looks good, which may mean hot, so our plan is to get up early and take advantage of some cooler temperatures and make it to 11,200 feet and Camp 2. We'll call tomorrow from Camp 2. 

Messages:


Andrew says "congratulations to Natasha for completing all your requirements for your PHD; I'm really proud of you!

Denali Team 1: April 29 to May 19 - Final Dispatch

Guides: Alasdair Turner, Chad Cochran, Aili Farquhar

Climbers: Maria Conceicao (Dubai), Stephen Martin (UK), Christopher Kulish (Colorado), Zlatko Filipovic (Sweden), Steve Bain (Colorado),  Christopher Heywood (Oman), Sergey Dmitriev (Russia), Vitaly Simonovich (Russia)

Alasdair called from Talkeetna at 2:00 Pacific time.  His team is safely off the glacier and taking a well-earned rest after, as he put it, “the coldest expedition I’ve ever been on.”

“We stayed the night with Mike Pond’s group at 11 Camp before descending the rest of the way to the airstrip… we arrived and got a plane almost immediately.  A nice flight out of the range.

“We never got above 14, but in the end I think we made the best moves possible in a game that turned out to be unwinnable.  The weather was just too severe.  No large parties have summited yet this year, and the only party that may have summited  -- it’s not clear yet if they actually reached the summit -- will probably be losing a foot to frostbite.

“The second day after we reached 14 was the crux decision … a classic expedition chess game situation.  The weather was holding but the signs were unambiguous … lenticulars forming on all the summits, shifting winds.  Other teams were caching at 16 and I felt a lot of pressure to do the same, but we reluctantly decided to fortify the camp instead.  Then the next day the weather turned.  It stormed for days.  Several other parties had cached their food and fuel up high and were left stranded.  They began heading down a couple days later.  Our decision not to cache bought us 4 more days.  In the end, that wasn’t enough, but I feel satisfied that we played our hand well.”

Good work, Team 1.

Ecuador Antisana/Illiniza, May 11th - 19th: Dispatch #2

Guide: Henry Moya; Climbers: Nick Jansen and Luke Shedivy.

Monday, May 14, 6:10 am Quito time

Yesterday was had a very nice hike on Pasochoa, the first big hike in this program. The peak is an ancient and heavily eroded volcano which has been inactive since the last ice age. It is located 40 miles south of Quito. Inside the crater there is the Pasochoa Protected Forest Reserve, a humid Andean forest, with more than 110 species of birds and 45 species of trees at an altitude of 8,800 – 13,700 feet.




The route we did on Pasochoa is by the northeastern side. This is the shortest approach to the summit, and it is a good first acclimatization hike. We gained altitude much faster than following the crater route but at a gradual enough pace to be comfortable. We drove for one-and-a-half hours to an altitude of 10,000 feet where we started walking. The hike normally takes four to five hours up to the summit, but for our last team it took 3!! These guys are very fit! The weather was OK but kind of cloudy, and we didn't get distant views, but the hike and the forms of Pascahoa were really interesting. After the hike we returned to Quito for the night. Nick and Luke are doing very well.

Ecuador Antisana/Illiniza, May 11 - 19: Dispatch #1

Guide Henry Moya, climbers Nick Jansen and Luke Shedivy

Sunday, May 13, 6:00 am Quito time

This is Henry Moya reporting from Ecuador. Our small team of two friends Nick Jansen and Luke Shedivy arrived very late on Friday; it was actually Saturday morning at 2:00am! We all met for a very good breakfast at hotel Reina Isabel. Our original plan was to go to Otavalo Market for the day on Saturday, but due to tiredness because of the very late arrival, our team preferred to do some sightseeing in and around Quito instead of driving 2 hours each way to the market.

Few cities in the world can match the setting of Quito, the second highest capital in Latin America after La Paz. Quito lies in a narrow valley running north to south. It is wedged between the slopes of the volcano Pichincha to the west and a steep canyon formed by the Machangara River to the east. Quito is very much a city of two halves: the Old City is the colonial censer, where pastel-colored houses and ornate churches line a warren of steep and narrow streets, and the New Town where you will find Quito’s main tourist and business area.

In 1990 Quito was declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. In the whole city there are more than 80 churches, some of them are quite significant for their art and architecture and definitely worth seeing.

Also one of the things we did during the day yesterday was visit the equatorial monument, the Mitad del Mundo (obviously where the name of Ecuador comes from) where we had a good lunch. It's a relatively short drive north of Quito. In the afternoon we also did a hike to Cerro de la Marca, a small hill near the equatorial monument, which was a good start of our acclimatization process. Late in the afternoon we returned to Quito and had a early dinner at the Magic Bean. It was a good day and we had a great time together. Today we will do our first big acclimatization hike up Pasachoa. This should be another fun day.

Denali Team 3: May 13 to June 2 - Dispatch #3

Guides: Angela Seidling, Andrew Yasso, Ben Gardner

Climbers: David Bradley (UK), Christopher Bradley (UK), Michael Buttery (UK), Mary Mears (Alaska), Carol Akerson (Alaska), Loren St. Amand (Alaska), Tim Erdman (Oregon), Dan Fiorito (Washington), Adam MacDonald (Canada/Australia)

Andrew Yasso called May 14th at 9:08pm PST with the following dispatch: Today we made a single carry from Base Camp to Camp 1. We passed Team 1 on their way down the mountain.
They gave it their best shot but the weather just didn't hold for them. 

It took us about 6.5 hours to make our carry to camp 1. We're set up now, the team is getting really fast at getting their tents set up, definitely getting in the flow here on the route, it's great. 

We're looking forward to dinner tonight. It was pretty warm today, almost too warm, but the clouds rolled in today and it looks like it will get a little colder. The high for tonight is supposed to be -26 degrees fahrenheit. That's pretty darn cold but we've got the gear for it so it should be fine. Tomorrow we will make our cache just below Camp 2. We're developing some team names based on rope color. Today we had team sunshine, team butterfly and team rainbow. We'll see if the names stick or if they change over time. Everyone is doing really well. We all send hello's to our families back home. 

Denali Team 2: May 6 to May 26 - Dispatch #7

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Alan Rousseau

Climbers: Garry McMahon (UK), Roy Cursley (UK), Kayla Cooper (Washington), Damon Vincent (Missouri), Greg Lamarche (B), Margaret St. Hill (Australia), Vijay Kumar (New Jersey), Christine Burke (Australia)

Dustin Byrne called at 1pm PST with the following dispatch: We are now at Camp 2 11,200 feet. We survived the storm and are enjoying a little better weather. Me and one other climber are resting at camp. The rest of the group is taking a cache to windy corner. The will come back tonight and then we all plan to move to 14,200 tomorrow. 

Messages: Happy Mother's day from the entire team to all their mothers.


Damon would like to wish his Mother a Happy Birthday! 


(lost signal, cut off)