Good evening Cybernauts, this is Vern Tejas with Dali Lamas, the Alpine Ascents expedition up Mt. McKinley. We are currently at 13,000, excuse me, make that 14,200' above sea level, looking out over a sea of clouds that go on for miles and miles and they're down about 10,000'. So we just have like a carpeting of fluffy stuff below us.

Sticking up through that are several of the highest mountains, Mount Hunter notably, and Mount Foraker to the south, and of course, Denali the big one straight up over our heads with clear blue skies behind.

It's been a phenomenal day, which has made it very much in contrast to yesterday, being the solstice, and we had a huge storm. We were coming into camp here and we ended up trying to pitch our tents in raging winds and whiteout conditions, snow flying everywhere. However, the team pulled together quite nicely and within three hours we were underground with our kitchen and we were having dinner and everybody had their tents set up. It was wonderful, it was just a mighty funny way to spend the summer solstice. And we'd just like to say a happy belated solstice to all of you out there in cyberland.

Currently, our plans are to take a rest day tomorrow and hopefully cross over on the plateau to what we call the "edge of the world," a very scenic outlook that looks down on the Kahiltna Glacier and drops away about a mile drop below us, sort of like being in the Grand Canyon of Alaska and looking down.

Everybody in the team seems to be in fairly good health, we've got a couple of people with colds, but we're hoping that the rest day will cheer them up and bring them around. And staring us directly in the face will be an ascent of the headwall in a couple of days from now and the famous West Buttress ridge which is the most scenic part of the whole climb. So we're looking forward to that in the next couple of three days.

Please keep your fingers crossed and pray for good weather for us as we now are getting into position.

Ciao for now, this is Vernon, clear.

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent