It sounds like their transmission was cut short, but our May 16th team is still enjoying the big city of Talkeetna, Alaska.

A reality of trying to climb in the Alaska Range is that the weather has its own schedule, and sometimes it just doesn’t line up with yours. Climbers can show up to Talkeetna in peak condition, perfectly packed and ready to roll, only to find themselves grounded for days while a storm system parks itself over the Range. It’s one of the hardest mental adjustments of any Denali expedition — learning to let go of the timeline you arrived with and trust that the right window will come. The team is taking it in stride, settling into the slower pace of town life and making the most of the extra time by training fixed line skills before they finally get the call to fly.

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Interested in more information about conditions and happenings on Denali? Be sure to also check out the Denali National Park’s Denali Dispatches Blog where they post weekly Field Reports.