Hello MountainZoners, this is Vern Tejas with Alpine Ascents' Dalai Lamas. The Dalai Lamas are now at, well, let's say that half the Dalai Lamas are now at 17,200' above sea level. Unfortunately we have a little bad news. Half of our group has headed down. Mike, with respiratory illness. Nells, with, ah, I think Anna is getting the best of him. He's heading back home to see his girlfriend. And John, of course, is taking everybody back down. We appreciate that. Gary's thinking he's going to try again next year. So we're looking forward to seeing him back up here.

The other half of us are doing fairly well. We're a little tired from today, from carrying up from 16,200' in a howling wind. We've got, I'm guessing 25-40 knots here. It comes in gusts at 17,000'. Of course you know we're way up here in the atmosphere, up where the jet streams run. And the wind up here can be quite something to contend with.

So we're dug in right now, behind walls that are 5, 6 feet high made out of snowblock that we've been working on to make sure that we don't get blown away. So we're resting and we're waiting, hoping that the weather is soon going to calm down. It has gone from very overcast to now very clear, but we're having this clear air turbulence, high winds, and so everybody's praying that it's going to slow down. So, please, stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for some good weather for the Dalai Lamas. We sure appreciate it. See you soon, ciao for now.

Oh, hello, this is a little P.S. Love to Greg, that's from Dolly, and to all the lefty's from Joe. So goodnight, and God bless.

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