The team is safely out of the mountains!

The team is all now safely out of the Alaska Range and appears to have made a strong effort toward replenishing their energy supplies last night. I'd have to say it appears they must have been a bit dehydrated, judging from the quantity of fluids on that table. Good on them!

They did really well and kept a great attitude throughout a long expedition. They had loads of different weather to deal with and they did a fantastic job up there.

We'll do our best to post some photos from the expedition and encourage team members to send any images they would like to add to info@mountaintrip.com

Until then, thanks so much for joining us on this adventure. Thanks for your support and comments and give your climbers some big hugs when you see them next.

Podcast from Kahiltna International Airport

Zach left the following message minutes ago. The weather at the airstrip has not permitted the team to fly out, so they are in a sort of "hurry up and wait" state...

There is a Base Camp manager who monitors the conditions in the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna, where the airstrip is located. She has a radio phone connection to the air taxi services in Talkeetna as well as VHF radio contact with the planes flying overhead. She is the de facto air traffic control in a manner of speaking, and has a keen sense of when it is safe to fly. Our guides have a habit of bringing her fresh fruit and flowers in an ongoing effort to keep us on her good side!

Here's Zach:

SUMMIT!!!

The rumors were true! Zach just called in 20 minutes ago to report that seven team members and two guides reached the summit of Denali yesterday. It sounds like everyone did well, and they are currently packing up their high camp and getting ready to head down to Base Camp!

They should arrive at BC tomorrow, and we'll keep you posted as we learn more about who summitted and how they are all doing on the descent.

Here's Zach, from 17,200':

Call from High Camp after summit attempt

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:

A special message from Duncan to Thomas and Robert

Here is a message from high on a snowy mountain to two very special boys.

Rest/Weather day at 11,200 feet

Zach just called in a report that high winds near Windy Corner convinced them to hang out and take a res and acclimatization day at the beautiful 11,200 foot camp.

A lesser known fact is that any altitude on Denali is actually the equivalent of a higher altitude on a peak at a lower latitude. This is because the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation causes the atmosphere to bulge out along the equator and is essentially "pulled" closer to the poles. This makes the summit of Denali feel more like a 23,000' peak near the equator. Therefore the acclimatization benefits of spending an extra day at 11,200' are actually very beneficial.

Here is Zach, calling in from 11,200' about 15 minutes ago:

Podcast from 11,200' Camp

We might need to come up with a new nickname for Zach. Energizer Bunny comes to mind, but is probably too cliche. Here is an update he called in last night.

Enjoy!