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Driving With the Brakes On
Team 3: 10,200 Feet - Tuesday, May 21, 2002
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Hello, it's Tuesday, May 21st, 2002. This is the Alpine Ascents Denali expedition #3 led by John Race and Terry Ahern. And we are now known as 'Driving With the Brakes On.'

We are camped at 10,200 feet on the Kahiltna Glacier just below Kahiltna Pass. Our schedule thus far has been as follows: we flew onto the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier on the afternoon of May 17th. On the 18th we stayed at Kahiltna Base Camp and reviewed crevasse rescue, rigged our plastic sleds for carrying loads and repacked the nearly 960 pounds of food, fuel and equipment that we brought with us.

"...one of the team members discovered that he had been walking for quite a while with the brake rope on his sled. That's where we got our name from...."

On the 19th, we woke up at 5am which has been our wake-up time every day, and moved to camp at 7,800 feet on the Kahiltna. One of the funnier moments of the day was when one of the team members discovered that he had been walking for quite a while with the brake rope on his sled. That's where we got our name from. Fortunately it was discovered before he completely wore himself out, but it did add a ton of extra work to his day.

On the 20th, which was yesterday, we carried from 7,800 feet to 10,200 feet. The trip there started fairly cold and ended seven-and-a-half hours later on a hot Kahiltna afternoon. Today we were once again up at 5am and walking by 7am. It took us a little under five hours to walk to our present camp and a good two-and-a-half hours to build snow walls, set up tents, and put in a good deep kitchen. This camp is known for getting a ton of snow if there's a storm. It's real clear right now so we're not too concerned.

Everyone has done well up to this point and we're hoping to make a short hop up to 11,000 feet tomorrow. As other teams have likely reported, the weather has been perfect since we flew onto the mountain. Right now it's 8 o'clock at night and we're all standing outside and it's warm, no wind.

For the past few days we've seen snow being blown by high winds on the summit ridge, but the lower mountain has been calm; it's actually been pretty hot during the day. We're camped with a variety of French and Spanish climbers, and have already gotten to know a half dozen groups that are traveling at about our pace.

Everyone says 'hi' to their family, loved ones, pets etc. and we'll try to squeeze some personal notes in as we go. Starting with a hello to Carla, Elise, Alexa, Champ and Dana, and that comes from Jon, Jake and the rest of the crew. Susana wants to say hi to her mom and dad, to Ernesto, Elena and Heather. And everyone else is thinking of their families and we all want to say hi and we'll squeeze it in as we go, we just don't have any more time on this call. So we'll talk to you soon, have a good night.

John Race, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent