The weather looked good enough in the morning to load up and head out for a summit foray, however; Zach left this message last night after they were turned back with increasing winds.
Summit day decision making can be truly agonizing. Often the weather looks like it is trending toward a good day, but then the mountain decides that it's time to blow again, and the summit window closes. Everyone has their own personal acceptable level of risk, the parameters of which are forged with their own ambition and egos. It is our job as mountain guides to apply a reasoned set of decision making protocols to the choice of when and if to head for the summit.
Our number one priority is that all of our climbers return home healthy. We also want everyone to have an amazing time with us in the mountains, but we are not willing to sacrifice these goals for the sake of ambition. Frostbite still occasionally occurs, but heading to the summit in high winds will pretty much guarantee that someone damages their fingers or toes, and we have a deep affinity for those appendages, so we'll make conservative decisions.
The team has plenty of time, food and fuel. It looks like today could be a summit day, but there do appear to be lenticular clouds above the summit of Mount Foraker and covering the top of Denali. Keep your fingers crossed!
Here's Zach from High Camp:
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Hope the weather stays favourable for your summit attempt tomoorow. Good luck, stay safe and healthy. Our thoughts are with you all - best wishes - John, Ruth, Jack and Emma xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks for the podcast; great to hear the team is hanging in there and making another attempt on the summit. Miss you too and thinking of you all the time. Fingers crossed that today will be the day. If it is, then you'll be there, or on your way there, right now - just as we here are tucking into bed. Hope to wake up tomorrow to a podcast from the summit - that's if I'm able to sleep in the first place from all the suspense! Stay Strong.
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