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Two Have Summit Success Saturday, June 17, 2000
Hello Mountain Zone, this is Luis Benitez with Scott Darsney up here at the 17,000-foot camp on Denali. I have some good news and some bad news to report. The good news is that some of our team made the summit yesterday, the bad news is that not everyone was able to continue. We were kind of waiting for a weather window in all this bad weather and yesterday seemed to be the best shot we were going to have. It's already clouded in and it's snowing again today. Things started out pretty slowly, everyone seemed to be feeling okay. It was extraordinarily windy and extraordinarily cold, the temperatures ranging from 10 below to up on the summit to about 80-below zero. Mike and myself were the two to make the summit yesterday and everyone else reached the football field, which is a pretty prominent landmark up high on Denali and chose to turn around there— given the fact that it was getting late and didn't want to risk any frostbite or injury descending from fatigue. Mike and I reached the summit at about 8:45 in the evening and got back to Base Camp a little bit after that. So today we are headed down, possibly to the 14,000-foot camp or even lower to 11. We will see how everyone feels and how far the weather will allow us to go. It has been a great trip, everyone sends their love to their family and friends back home and to let them all know that everyone is all safe and sound and looking forward to returning. So the next expedition you will be hearing from will be the one with Vern Tejas and we will be handing the phone over to him in a couple of days, so please keep posted on Mountain Zone and look for that. But for now, this is Luis Benitez and Scott Darsney wishing everyone back home a pleasant day.
— Luis Benitez, Alpine Ascents International, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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Hear Scott's Call from Denali 
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