Tejas

Hear Vern's Call from Denali

Click for [RealAudio]  [Windows Media]

(Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media)

17,200ft Camp

The only time that we can venture out is to make this phone call and also to build block walls out of snow blocks that we cut with our carpenter saw–actually, the one from Iran, but that's another story entirely. The block walls have to be four or five feet high and a couple feet thick in order to withstand the gusts. They've been projecting 55mph here on the summit, which is a couple thousand feet above us yet. And we sent, sent out for food the other day and never arrived. So, we ended up having to drop down Tom Bridge, my co-leader, dropped back down to 16,000ft where we have a cache and picked up the rest of our food there and brought it up.

Hopefully, the weather will change in the next couple of days, so we'll get a chance to go to the summit before we run out of food. Which is always a quandary, how much food do you take when you go on a big mountain and whether it storms, hopefully enough. And in this case, hopefully enough. And we will see, only time will tell.

People are getting a little bit burned out by my cooking, but hey, it's the only entertainment that we have these days. Rob's been making good use of his time by reading a book through out this tour and Mr., Mr.–geeze I don't know if I am going to talk about Mr. Arash yet–but, yes we'll talk about Mr. Arash.

Mr. Arash has been sleeping for the most part of it which is a pretty amazing thing when you consider the flapping of the tents all night long. He has just been over there ...over and over again. We just see him for breakfast and for dinner and bye-bye, he's gone. And Michelle, for her part, has learned how to build an igloo. She's been cutting blocks and stacking them and we got an igloo put together last night so that Tom could actually sleep inside a snow shelter which is much quieter and much warmer than actually hanging it out in the tent with the rest of those guys, and gals.

Okay, we're looking forward to the reducing of wind tonight. And hopefully tomorrow, Sunday, we'll be able to at least entertain the thought of going up rather than thoughts of burrowing in deeper. That's all from 17.2 for this time. Love to talk to you later. Bye.

— Alpine Ascents Guide Vern Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent

EXPEDITION DISPATCHES