Denali Team 3: May 15 – June 4 Dispatch #5

Denali Team 3: May 15 – June 4
Guides: Kevin Hogan, Tom Kirby, and Matt Erpelding
Climbers: Allen Borgardts (Missouri), Robert “Alex” Borgardts (Missouri), Jonathan Fischer (Colorado), David Haimsky (Virginia), Jeffrey Gephart (Michigan), Helle Dam Sorensen (Denmark), Brandon McNalley (Washington), Ryan Canfield (Washington)
Tom calling in at 6:00pm on May 21 with the following dispatch:
“Hey everybody!  This is Tom and it’s day 7 already on the mountain.  We are currently at Camp 2 at 11,000′, eating a delicious lunch of cream cheese, bagels and salmon.
Yesterday we did not do anything because the weather was so stormy.  With the high gusty winds and a fair bit of snow, we had to drop the cook tent a few times.  We were getting a little worried that if the storm lasted longer, we would get hungry because we only brought a few days worth of food with us.  We managed with our food supplies and with today’s nice weather, we were able to do a back-carry to 10,000′ to pick up the rest of our food.  Everything worked out well and everyone is doing great.
Tomorrow we plan on climbing to 13,500′ to cache more gear and food, and come back to 11,000′ to sleep.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us and we can proceed to climb higher on the mountain.”