Denali Expedition update direct from Mount McKinley via Team 2 Leader, CPT Matt Hickey, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division Update 6, 13 June, Camp 5, 17,200 ft. We slowly strode our way into camp yesterday around 1600. Eight hours of travel amidst spindrift on the Buttress left us weary. We still had to make camp though and with 50 mph winds forecasted we were quick to the shovel. By 1800 we were stuffed in our sleeping sacks escaping the frigid temperatures that loomed outside the nylon walls of our tents. A southeast wind blew rattling our tents then subsided. Was this the beginning of the wind storm? We departed Basin Camp with a forecast that predicted good weather for travel that same day, and also for two days later-our summit bid day, but while traveling, radio communication with a friend of mine from a guided group relayed a different forecast: wind! The eight of us thus sat in our three tents expecting to be blown around that evening, but we found climatic conditions to be quite still. We all slept rather soundly given the newer, higher altitude. This morning was calm and clear as well. Cirrus clouds began forming atop McKinley, and Mt Foraker inducing high winds. We all huddled in the vestibules of our respective tents warming water with every layer of the ECWCS on our bodies and then some. Were one of the three teams at High Camp. My radio is buzzing with calls from groups below asking for a condition report. I want to respond with, come on up and find out. We worked darn hard to get here, but instead I say, Its 17000 ft, its cold, windy, and the air is thin, but other than that its all rainbows and butterflies. We need one day of good weather to make a push for the top-indeed if were granted that everything might well be rainbows and butterflies. Climb on! Arctic Tough!
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 23:40:06 +0000
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