Today's Update

I heard from everyone today. LOVE THAT

Peter Anderson and crew are at Basecamp, waiting for a flight out. They arrived into basecamp at about 2 pm this afternoon. They were due to picked up at 5:30 pm , but the winds picked up at basecamp and the air taxi's are waiting for them to calm before going in with any planes. I fully support these safety calls. There are climbing teams waiting to fly into basecamp from Talkeetna too. I am sure their afternoon activities included: cat napping, enjoying all the warm temps and breathing the "thick air" at base camp. They have plenty of supplies in camp to spend the night if the winds don't quiet down tonight.

Mike Hamill's team remains at 14,200'. They are doing well and are resting today. They hope to move up to high camp tomorrow.

Phil Ershler's IMG/AMS team is at 17,200'. The winds were again too high (25 mph) for a summit day, They are spending tonight at high camp and will make a call tomorrow to either go to the summit if the weather is suitable or to come down. They have spent 9 nights waiting for good weather at 14 camp and I am sure they are hoping for good weather tomorrow. They are up there with several other guided teams from other companies, they are all waiting for some clearing or at least some calming of the winds. For what it is worth (mountain weather forecasting is difficult to predict) the forecast looks rather good for them, not stellar and perfect, but it calls for winds less than 20 mph with a thin layer of clouds. Our fingers are crossed for them.

Colby Coombs' team rolled into 11,000' camp at about 6:30 this morning. They traveled in some windy, snowy weather from 7,800' to get there. They left 7,800' camp very early, still on their night schedule, and just after they left camp the winds started to pick up. They rested all day and hope to make upward progression tomorrow, weather depending.

Rob Gowler's team is at 7,800' they made a carry to 9,800' and put their extra food, fuel and equipment in a cache (big snow hole). They are sleeping at 7,800' tonight and if the weather is decent, they will move up to either 9,800' or 11,000' tomorrow. It was whiteout, snowy, windy and cold during on the glacier today for them but they cranked it out, the mountain is putting them right into the thick of it - they will have all of their clothing systems down pat in the next few days. Everyone is doing well.

Cheers,
- Caitlin