The May 14th team took a rest day at high camp today, with plans to go for a summit attempt tomorrow morning! After the work it took to get to high camp, a day spent resting, hydrating, and acclimatizing at 17,200 feet is exactly what the team needs heading into one of the biggest days of the expedition.

Summit day on Denali is a serious undertaking. Departure tomorrow is set for around 10 AM, and the day ahead will be long, cold, and demanding. Summit pushes on Denali often run 12 to 16 hours of climbing on exposed terrain in extreme conditions, so going into the day rested, well-fed, and fully acclimatized is critical. The team has put themselves in a strong position by using today to recover and prepare.

As is always the case before a summit attempt, the team’s guides spent today checking gear, finalizing plans, and coordinating with other guided teams who will be making their own attempts tomorrow. There’s a real benefit to moving in coordination with other teams on summit day. Shared knowledge, familiar faces, and the ability to communicate easily on the route all add to the day’s overall margin of safety.

The team’s guides will hold one more meeting in the morning to take a final look at the weather before stepping off. Summit days are weather-dependent in every way, and conditions on Denali can shift fast at altitude, so a final check before launch is a standard and important part of the day.

For now, the May 14th team is at high camp, resting up and getting ready for the climb of their lives. We’re feeling great about how they’re set up heading into tomorrow, and we’ll have more to share once the team is back at high camp.

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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.