Hey how's it going. This is Erik Barnes again with the Dozy Bonkers up here on Denali. We just want to continue with a little update from Matt's update this afternoon. The Dozy Bonkers want to apologize for their absence of communication during the past several days. Unfortunately the topography up here does prevent a lot of communication. We do try when we can.

The past days have seen several feet of snow and high winds and more low visibility. Our carry to 13,5 went uneventfully and we even had a great view of Hunter and Foraker between the cloud cover. These zero vis days are a lot of fun I'll tell ya.

Unfortunately the Dozy Bonkers have decreased their number by one. In our hopes of letting John recover from a cold, we did rest another day at camp 3 and unfortunately John was not felling well so John is now sitting in Talkeetna lavishing down pizza and just chilling out. We do miss him [call breaks off].

[new phone call] Hey this is Erik again, just trying to finish communications. Obviously coms don't always exist up here. Anyways, let's see, just want to pass on saying that we did lose John to pneumonia and bronchitis I guess. We did get word back from Talkeetna that he is doing well there and the whole team just wanted to say that he is sure missed. Today was definitely a good day, the sun was nice, we did a back carry to 13,5 completing our full move to 14,2.

We've had high temps about 30, giving us nice sweltering days and down to a good negative 5 at night so we have nice ice crystals growing from our bags. Tomorrow we plan to carry up to 16,2 and we'll hopefully have a good day.

Again here we have a couple messages to pass out and I'm just going to read these verbatim. Shane says Joanne, can't wait to see you in only 12 days, I miss you and love you, hang in there, give the chocolates a big wet one for me, happy belated birthday dad. And message passed on from Tom hi gang, sit, bat and the boy, good luck with your last weeks of school, I am thinking of you always. To Elaine, you are my first thought in the morning and last ones at night. Camp 4 is cold, and underlined he has here, and in the morning we begin the big climb to the ridge below camp 5, on and on. Pete says Joanne, Hugh, Robby, Elise, all is good at camp 4, we have a great team, love you. This is Alp 4, the Dozy Bonkers, heading out. Talk to you later.

— Erik Barnes, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent