Darsney

Hear Scott's Call from Denali

Click for [RealAudio]  [Windows Media]

(Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media)

I am hoping for a change in the forecast because the long-range forecast is more of this everyday. We'll have to see, I think...[unintelligible]...Anyway that's kind of the report right now for Sunday the 28th.

And we're just going to sit up here in our nice kitchen tent, and swap stories and walk around. The Lama actually did launch up here and come in today, and drop some stuff off for the rest of the cache—I was kind of amazed at that. So maybe it stopped raining in Talkeetna at least.

So we'll check in again maybe later today or tonight with another update. This is Scott Darsney for the Mountain Zone with Alpine Ascents International at 17,200ft on Denali, signing off.

Sunday, June 27, 1999—4:16pm(PST)

Hey folks this is Scott Darsney with Alpine Ascents International, still here at 17,200. It's three o'clock in the afternoon now and we're still hanging tight.

Summit day is out of the question today, there were three guys who tried to go up Denali Pass today and they got blown back by the wind. It's clear here, probably about zero degrees, but I think it's about 20 below with the wind chill right now. I'm dressed in everything but my parka and my mitts and pretty cold holding a cell phone. I'm stuck behind a new rescue cache that the park service just put in up here; that Simon and John did a great job of putting in. They've got it anchored down with cables and pickets.

I expected to see some other groups maybe try to make it up here to 17 today, but it's pretty blustery on the ridge so, I'm not sure what they'll do. But other than a few frostbite on folks, most people that have tired to summit, the last two days, have been making out okay. There was one group of three that bivouacked last night at Denali pass. It was such a whiteout and such high winds they couldn't make it down the pass. I think they got a little bit of superficial frostbite on the toes. They got back down to 17 safely and they're headed down now to 14. So, we're just going to hang here. We may have to go down and get our cache at 16.2; we've got more food and fuel there. And if we don't make a summit attempt tomorrow, I think it'll be our plan tomorrow to go down and get more food and fuel, and hang here at 17,000 until we get a decent window. But right now, it's just too windy to do anything.

So that's all for now, talk to you later, Scott Darsney with Alpine Ascents, out.

— Alpine Ascents Guide Scott Darsney, MountainZone.com Correspondent

EXPEDITION DISPATCHES