Back to civilization.

The team skied on down to base camp early this morning under beautiful blue skies. They flew out to Talkeetna by mid- day where Cheryl (Durny's better half) met them with the Mt Trip van and they are in Anchorage tonight going out for Sushi!

Still heading to Base Camp...

Durny called in this afternoon from 11,200 ft (Camp 2) and said they were in the middle of a storm and weren't able to go anywhere. They hung out in their tents, eating and napping (the usual) waiting for the storm to break. It is expected to clear out a bit tonight, so they'll try to come down tonight if it does.

Heading to Base Camp

They left high camp this morning on another stormy day. They'll take the next day or two to descend the mountain, it doesn't take long and climbers are pretty motivated to get back to showers and a beer.

We probably won't hear from these guys again until they reach base camp, which could be as soon as tomorrow.

Summit!!

They got their break in the weather today and went for the summit. Mel had cold feet this morning and had to turn around with our guide Mike, I'm sure she's a bit bummed, but frostbite is no joke. The rest of the crew reached the summit at 7pm tonight, and I just got the call from Durny at 8:30 pm that they are back at high camp!! Everyone is safe and sound and they skied off the top of Denali all the way back down to the 17,200 ft camp. This was the first guided ski trip off the summit of Denali, so Congratulations to all involved.

Here's the call from the summit.

Sunny Day!

We haven't gotten the morning call yet, but check out the webcam of the Alaska Range this morning. It's as beautiful a day as we've seen in over a month. Hopefully the wind isn't blowing too hard and they are getting a chance to go for the summit today!!

http://www.talkeetnaair.com/web-cam

Wind and weather

It was a windy day up high on Denali today and our Ski team had to wait it out at high camp. It was just breezy at 17,200 ft, but up above the winds were "Nuking" as reported this morning by Durny. It's been a stormy stretch of weather up high, a friend of ours who is guiding another trip for AMS has been at high camp for a week now without getting a chance to go to the top. Hopefully our team will have better luck in the next few days. They are all doing great, rested and somewhat acclimated and ready to go when the weather breaks. That's all they can do at this point is be ready and hope for good weather.

Acclimating and Recovering at 17,200 ft

They had a rest day at high camp today and watched the wind blow on the upper mountain. It wasn't much of a summit day today. They're doing good and ready to go tomorrow if they get a chance. The weather this whole season has been pretty tough, with a lot of stormy weather up high. They'll wait until they have a pretty good day before trying for the top.