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Challenging Descent Thursday, June 22, 2000
Good afternoon Mountain Zone, and all you Zoners out there, this is Vernon Tejas, with Alpine Ascents, and we are Team Testosterone. We're just checking in to tell you we have come down from the summit; we actually made it down through a pregnant blizzard. We had 30-45mph gusts up at the Football Field, at 19,500ft, obscuring the person in front of us, as we hiked along the trail, trying to get back to our camp. We descended down from Denali Pass in what I could consider very inhospitable conditions of spinning snow and wind, again, approaching 30-45mph. It was quite challenging after spending 14 hours making our successful summit bid. So today we got up late, slept in, had hash browns, eggs and sausage, toast, and, gosh, Pop Tarts to finish it all off. It was wonderful. Tomorrow we're planning on dropping down from this altitude camp, at 17,200ft, and going all the way down to 11,000 — conditions permitting. And we're hoping that this high pressure that had moved in last night — that's where all the winds came from — we're hoping the high pressure will continue and that we're able to make it all the way to Base Camp in the two days and fly out and have some pizza and beer — you know all the good things in life. So, in the process, we'll probably had the cell phone off to Bill McCormick's group that should be down at 14,000ft tonight. So please stand by and we'll put you in touch with Bill's group and hopefully they'll have the wonderful-est time on the mountain as we did. Ciao for now, that's all from us, bye guys.
— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents International, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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Hear Vern's Call from Denali 
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