Climber Mike took on the dispatch for the May 17 Team tonight after a well-spent rest day at High Camp 17,200 ft (5242 m) waiting on the weather to shift in their favor. With the summit of Denali 20,300 ft (6187 m) lingering so close the team is doing everything they can to prepare and make sure they are ready to go at a moment’s notice when conditions align.

In the meantime, the team is staying well fed and the guides led them through a “summit drill” of packing up to go and putting on all of your warmest layers while making sure you don’t slice anything with your crampons! A great opportunity to practice so that the climbers can move efficiently together when they are able to push for the summit.

The culmination of the route will take climbers 9-12 hours or more round trip to go about 3,000 ft (914 m) through technical terrain to Denali’s summit of 20,300 ft (6187 m) and back down to their camp. This is generally remembered as the most “grueling” day of the expedition or of a climber’s entire life but, it’s all worth it to stand on the high point of all of North America! Fingers crossed for clear skies for these climbers – stay tuned for their next update.

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