Denali Team 8: June 10 to June 30 - Dispatch #2

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 10th at 8:36pm PST with the following dispatch: Hey it's Andrew calling from Kahiltna base camp. We flew in at about 4:45pm and touched down on the glacier. Our flight in was pretty cloudy and we were pretty happy to make it in after a fair bit of turbulence. Those little Otter planes are quite the machines! 

We got the whole team in for this climb, that's great. We've set up our cook tent. We're dug in, all our climbers are crawling into their tents and kind of hanging out. It is currently raining at base camp. Normally we work a lot in the PNW and deal with rain. In AK it's usually cold enough that it stays nice and dry. However, it seems like the weather seems to have followed us. It's just a little piece of home. No matter, we've got a delicious dinner tonight. Some Pasta with Red sauce. Fresh vegetables a ton of garlic french bread. Mr. Paul Rosser is going to be our cook tonight and he's promised to serve up a treat. 

We're going to spend the night here and then spend tomorrow working on skills so that we're dialed in for the rest of the climb. We'll go over sled rigging skills, crevasse rescue, glacier travel skills, and head up the mountain tomorrow night. So far the team is working together really well. We'll call tomorrow and let you know how everyone's doing.