Hello from Heidi in warm, sunny, Anchorage!

Hello to everyone out there who has followed the progress of our climb on Denali over the last few weeks. First off I would like to thank all of you for your warm thoughts and prayers sent our way. The entire climbing team appreciates all of the love and support that we received during our climb. We are all very happy to have gotten that first shower and that first great sleep in a real bed.

The news from our new friends still up on the mountain, is the same story that we had during our stay up there, wind, wind, and more wind. As of Thursday evening teams still have not been able to travel safely to high camp, and I really hope that the winds at Camp 3 are not as bad as we experienced early this week. Keep your fingers crossed that the mountain will change her tune soon.

Our team; David, Mike, Ryan, Zach and myself was a finely tuned machine, we worked well together, had some wonderful laughs, and I believe really enjoyed each others company. It was a fine adventure for sure. The summit itself was not in our cards, but the dance with the mountain was still fun. I hope to have the opportunity to climb with all of you guys again someday.

Again, thanks for following our climb and for all of the support given to us climbers, without which our climb would have been impossible.

All the best,
Heidi Kloos

Coming Home

They have had enough. The team decided to come on down a few days early after sitting in a storm for several days now. They left Camp3 (14k feet) yesterday at around 3pm, and are in Base Camp this morning. The forecast is for high winds for a few more days still, and they felt like they weren't going to get a shot at moving up the mountan. They are a bit disappointed they didn't get a chance to get to the top, but they had a pretty good adventure. Heidi said they saw some of the highest winds she's ever experienced at the 14k camp and everyone in camp was just holding on for several days.

I'm sure we'll get some more stories when they get to Talkeetna this afternoon.

Wind Wind Wind

Wind is the story all over the mountain right now. Heidi called this morning, as they were getting up from a night of tent rattling wind. A couple of tent poles snapped, but they were able to repair them, and keep everything standing. The weather had improved this morning, and the winds had died some, but the gusts hit 80 mph last night.

The weather is still forecast to be quite windy for a few more days...

Everyone is hanging in there and doing fine, but anxious to have a change and move up the mountain.

Morning Update...

Heidi called this morning after breakfast at 14k. They are watching the wind blow high on the mountain, and won't be able to move anywhere today. They have some more company now as our May 1 trip has joined them in camp to wait for a change in the weather.

Hanging tough in high winds

Heidi called yesterday and said that the team remained at Camp 3 for the day. High winds and low visibility compelled them to stay put in their well-fortified encampment. Hopefully today will afford them an opportunity to head up to high camp.

The route ahead of them involves the most technical climbing on the West Buttress. They climb up moderately steep snow for the first 1,400 feet before things get steep. The snow turns to 40-50 degree ice for the next 600 feet and the climbers ascend using fixed ropes as protection against possible slips. This takes them to the ridge, where the path follows more or less along the crest, weaving in and out of the rocks all the way to high camp.

High camp is a challenging place to set up to set up tents on a good day, and very hard to deal with when the wind is blowing. Climbers need a pretty good day to make this move. hopefully, the winds will taper off and they'll get a shot at it!

Weather day at 14k

The weather finally slowed them down a bit yesterday, as the winds up high prevented them from moving to high camp. The winds blew over 50mph up higher on the mountain, but it remained pretty pleasant at the 14,200 basin where they are camped. They were planning to be ready to move again on Sunday morning, but the forecast is still calling for high winds today. They'll be ready to go as soon as the wind abates a bit.

Rest and Acclimatization at 14,000 ft

The team rested yesterday at Camp 3 at 14k. This was a well deserved rest, and one more day for them to adjust to this altitude before making the jump up to high camp at over 17,000 ft. Today they'll be moving up to high camp, and then it's just one more push to the summit. The weather on Denali has been exceptionally nice for them up till now, so hope that it holds out.

There was a tragic, unexpected death on another team just a few days behind this group. You can read about it on the blog for the May 1st trip at http://may12009denali.blogspot.com