A few updates

Climbers taking a break while another team plays through with 14K in the sun in the background.

Melis just called in from 14K. They had just done their cache up to the top of the fixed lines. All of her group is doing great. They are planning on resting tomorrow. Previous AMS groups have been collecting stores of food and fuel for the later expeditions heading on to the mountain. Melis is nice enough to go through all of it and inventory it, organize it, and re-mark it and cache it. She is planning on moving to high camp the following day if the weather is conducive.

Caches are very helpful to us, but only if they are good caches. Daryl Miller, an incredibly experienced Alaskan climber and mountaineer went even as far as saying that caches are sacred. We leave seasonal caches for ourselves and one another all season long on Denali. Once the season is done we remove everything from the mountain and leave nothing up there. Thanks Melis!

Upper photo, the prominent ridge to the right of the sun shade line is the lower West Rib. where this ridge starts heading straight up there is a flatter area before the rocky section, this is Notch Camp. Lower photo, taken from Notch Camp.

She said that Nate Opp's Upper Rib expedition is doing good and all team members are strong. They went up to their high camp 2 days ago and built walls and left a cache. Rested all day yesterday and moved up onto the Rib today. They are staying at "Notch Camp". They will be looking for summitable weather in the near future. These days most Rib expeditions camp at notch camp instead of balcony camp as it is less exposed to winds and weather. It does mean that they have a longer summit day though. I'll keep you updated IF nate calls in.

Kirby and Operation Denali are taking a rest day at 14K today. They are doing very well and are planning on moving up tomorrow.

A group probing out a camp, or more likely probing for a crevasse to dump poop bags. I say more likely, because I know this is an NPS patrol and this is not a very good place to camp. You can see a lone tent a little further in the compression zone, thet is the better place to set up camp.

Peter Anderson, Dan Corn, Steven Ranellone, Kevin Grogan, Terry Harvey, Matthais Landsbergerl, Steve Gasser, Martin Frey are most likely at the base of ski hill right now. They will not get any cell reception until they are above Ski Hill. Steve Gasser is doing this climb in the name of Cancer Survivors. For those of of you tracking Steve Gasser and his climb for cancer, you will see many of the updates listed under the lead guide's name, Peter Anderson.

Tim Hewette's and Tom Torkelson's expeditions are back in Talkeetna!

Rob