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Summit Bid: Coldest Day
Friday, June 16, 2000

A Season on Denali
Darsney
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Hi there Scott Darsney reporting for the Mountain Zone, it's Thursday...or Friday the 16th. I think we pulled off a coup today, we got up at 6am and looked up after three, stormbound days, full stormbound days here at 17, blowing and snowing and everything else and decided to make a run for it, as well as other groups did too.

We made pretty good time, but it was the coldest summit day I have ever experienced on record myself, especially for June. It was blowing out of the north, probably about 15 knots and very, very cold — the first time I had my down pants and my down parka on the whole way up and the whole way down.

We got to the football field and everyone is still feeling pretty good, but we're all so cold that we kind of decided to hang in the towel. The extra four hours to go that extra 400 feet just didn't make prudent sense, with the storm situation around here and everything. Boy and as I look up now I see tracks going up the Messner Couloir, which is kind of neat. I'm standing at the edge of the 17,000-foot camp right now.

However, Mike and Luis Benitez, they decided...we decided to split up at the football field and they decided to continue on up [Unintelligible] hill to the true summit, and I don't see them coming down yet. It is mist and fog on the traverse. The route conditions are pretty good, but it was extremely, extremely cold — all of our water bottles were freezing — and we wanted to turn around and play it safe so that no one got any frostbite, or windburn, or problems like that.

We avoided all of that so the five of us are back in camp now at 17,000, brewing up and feeling good and happy that we got oh so close to the summit, but we also got up and down safely with all of our appendages and whatnot. Like the song goes: [Scott singing] If you love your nose and all your toes then listen to the Eskimos, the things you can and the things you can't expose.

Anyway, a little bit of Alaska trivia there. Anyway, this is Scott Darsney signing off. We'll get back to you and see how Luis and Mike did and talk to you tomorrow, and then we'll pass the baton over to Vernon. And Jim Williams will be coming up here shortly. Anyway, Scott Darsney for the Mountain Zone about to sign off, but please do check out my photography site out on the Mountain Zone — got to plug that again — talk to you later, bye-bye.

Scott Darsney, Alpine Ascents International, MountainZone.com Correspondent


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