Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #19

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard called at 5:20 PST on 6/29 with the following dispatch:

Hey we are out in civilization now!  Just calling to make it official.  We got to town about 2 hours ago and now we are all getting ready to go to the pub and dinner.  Everybody is calling home, getting showered up, and ready for some food!  Thanks to everyone for the great experience.  We'll be home soon!
 

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #24

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew called at 3:05 PST on 6/29 with the following dispatch:

This is Andrew calling form team 8 and we are back in Talkeetna!  Three hours ago, we were sitting on the glacier, some were sleeping, some were playing frisbee, some were playing Uno.  Then we got a 10 minute warning that the plane was on it's way, so we had to pack up quickly and get the heck out of there. Three planes showed up to take everyone from Teams 7 and 8 and all the remaining gear from the season.  

I'm sitting here now and it's a nice sunny day in Talkeetna, and everyone is getting things sorted with their travel and lodging before parting ways.  Everyone from the two teams are all meeting up for dinner and we're going to take Talkeetna by storm!  We are all looking forward to food that doesn't come out of a bag (or eventually go back in one, for that matter!)

Thanks to all of you for rooting us on and giving your support along the way, and we will be home soon!

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #23

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Guide Andrew Yasso called at June 29th at 8:45am PST with the following dispatch: We sat around yesterday and the weather at base camp improved and it was sunny and beautiful which is all the more harder to deal with when the mountain passes still have bad weather and planes still can't fly in. I think everyone was dying for another freeze dried meal so we had the chili mac with beef; Again! Personally, I was looking forward to breaking the 40 day mark on the mountain this season. Mary really wanted to listen to another day of Paul's snoring, and Paul thinks the comforts of civilization are for weaklings; he might just camp here until next season.

Regardless, the airstrip officially opens in 10 minutes. However, we'll have to wait for word from the flight coordinator that they're coming. If they are coming we get a 45 min warning to load up and dash over to the loading zone. That's always exciting! I'm going to go organize gear and think optimistically about the perfect flying conditions we appear to have.

Messages:

Virginia would like her parents to contact her friend in Cali and let her know that she may not make it by Sat. She will call from Talkeetna

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #18

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

David called at 2:40 PST on 6/28 with the following dispatch:

Hey there!  We just wanted to call in with a quick update - Teams 7 and 8 are down on the Kahiltna, and now we are just waiting for the weather to clear so we can get picked up.  Everyone is safe and sound, and we hope to be back in Talkeetna soon!

Richard called back a little while later to add that everyone would like to send their condolences to the families of the Japanese climbers who were lost in the avalanche on Motorcycle Hill.

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #22

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Guide Andrew Yasso called June 28th at 10:30pm PST with the following dispatch: Well we packed up to leave and then some really nasty wind and snow came in and we considered delaying our descent but after a bit of deliberation we decided the weather was manageable and headed out. We descended beginning at 9pm (10pm PST) and made a 12 hour, on the button, push in really poor conditions to base camp. All our efforts have led us to a wonderful cache with some bonus provisions but, unfortunately, no possibility of flying off the Kahiltna today. We might get lucky today, but it looks like we'll be flying off tomorrow most likely. The cloud ceiling is really low right now so we're just hoping for some break in the weather so we can get our feet on some dirt. I'll probably call later today when the group is all together so we can send some messages back and forth, and I will most definitely call when we reach Talkeetna.

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #17

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Guide Richard Riquelme called June 27th at 5:53pm PST with the following dispatch: Hi this is Richard, I'm finally able to call. The SAT phone was not getting through the clouds or too busy to connect most of the day. 

Tonight we will be moving down to the airstrip. Hopefully we will get to 7800 feet, have nice meal and a nice nap, and then continue to the airstrip which right now is the operating strip. Maybe by Thursday in the afternoon we will be able to fly out if there's a break in the clouds. So, that's it, we'll give a call tomorrow to keep you updated as we go down.

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #16

Richard Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard called at 3:00pm PST with the following dispatch:

We are happy to have made it to the 14,000' camp and now that we are here it is a sunny day!
(phone call cut off at this point...)

Denali Team 8: June 10th - 30th - Dispatch #21

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Guide Andrew Yasso called June 27th at 10:20 pm PST: 

Message from an anonymous climber on the team who hijacked the phone: Dear friends and family it's been snowing for three days and it's not the pretty stuff of christmas cards. The enforced incarceration has brought out the best in our guides who are sharing the responsibilities of scavenging food, rescuing, and babysitting us admirably. Although, their mountain fashion can be questionable at times; shorts can be just too short sometimes. 

If you haven't already noticed we are stuck. We can't go up and we can't go down so we are considering hiring a chinook (helicopter) to evacuate ourselves. Whoever told us there was a bar up here was lying. Camp 14 is nothing like a ski resort and the stories of Fresh Alaskan Salmon are all lies. There are no single men here and the women are scary. Two of the group have gone stir crazy, one has become a recluse and the other three can only communicate in "UNO" language. Things got so bad two days ago we considered a cous-de-tas, however, the guides brilliantly averted this with some cheese quesadillas and hot cocoa. Denali: we are looking forward to seeing you on our descent and hopefully never seeing each other again. Lots of love team camp 3/4. P.S. don't believe a word of Andrew's dispatches none of us are enjoying dragging a sled up a mountain.

Andrew's Dispatch after recovering the phone:
It looks like the weather has cleared momentarily and it doesn't look like it has snowed as much as we thought so hopefully we will be able to descend half the mountain this afternoon while snow conditions are stable. We will build a camp half way most likely and then wait for colder temperatures to complete the trek on the lower glacier. Hopefully this plan will dissuade any further attempts of a cous and it appears I can't control the weather but in the future I'm going to try harder. Here's to safe travels and hopefully we'll be talking to you soon.

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #15

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard Riquelme called June 26th at 9:39pm PST with the following dispatch: Howdy Howdy, this is Richard and team 7 at 14,200 feet. We had a window to move down and we took it.

I have a lot of people here who want to send some messages home. 

-It's Andrew May from weather my favorite thing.


-Jeremy Here: Well this is the bigger part that counts but I'm not sure the crew are convinced


-Greg Olsen to family: Tumbled down from 17,200 to 14,200, literally, but we're on our way back.


-From Guy to Katy: The weather window you talked about sadly occurs to us is closed.


-From John Millhouse to Karen: The first prize went to somebody else this time. But we're down safely and missing you very much. Message to Zach: good luck on your big competition night.


Okay that's it that's all. I'll call you tomorrow on office time. Hopefully you guys have good things for us and hopefully we will be able to fly out.

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #20

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called June 26th at 12:37pm PST with the following dispatch: The weather allowed a short break last night so Paul and I were able to rush up the fixed lines and retrieve our cache. Which is a great thing because with impending weather moving in we're glad to have our cache and all of our food and supplies back and now it's just a matter of making a reasonable exit strategy. We don't really want to descend through avalanche terrain so in a little bit we're going to check with the National Park service and get as much of a conditions report as possible and if it seems like things are stable we'll try and move through tonight to get to base camp. With the weather down there no groups are flying off the glacier but, as they say up here you can't fly off the mountain unless you're at the airstrip. But for now being in snow here is better than sitting in rain down there. We'll let you know if we're moving down tonight when it's cooler. Otherwise we'll be hanging here waiting for conditions to improve eating fat, having fun playing lots of UNO. We'll keep you posted.

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #19

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called at 5:30 pm PST with the following dispatch:

Well, we thought we could extend our stay on the upper mountain and wait out the weather.  No luck, we're still getting hammered.  Right now there are no teams moving up the mountain.  Lots of tent time these last few days.  We're reading books, watching movies on the iPhone, and playing games.  We've also made a game of avoiding the consumption of freezed dried food.  Right now our plan is to grab our cache above the fixed lines tomorrow or the next day and then begin our descent. 

The whole team is disappointed that the weather hasn't allowed us to go higher, but that is part of the game in the mountains.  The weather rules the day.  Everyone here truly deserves the summit and has made a tremendous effort.


Everyone is looking forward to moving again and we all have our fingers crossed for a weather window that will allow a descent and an on-time return to Talkeetna.


Here are a few messages for the folks at home:


Celina - "Hi Amy and Bryony.  Did my parking permit arrive?  Hope you haven't burned the house down.  Looking forward to rose' upon return."


Paul Davies - "Claire - No summit, trying to get out on time.  Love, Paul."


Steve Hart - "Don't expect me home soon.  Weathered in at 14."


Ginny - "Fighting in the shade.  Love to you all."


Paul Rosser - "Hello to my family and friends."

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #14

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard Riquelme called June 25th at 2pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey it's Richard we are hunkered down for weather at 17. It was light precipitation today, and very cold and windy. Yesterday was very cold people and people were tired and recovering but are doing a little better today. Today we are just trying to kill the boredness and hope for a weather window. It's pretty well protected here but as soon as you step onto the ridge it's unbelievable wind. The wind coming up here on the ridge hit us hard and reached upwards of 50mph that gave us a wake up call about the funnel effect. Everyone has a little bit of a headache but that's normal for this altitude. We are doing okay so just pray for good weather for us. Thanks for all your messages too, the team really loves the support. 

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #18

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called June 24th at 1:11pm PST with the following dispatch: Happy Sunday AAI. This was originally a day designed for rest we've managed to do pretty much that. The weather report's starting to come to fruition, we're getting some weather. We're happy we're at fourteen. (lots of interference) -- So really we're just getting fancy here with our cooking... (more interference than cut off).

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #13

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

David Farkas called June 24th at 11:10pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey it's Farkas Calling from 17 camp on Denali. We arrived hear yesterday amidst cold blustery windy and were all quite frozen. It was a bit slow going as we had Sid turn around before the fixed lines after deciding that it was getting too strenuous and he was in over his head, which was about right, so hopefully he'll be back next year. He turned around Ben took him down to base camp and he should be flying out tomorrow. We're just chilling at 17, having dinner, suffering from a little swath and lethargy. There's less air up here, it's crazy! But things are good, we're hoping to get up for a summit attempt Tuesday maybe Wednesday. --Cut off--


Message:


Andrew May Says: "All Ok, Camp 17,200 my favorite thing! Very Nice. Bye Bye!

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #17

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called June 23rd at 8:45pm PST with the following dispatch: This is Andrew calling from Camp #3 I'm currently looking at Mt. Hunter on my left to the backdrop of big billowy clouds.  Mt. Foraker is right in front of me and it looks like it has clouds seemingly coming out of cave as if there were a smoke machine half way up the mountain pumping them out. It's pretty amazing but the clouds are probably moving really really fast which may be an indicator of some weather to come. We're about to listen to the forecast, though, and are hoping for good weather to look at moving up to 17,200 feet and get ready for our summit bid. 


Yesterday was a beautiful day on the mountain. Absolutely perfect weather with the best weather I've experienced on the fixed lines. We moved up the fixed lines and placed a cache at 16,200 right above the fixed lines.


Today was a bit challenging for Jennifer who has decided to head down. She decided to head home train more and come back again more prepared for the physical challenges. She descended today with Ben Gardner and Sid, from Team 7 who also stuggled with the physical demands on the fixed lines. They're descending and hopefully will fly out tomorrow morning. We're staying put eating and watching the weather and will hopefully move up tomorrow or the next day. We'll call tomorrow. 

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #12

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard Riquelme called at 12:52 am PST June 24th with the following dispatch: Good Night! This is Richard from Denali Team 7. Today we went from 14 to 17,200 feet on Denali. It was a long day. Pretty Breezy too. There was a lot of wind on the ridge as we got near 17,000 camp. Today we actually had a team member decide to descend. Sid Ratnavelu was too tired to continue ( I apologize it was broken up, more info will come when we have it) Ben took Sid down to meet with Team 8, who apparently also had someone heading down.


So, yeah that's the news from me right now. Tomorrow will be a lazy day because the weather's supposed to come in so we're just going to hunker down for a bit and wait for the opportunity. Everybody's doing fine right now, their in good spirits, but very tired. See you later aligator. 

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #16

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew called at 1:30 PST on 6/22 with the following dispatch:

Another beautiful day at 14,000' camp, however there are some clouds that look like mare's tails, which can mean wind or precip, so were trying to get as much accomplished as we can on a nice day like today.  

So we woke up early, ate some breakfast, got in some fixed line practice and are now heading up the fixed lines.  We are putting our cache up above the fixed lines with food and fuel so we can lighten our load for the real camp move.  We are actually getting roped up here and ready to go, everyone is here, tapping their feet and yelling at me to hurry up with this call so we can get going and do this.  

Geoff, Selina, Paul, Brian and myself, all went and did a back carry and everyone did awesome.  We even got Paul Rosser's 1980's heavy equipment.  So some of us yesterday got some exercise, and some got some rest, but we're all ready to go make this cache now.  We can't really get a lockdown on the weather right now, so we're trying to make the best of the day while we have this window.

We'll leave a voicemail tomorrow with messages.  Talk to you soon!
 

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #15

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Mary called at 4:49 pm PST on 6/21 with the following dispatch:

"Hey there!  We're at 14,000' and the team is in good spirits. The weather is holding and we have high pressure.  Today, half the team is doing a back-carry and the other is resting at 14, and it's beautiful and sunny right now.  We're looking forward to potentially doing a cache at 16k tomorrow.  Everyone says Hi to all their friends and family!"

Denali Team 6: June 3 to June 23 - Disptch #14

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Tad McCrea

Climbers: Jim Bonadonna (New York), David Wain (UK), David Pritchett (UK), Todd Fletcher (Australia), Peter Menne (Germany), David Martin (Australia), Mark Mueller (California), Philip Mace (Bermuda), Brian Knowles (California)

Mike called at 3:30pm PST on 6/21 with the following dispatch:


"Hey, we're back in Talkeetna!  We left from 17 camp at about 12:30 in the afternoon and made an awesome 18hr push all the way down to arrive at Basecamp at about 6:30.  We picked up David from Andrew, Mary and Paul's team, and brought him down with us, and now Paul is hitchhiking his way back up to his team [note: climbers must travel in teams of at least 3 while on the mountain].  Thanks to everyone for a great climb!"

Denali Team 6: June 3 to June 23 - Dispatch #13

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Tad McCrea

Climbers: Jim Bonadonna (New York), David Wain (UK), David Pritchett (UK), Todd Fletcher (Australia), Peter Menne (Germany), David Martin (Australia), Mark Mueller (California), Philip Mace (Bermuda), Brian Knowles (California)

Mike Pond called June 20th at 5:49pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey all it's wed. at 5 o'clock at 14,200. We're super psyched to be flying out of the mountains tonight. Right now we're just enjoying some quesadillas that we stashed and the hospitality of Richard, Ben and David's crew. Getting a little R and R in their cook tent before we march on out of town tonight.  We'll hopefully talk to you all in real life tomorrow. 

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #14

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called June 21st at 12:57pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey AAI it' is 4 minutes to midnight and i"m standing in the middle of a fantastic cook tent. We've got a beautiful camp set up here at 14,200. We arrived in camp at approximately 7pm and there's lots of deep snow so we got right to work building a camp. We had an amazing day today, long, but beautiful and hot. There's an awesome sunset tonight Foraker and Hunter are in plain view. 

We are here with Genie (spelling?), Steve, Brian, Jennifer, Paul, Geoff, Selina, Mary, and myself. Paul and David Chambers stayed back at 11 camp because,unfortunately, David had major blisters that kept him from continuing up. So ,we are having an amazing mac and chesse dinner in his honor tonight. Turns out he thinks Cheese is really bad for you so we just saved it all until now I guess. We definitely wish him well. He should be traveling out with Team 6 and we'll be waiting for Paul to rejoin us tomorrow. The plan for tonight is to go to bed. 

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #11

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard Riquelme called at 12pm PST, June 20th with the following dispatch: Hi it's Richard, we are doing fixed line training today, we will go up the fixed lines at least a little ways to start acclimatizing today. So, we are keeping busy. Everyone is doing really well. We might move up tomorrow but we might hold out for some coming weather and move up later.

(messages from this morning were delivered in between being cut off at least 10 times)

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #13

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia),  Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called June 19th at 6:35pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey it's Andrew we are at Camp 2, Sorry for getting interrupted yesterday. We made our cache, we spent about 45 minutes there and got some good acclimatization time in. It took us about an hour to get back down. Mary and Paul's team are atop Motorcycle hill right now about to head down, and I'm back at camp with Jenny, Jennifer and Jeff. Round Trip took us 7 hours which is pretty good. Now we're getting ready to make a big dinner hit the sack and then will wake up and do it all over again. We'll be moving to Camp 3 tomorrow at 14, 200. We can't wait to be there. A lot of people consider Camp 3 advanced base camp, that's where we'll stage for our summit attempt. So, we're watching the weather closely and will try to make the most of the last 10 days of our climb.

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #10

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard Riquelme called June 20th at 12:28pm PST with the following dispatch: Hello Hello! It's Richard calling from 14,200, we retrieved the cache from 13,400 today. It was a nice day. We did some home improvements. Pruning and all that good stuff! (Laughing in background, inside joke I guess.)

Messages:


Andrew May: Yahoo, rest day today, my favorite thing!

From Sid to Lucy, Looking forward to seeing you soon. 


From Sid to OJ, Thanks for the music.

From Graham to Sally: Hope you had a quiet lunch on Sunday (muttled) keep going strong

From John to Karen: Having fun playing in the snow wish you were here to share it with me. Special message To Jessica: Goodnight Bear!


That's it for tonight all the other heroes are actually already asleep.

Denali Team 6: June 3 to June 23 - Dipatch #12

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Tad McCrea

Climbers: Jim Bonadonna (New York), David Wain (UK), David Pritchett (UK), Todd Fletcher (Australia), Peter Menne (Germany), David Martin (Australia), Mark Mueller (California), Philip Mace (Bermuda), Brian Knowles (California)

Mike Pond called June 19th at 11:30pm PST with the following dispatch: What's up outside world. Sorry we haven't been calling too much our batteries on the SAT phone have been low so we've been conserving for our summit day, which was today, and we summited in fantastic conditions. It was actually hot all day, literally hot, I'm not exaggerating. Brian, Phillip, Todd and Mark summitted with me. David and Tad stayed at 18,800; definitely a respectable high point. We sumitted first of the day, and it was nice to get up there and down. We're hoping to get up early and head down tomorrow, and fly out Thursday. Once again we're sorry for not calling as much as we could, we've been having to conserve for emergencies. In other news It's really beautiful up here.

By the way, Dustin and two others, (names were muttled sorry) headed down two days ago they are probably in Talkeetna already. We're all pretty tired right now, it's 10:30pm we've been up for a while. We're all really psyched right now and just happy and exhausted and just happy to be alive and it was just a great finish to our expedition after some really challenging weather. These guys really represented and stuck it out. So, hopefully in a day and a half we'll be drinking burgers and eating in Talkeetna!

Messages: Happy Belated Father's Day from Brian.

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #12

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Swati Olebe (New York), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew called at 4:30 pacific time.

Hi guys! We just cached around Windy Corner at 13,500 feet.  And guess what?  Windy Corner wasn't windy at all...!

It took us five hours to get to the cache...

The sat phone cut out at that point. Andrew tried to call back, but we couldn't seem to hear each other.

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #9

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard Riquelme called at 5:30pm PST on June 18th with the following dispatch:

"Well everyone, here we are on the Polar Field (??) getting ready to make our way up to 14 Camp.  Yesterday was a rest/weather day which makes today a moving day.  Everybody is doing great and survived the bad weather yesterday.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and we got quite a bit of new snow.  It will be a tough day today moving through all that new snow but we've got a strong team and I'm confident we'll make it up to 14 Camp without any problems.  We've got awesome weather and awesome views right now."

(Admin were able to pass on your messages prior to the sat phone cutting out.)

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #11

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Swati Olebe (New York), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew called at 3:45pm Pacific Standard Time.

"This is team Camp Three Quarters. you know because we only made it three quarters of the way to Camp One...!"

"Last night there was a lot of snow and wind, but today we've got sunny skies.  Right now, we're just hanging out at the 11,000-foot camp and waiting for snow conditions to settle. Yesterday we watched the park service helicopter some of the Japanese team's gear from Motorcycle Hill, which was a bit disconcerting. So we are playing it very safe and being very conservative."

"Anyway, right now we're sitting in the sun, eating food and trying to lighten our loads, so that when the snow conditions stabilize, we can move light and fast."

Here are some notes from people on the trip:

Brian: No blisters and hope you guys are all having good trips.

Mary: Miss you Boo. Hope you're having fun with Jay. Miss you mom and dad. Have fun with Boo.

Steve: Hello Y'all!  Feeling well and strong. Looking forward to moving up.

Selina: Hi to Alex, Izzy, Millie, Jamie. Lots of love from Auntie Selina.

Paul Davies: Hi clair, megan and william!  Feeling good. Weather not so great.

Andrew: Holden -- can't wait for the bugs! Joseph -- The Wire is awesome!


We did try to give them a series of messages, but their sat phone kept cutting off.  The preceding message required a number of calls to get through...

Denali Team 6: June 3 to June 23 - Dispatch #11

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Tad McCrea

Climbers: Jim Bonadonna (New York), David Wain (UK), David Pritchett (UK), Todd Fletcher (Australia), Peter Menne (Germany), David Martin (Australia), Mark Mueller (California), Philip Mace (Bermuda), Brian Knowles (California)

Mike Pond called at 11:43 pm June 17th. Hey all we are currently at High camp. After some pretty challenging weather the last couple days despite the awesome forecast it's now cleared up and just gorgeous and still. So we're hoping to make a summit attempt on Tuesday. Today and Monday we'll be taking a rest and waiting for Tad to get back up here from 14 camp then we'll make a group push.

Messages:
Tod says (something broken up maybe "G'day") to the outside world, Mom and Dad, Paul , Carl, and Michelle

We'd all like to wish our Happy Father's a Happy Father's Day!

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #10

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Swati Olebe (New York), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso  called June 17th at 1:37pm PST with the following dispatch: Merry Christmas!!! I know that sounds weird but it seems like we woke up to Christmas at 11,200 feet up here on Denali. We've got snow blowing everywhere, it may be June 17th but here it feels like the middle of December. However, it is June 17th and it's Father's Day and all of us want to wish our Father's a Happy Father's Day, and thank you for all the support. 

We are thankfully going to have a weather day today. So it is also kind of a rest day. I cooked a big breakfast of hashbrowns, bacon, and left over burrito stuff. Over all I think everyone was pretty full. I think today is just going to turn into a big eating extravaganza. Which is good sometimes we need that up here. The problem is the weather is undesirable. The winds blew really heavy last night... (broken up and muddled for about 1 minute more before being cut off.)

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #9

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Swati Olebe (New York), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew Yasso called June 16th at 6:29pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey it's Andrew calling from Camp 2. We thought about stopping today at camp 11 and 3/4 just to keep our rhythm going but we pressed on to 11,200 feet. We single carried from 9600 - 11,200. Now we're looking forward to some delicious burritos and a much deserved rest day tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day but if it's not at least we get to sit in our tents and relax and eat and recharge instead of being outside in the elements. After that we're hoping to make a cache at around Windy Corner. We're all excited to be getting off the Kahiltna and moving up the mountain The Team has done a phenomenal job of recovering from Swati's injury and walking her out. Everyone's looking forward to a rest and being back to 100% after that effort. 



We'll call tomorrow with some notes and hope to get some from home. Thanks for following us, talk to you soon. 


(Administrative note: your comments do not automatically post they go to administrators for approval before being posted. Regarding texts to SAT phones: they are receiving many of your texts, however SAT phones are not cell phones so due to battery management, official communication needs, safety, and the generally challenging nature of texting with SAT phones, text responses will be minimal at best.)

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #8

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard called June 17th at 11:15pm PST with the following dispatch: Today we are taking our first weather day. Yesterday we did a cache at 13,400 with perfect weather. After AJ commented about the perfect weather and no wind at windy corner we got jinxed. 


We got hit by high winds and snow and had really poor visibility. Then we had to navigate the crevasses around where the recent avalanche and fatalities happened. By the end of the day we made it safe and sound to camp. We were all very grateful to get a warm meal and hit the tents. Today we are just hunkering down waiting for better weather 


We have a variety of wind slab avalanche hazards, the slab is varrying in thinkness due to recent rapid changes in precipation and wind, we have a graupel layer that is of particular concern. We are ready to move to 14 when the weather allows, but are also watching the snow layers very carefully to make sure things have compacted and or slid there is a lot of rumbling out there lately. Hopefully, tomorrow will be good, according to the forecast there should be a window. Everyone is doing well and ready for the next step.


We will call later when the group can be together and try to get you messages and send some back.


(Administrative note: your comments do not automatically post they go to administrators for approval before being posted. Regarding texts to SAT phones: they are receiving many of your texts, however SAT phones are not cell phones so due to battery management, official communication needs, safety, and the generally challenging nature of texting with SAT phones, text responses will be minimal at best.)

Denali Team 6: June 3 to June 23 - Dispatch #10

Guides: Mike Pond, Dustin Byrne, Tad McCrea

Climbers: Jim Bonadonna (New York), David Wain (UK), David Pritchett (UK), Todd Fletcher (Australia), Peter Menne (Germany), David Martin (Australia), Mark Mueller (California), Philip Mace (Bermuda), Brian Knowles (California)

Mike Pond called June 16th at 5:09pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey folks this is Mike Pond calling from High Camp. 17,100 feet of love. Got here pretty late last night, had some pasta and went to bed. Now we're just resting and we're fortifying our camp with (dramitically deep voice) huge burly, strong, snow walls capable of withstanding wind gusts up to a million miles an hour. It's Saturday and we hope to attempt the summit tomorrow, weather providing. It's been pretty darn cold and windy here so we are hoping there's just enough of a window to squeeze in a possible summit attempt tomorrow. But we've got provisions for four more days up here so we've got the power!

People seem pretty worked but hopefully they get some good rest and a summit stoke gets them energized.


We'll call, hopefully with a post-summit report, but will also call if we don't summit.


We also want to wish all our Fathers out there Happy Father's Day!


(Administrative note: your comments do not automatically post they go to administrators for approval before being posted. Regarding texts to SAT phones: they are receiving many of your texts, however SAT phones are not cell phones so due to battery management, official communication needs, safety, and the generally challenging nature of texting with SAT phones, text responses will be minimal at best.)

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #7

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard called at 2:38pm PST on 6/16 with the following dispatch:

Hello, hello, hello! This is Richard from Team 7!  Here were are at 13,200', and we are doing our cache at 13,400'.  We are pretty close to getting up around Windy Corner.  I have some messages for you all out there:

From Guy to Katie - Issac Newton has a lot to answer for.  Love you.

From Jeremy - Missing you all, even Molly and Phantom (I may have gotten this last name wrong, the phone was a little garbled here).

From Graham - Hope you have a great birthday.  Miss you a lot.  Love you and the kids.  Thanks for the messages.

From John - Hi to everyone at Eagle Pro and any patients watching our progress on the hill

From Sid - Testing, testing, testing, 1-2-3... is this mic on?

From Andrew - Any thoughts on what is fashionable to wear on summit day?

That's it for right now.  It is nice and sunny.  Clouds are down around 12,000'.  Winds calmed down, in the morning they were at about 15-20 mph at 14,000.  But it is nice and lovely now, and I hope it stays like that.  Well, that's all for now.  Talk to you soon!
 

Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #8

Guides: Andrew Yasso, Mary Harlan, Paul Rosser

Climbers: Geoff Strommer (Oregon), Jennifer Logan (UK), Paul Davies (UK), Steven Hart (Florida), David Chambers (Texas), Brian Roark (Texas), Virginia Cross (Australia), Swati Olebe (New York), Selina Dicker (UK)

Andrew called at 6:00 PST on 6/15 with the following dispatch:

Hi guys it's Andrew Team "Camp 3/4" calling in to say hello.  After all the excitement yesterday of safely getting Swati back to basecamp and getting our team members back, I forgot to mention that it was  one of our guides birthday - Happy Birthday to Mary Harlan!  We had some blueberry cheesecake and a little wine and blew out some candles - it was really fun.


We decided that since everyone was feeling really well, we decided to move camp, and since we love these 3/4 camps, we've now moved up to 9600' in a single carry and we're calling this "Camp 7/4."  But the team name still stands as "Camp 3/4" so don't get any ideas.


Regardless, today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I think Denali's nickname should be changed from "The High One" to "The Hot One." I know that sounds insane, but I don't think I've ever been anywhere hotter in my life.  I don't know if it is these black pants or the long sleeves, but this glacier really reflects the sun and really does a number on us.


So now we're brewing up some water, and digging out a cook tent, and getting ready for dinner.  Our plan is to make a single carry from here to the real Camp 2 tomorrow at 11,200' and take a much deserved rest day, which should work out well with the weather because it looks like there might be a little something moving in that day.  

Paul is on cook duty, cooking up some pesto pasta, full of some much-needed carbs to fuel us up for the next push tomorrow.  We're getting super efficient about setting up camp and we're excited about continuing up the mountain, and also happy to be off the lower Kahiltna.  We've been blessed with really good weather and hope that it continues, although a little bit of a breeze would be nice right now.  Thanks for all the support from home.  We'll check in on our rest day and try to respond to some of your comments then.  Bye for now!

Denali Team 7: June 10 to June 30 (private) - Dispatch #6

Guides: Richard Riquelme, Ben Gardner, David Farkas

Climbers: Guy Munnoch, John Moorhouse, Andrew Jenkins, Andrew May, Sid Ratnavelu, Graham Dawson, Jeremy Middleton

Richard called in at 12:00 pm PST called on 6/15 with the following dispatch:

"Yesterday we moved to 11,200' camp and today was a rest day.  We need to go down and retrieve our cache at 10,400'. Then tomorrow, if weather permitting, we'll go up to cache at Windy Corner.

We are getting some great weather now.  It is really sunny now and everyone is in good spirits.  Oh, I have something that I forgot to tell you from the other day - at basecamp they had a black bear sighting by the park rangers.  He wasn't in camp, but they could see him from camp.  He was probably out looking for skiers (hahaha!).  Oh, and at at 9,500' feet we had a wolf sighting as well - Pretty cool!

Well, everyone is warm and happy and starting to sink in the the groove of expedition camping.  That's about it for now."

[At this point I started to relay messages from the comments, but a helicopter was flying in overhead, so Richard couldn't hear me very well.  He said he would try to call back later if he could to get messages from everyone.]

[Richard called back in at 12:40 and after a series of disconnects and re-connects, I was able to convey all the messages.  He will try and call back later with more messages back.]