The May 28th team has officially come off the mountain! The team flew off the glacier this afternoon and is now safely back in Talkeetna, wrapping up an incredible Denali expedition.
It’s hard to overstate what this team accomplished. They summited Denali, standing on the top of North America at 20,310 feet, and made the long journey safely back down to Basecamp. Along the way, they navigated weather delays, hauled heavy loads through the lower glacier, pushed through Windy Corner, worked the fixed lines, climbed the ridge, made the committing move to high camp, and reached the summit on a day that demanded everything they had. That’s a tremendous expedition by any measure, and they should be enormously proud.
Now that the team is off the glacier, it’s a chance to slow down, swap stories, and enjoy some of the small luxuries that climbers always look forward to after a Denali trip: hot showers, fresh food, a real bed, and the company of teammates without sleds in the way. There’s a special kind of energy that comes with being together as a team in town after coming off a mountain like this. The shared experience, the inside jokes, and the memories built over weeks on the glacier all come into a different light once everyone is back in civilization.
We’ll be sitting down with the team tomorrow to debrief, hear their stories, and celebrate everything they achieved up there. For now, we’re so proud of every member of the May 28th team. Congratulations to the climbers and guides on an incredible expedition. Welcome back!
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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.
