Denali Team 5: June 13–July 3
Guides: Paul Ivaska, Richard Riquelme, Kristen Looper
Apprentice: Andrew Yasso
Climbers: Walt, Ann, and Luke Hampton (Canton, Connecticut), Caitriona Strain (Burnfoot, Ireland), Brendan McDyer (Glenties, Ireland), Skye O’Donnell (Sydney, Australia), Colin Stalnecker (Chicago, Illinois), Ryan Derrigan (Rickmansworth, England), and Stephen Williams (Oxon, United Kingdom)
Paul called on Wenesday the 16th at 4:00 pm with the following update:
“Hi everyone! This is going to be a quick dispatch; our phone keeps cutting out. We put in cache at 10,000 feet today. We started very early this morning and caught a decent weather window; right now it’s snowing. It’s not snowing very hard, but it’s overcast with low visibility. The weather is not the greatest, but it’s not the worst either, so we plan to keep pushing on. We’re listening to the radio and it wounds like the teams above us are dealing with some windy conditions.
I have a few messages from the team:
From Luke: To Abbi, I hope finals went well. Hope you have fun at the pool party while I’m on a glacier. I miss you.
From Caitriona: Thanks for all the messages everyone. We really appreciate it after a hard day up the hill.
From Walt: Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
From Steve: To Duncs. Have awesome stag? (I could not made out this word very well) Sorry I’m not there, get you next time. Sambuca!
From Andrew: Natasha, I love you. To Mom, my beard froze today!!!
That’s all for now. Take care, everyone.”
-Paul