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Going For the Summit Wednesday, May 31, 2000
This is John Race with Alpine Ascents International and we're at 17,200ft, about 9:30am on Wednesday, May 31, and our team of seven is getting ready to head to the summit. We've had crummy weather for a couple of days, but right now it looks like the winds are calming and we can see for hundreds of miles. Everybody's feeling strong. Yesterday we had kind of a hectic day. There was some independent climbers that had various altitude-related problems that we had to escort down to 16.2 in fairly bad weather, which made for a pretty tough day. But it sounds like they came out all right and we're totally psyched. Looking up at the route right now, the trip from 17.2 to Denali Pass is in the shade. There are eight climbers out on the Pass. There's a good bit of snow, so the route should be pretty safe this year, I would think, but we're also going to lay in some pickets to make it extra secure. Spirits are high. We're looking at about a 12-hour roundtrip if we make the top which would put us back to camp around 10pm. And gosh, things are just looking awesome. We'll try to call you guys throughout the climb and keep you posted. Tom Bridge's group is moving up to camp at 16,200ft today, I believe, and I don't know the status of any other AAI groups on the mountain. I believe another group flew on, but we didn't have radio contact with them yesterday. And I believe Tom's group is doing real well and Bill McCormick and I are pysched with folks that we have and got our fingers crossed to get 100% to the top. We'll talk to you guys soon.
— John Race, Alpine Ascents International, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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