Hello, this is John Race with the Alpine Ascents Denali team known as Driving With the Brakes On. It is Wednesday, May 29. I'm calling from 17,200 feet, high camp on the West Buttress. We left 14.2 yesterday intending to climb to 17.2, but decided to stop at 16,200 feet, preserving more energy for our upcoming summit push. Unusually hot temperatures on the fixed lines between 15.6 and 16.2 contributed to an unusually difficult day.

This morning we woke up at 16.2 and then took about three-and-a-half hours to climb to high camp. The weather for the past few days has been characterized by warm temperatures, calm winds and afternoon snowstorms below 17,000. This pattern is forecasted to continue through the end of the week and should provide us with reasonable conditions for our summit bid.

All 18 members are still doing well and should be in a position to make a strong summit bid. Our current plan is to wake up tomorrow morning and be on our way to the summit by around 9am. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the day is a 1300-foot continuous ascent to Denali Pass at 18,500 feet.

The first stretch requires us to walk for two hours or more without any nice benches for rest breaks. Once beyond Denali Pass we settle into a more straightforward one-hour stretches with good rest in between. As always our main goal is to have a safe trip. With this is mind, we're all psyched to reach the summit some eight to nine hours after leaving high camp.

That's our plan for now, we'll let you know if anything changes. This is John Race from 17,200 feet. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.

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