Back to civilization.

They are all back in Anchorage tonight after a long day. They left from camp last night and traveled down to base camp by early this morning. After a couple of hours of rest next to the runway the planes came in to bring them back to Talkeetna. They spent a couple of hours in Talkeetna eating, then drove to Anchorage, settled into their hotel rooms, then went out to eat again.

Everyone is happy and exhausted, and probably hungry again by now.

Congratulations to all the climbers, they didn't summit, but they certainly gave it a good effort. Welcome home!


Here's the call from Shlomo this morning from base camp.

Base Camp

They got a break in the weather and traveled down to base camp last night. They are waiting for flights out to Talkeetna this morning and hoping to make it to town in time for a giant breakfast at the Road House.

It looks like a great day to fly out, so they shouldn't have any trouble getting out this morning. Check out the link to the TAT Webcam to see how the AK Range weather is today!

Snow and Wind..

David called this afternoon and said they've been sitting in whiteout conditions for most of the day. It was improving some late today, and that trend is expected to continue. They'll try to move down to basecamp tonight! They are pretty excited to get back to hot showers and maybe a beer(?).

Hopefully the next call will be from base camp, or maybe even Talkeetna.

Down to 9,500 ft

It sounds like the weather has been pretty bad. Even on Denali it is fairly rare that the weather can even make trying to get down somewhat of an epic. The team traveled down to about 9,500 ft today and have settled in for the night. The weather has been a bit rough with wind and snow, but tomorrow is expected to be quite a bit better.

Here's the evening call from David.

Morning at 14k

David checked in this morning from Camp 3 (14,200ft) as they were getting ready to head down the mountain. Here's his AM call.

Another day of wind and snow.

They had another stormy day at high camp this morning, and decided to head back down the mountain. They needed a nice calm day to try for the summit, and it just didn't come. The team is at Camp 3 tonight, and will continue down the mountain tomorrow.

Everybody is doing well, but they are pretty tired tonight.

Happy 4th of July!

A Stormy Day at High Camp

They had a pretty stormy day up high today with snow and wind for most of the day. It came in late in the day yesterday and continued to storm most of today. Everybody is doing great, but they are spending most of the day in the tents right now. Hopefully they've all got some good movies loaded onto their iPods.

It sounds like they may come down from High Camp tomorrow, but we'll see what the weather does in the morning.

Here's David's evening dispatch.

Acclimating and Recovering at 17,200 ft

They had a day of rest and recovery at high camp today. It was a bit cloudy and windy this morning, so didn't look like a real good summit day. Everyone will benefit from a day of recovery and acclimating to the thin air before pushing for the summit, but had it been a perfect day they may have gone today. They'll wake up tomorrow and hope for nice weather to push for the summit, we'll all be wishing them luck!

Here's Luke (guide) with the evening call.

High Camp! 17,200 ft

They had another day of rest and acclimitization on Wednesday, and today moved up to high camp. They had another great day, David said the wind was just enough to keep it from being too hot in the sun today as they climbed up to 17,200 ft. The climbing is beautiful on the ridge from 16,200 ft up to high camp with some steep sections, and spectacular views all around.

The team made good time moving to camp today, and could try for the summit as soon as tomorrow if everybody is feeling good in the morning.

We'll be wishing them luck, and hopefully we'll get a call in the morning to let us know their plan.

Here is the call from David this morning as they were getting ready to leave camp.