Hi this is Mike Roberts and Matt Walker from Alpine Ascents Denali 9, team, vegeMIGHT Remember, vegeMIGHT is spelled vege and the capital MIGHT.

We're now at 14,200' at Camp III. It's been about 5 days since we've had a cybercast, so we'll just catch you up on recent events. Backtracking, on the 18th our camp moved to a little south of 11,200', which was accomplished without incident in perfect weather. Walt made the comment that he found this one of the most rewarding days in his varied mountaineering career. It was certainly a great day, very hot afternoon, perfect for sunbathing, napping and making headway into a novel.

Now on to June the 19th. We retrieved our cache from 10,200', and carried it up to our camp at 11,200'. This was a relatively short hike, gang, and only took about 21/2 hours. However, by the time we reached the cache it was snowing heavily, with some electrical activity and thunder, which was actually very unusual for Denali.

Anyway after getting back to camp and digging tents out from the rapidly accumulating snow, we proceeded to have a long and leisurely brunch, which was basically a semi-rest day. Pancackes and bacon were the order of the day. A lively discusssion cum debate took place, and Team vegeMIGHT certainly showed that it has a wide variety of political viewpoints.

So the snowfall finally stopped about 4pm, with an accumulation of about 2' of light, dry powder. In the evening we were rewarded with fantastic evening light, and views of Mount Foraker and Kahiltna Dome, with clouds pouring over them. It was spectacular. Dave reveled in the situation and said it was just what he was hoping for. He took multiple pictures that night.

The other day Xavier notably mistook his pee bottle for a water bottle and he got quite a surprise when he went to take a swig. John gave us all an intro into the sound of Metallica, (unintelligible).

Going back through our fresh snowfall at 11,200', Mike showed that he is perhaps prone to have a senior moment or two when he lost his ski poles under the fresh snow. This is after telling everyone else to keep track of their belongings. After half an hour of scuffling through fresh snow, they were finally located, notably Matt was searching extra diligently because I think he feared being left with only one pole for the remainder of the trip.

Don wants his wife to know that he is eating cheesecake. She will know what this means. And moving on right along, to the 20th. By this date we had two nights at 11,200', and this was our third day, and what we did when we awoke, there was a lot of fresh snow and we proceeded to go and cache a load of food, fuel and equipment to the infamous Windy Corner. Well, we were first out of camp, maybe we were up a little early that morning, but Team vegeMIGHT sure earned their karma points for the rest of the trip with the other teams on the mountain, because we broke trail, and in places it was up to waist deep, simply going up a hill called Rural Hill.

It was a dramatic day with clouds coming and going and occasional glimpses of the surrounding peaks. And in between there were intermittent snow showers and thunder. Needless to say it was a very hard day to quickly regulate one's clothing for the ever-changing temperature, and there were a lot of calls from various team members to stop while they either did the zippers up or closed them down.

Moving right on along now to the 21st of June. On the 21st we moved to Camp III, which is situated on the broad snow plateau at 14,200'. The route to this climb is Motorcycle Hill. From here there is an amazing view of (unintelligible) cascading down to the feet of glacier. The next section involves climbing gradual terrain known as Rural Hill I mentioned it previously in relation to the waist deep snow.

And that takes you up to a little plateau called the Polo Field, which is the final slope one climbs to reach Windy Corner. All of these various stages are look close together, but it was hard to have accurate depth perception in the unique Alaskan landscape. In other words, the next stage always seemed a little further than we wanted, we were puffing a little more than we wanted, and it was a relatively long day.

Anyway, the final section to 14,200 contours a glacier of spectacular crevasses and seracs, that is reminiscent of a frozen ocean. On our arrival at Camp III, we were in low visibility and increasing wind. The light snow was being blown around, it seemed, in all different directions. We'd pitch our tents with door directions in one, facing one way and then the wind would come straight in them. It was quite a bleak evening...and it was a great relief for all when we finally got into bed.

And then today, Saturday the 25th of the June everyone awoke feeling well and in high spirits on a perfect day. It was a cloudless day and without wind. We stayed well snuggled into our sleeping bags until the sun had (unintelligible) at 9:15am. After a leisurely breakfast we retrieved our cache from Windy Corner, which was completely calm. On our return to camp it was time for alpine ice cream, a treat that all enjoyed.

Then we had a training session for the fixed ropes. Dinner was pizza and burritos, another meal which was well received. Tomorrow if we get suitable weather and everyone feels up to it, we will climb to 16,200' to cache a load.

From here on we anticipate daily cybercasts. Please tune in for tomorrow's update. Our thoughts and love go out to family and friendsCheers for now, Mike Roberts.

— Mike Roberts, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent