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The McKinley climb took place between May 3rd and May 24th, 2004.

May 4Not a whole lot to report. We traveled May 3rd and May 4th. All six members of the team met up the evening of the 4th in Talkeetna. Tonight will be a rest night. Tomorrow on May 5th we will go over to the airplane hanger where we will sort through loads, check equipment, and decide when we will fly out for the glacier. When I call tomorrow night, I'm 90% sure that we will be calling from Talkeetna preparing to fly out the next day. There is a 10% chance that we may fly out on the glacier. The weather is clear. It's 70 degrees believe it or not in Talkeetna. Everyone looks in very good shape, a little tired for the travel. I'll check in tomorrow night.

May 6We arrived on the Talkeetna Glacier at 7,200 feet. Everyone is well. The weather is a bit rough-snowing, rainy. Tomorrow we get up at 8:00. We have about a five to seven hour day. We are going to move from 7,200 feet to 8,000 feet. Each person will be packing a backpack of about 60 pounds and hauling about a 50 pound sled. So that is why it will take so long. The conditions – we're glad about the weather, as we would rather have it early and start to open up.

May 7It's the end of the day May 7th here on the Mountain. We went down from base camp. The move today was from base camp at 7,200 to camp one at 8,000 feet. The day proceeded – we had to climb from 7,200 however down to 6,500 and then do a 1,500 foot up which was hard – took about five or six hours. Everyone was hauling 60 to 65 pound packs and pulling 60 to 65 pound sleds so everyone is pretty tired. It was uneventful. We went across glacier fields – had to cross a few bridges but nothing exciting. So we are going to get full rest tonight, and the weather willing, we are going to advance from 8,000 pretty straight up to 9,500 feet – another 5 to 6 hour day hauling the same load. Take care and I will leave you another message.

May 8It's Saturday night. We had one guy drop out with an injury to his knee – a torn meniscus – Danny Contreras. So we are down to five. We had to get him off the mountain today which two people did. And then three of us went and did a carry – a carry is where you take part of your load – did a carry up to 9,500 feet. We're back at 8,000. Tomorrow, given good weather, we will go ahead and complete the move to 9,500. Everyone else left is healthy. Weather is mixed but very mild so far. That's the update. So Sunday night I will leave you another message, hopefully from 9,500.

May 9We completed the day. We are down to five as I said before. But the team of five moved well today. We moved permanently, putting in a camp at 9,500 feet. We will do a carry and repeat the whole process doing a carry tomorrow and a permanent carry the next day putting a camp at 11,000. The significant camps on this climb will be at 11,000 and at 14,000. From 14,000 we will put in a high camp at 17,500 which will not be there long and from there we will go for the summit. So it's a matter of moving the provisions up the mountain. The weather is a bit sketchy – a bit cold and snowy. But we consider that good and hope that it stays that way – and that when it is our turn to go for the top we have a good day. We would rather have the sketchy weather now than later. We are bushed. These have been hard days – five to seven hour days of just pulling loads on our backs and on our sleds. But the team is safe and we will be working along.

May 10

The team pushed through a big storm today – went ahead and made a push for the camp at 11,000. Very hard day – very cold snowy day, but we made it fine. Everyone is a little bit tired. We will be at camp at 11,000 feet for three nights and tomorrow will be a rest day. The following day we will do a partial carry day as we start to build the camp at 14,000. We are on the main part of the mountain – peak is right above us.

 Communications Manager's note: You are reading the text of recorded calls made from the Balsiger Expedition ascent of Mount McKinley. The May 10th call was made by Chris Balsiger at 8:28 p.m. Alaska time. Most climb updates are posted within four hours of receipt.



May 11The end of the day Tuesday. Today was a rest day – continued to storm. Again we consider that good. Tomorrow we will do a carry day almost all of the way up to the main camp at 14,000 feet. We will come back down and rest. Then the following day make a move. We think the weather is about to blow itself out and that's going to put us in very, very good shape. The team is all well. And today was a great day – (static). Everyone would like their families to know that everyone is in great shape. Jim would like to send his best to his family.

May 12Communications Manager's note: No message was received for the evening of May 12th. Prior to the expedition we were advised that daily messages should not be expected. We will continue to monitor messages and post all messages upon receipt.

May 13We're up at camp at 14,000 feet. Everyone arrived here safe. We went through some good old Mount McKinley weather today. We had a good game plan by our leader, Tap Richards that took us through the rough weather. We pulled into camp safe – built our tents.

We'll be in this camp for a while. Camp 14,000 is a crucial camp. It is the launching point for the summit attempt. There'll just be one other camp. In a couple of days, after we rest, we'll start to build up at 17,000 feet then from around 17 we make a pitch for the summit

The weather, however, up high is very, very, very bad. No teams have summitted this year. A lot have been turned back – a lot better climbers than me. So we're hopeful that we'll get a break. We're in great shape. There's good food supply and the next two days we're just going to rest. We'll leave updates. Give my best to everyone.

May 15It's Saturday – calling in a report from Friday. We are at 14,000 feet. We back carried to pick up supplies – rested – (static) – infectious during the night. It's being treated. (static) – he is doing a carry up to 16,000. (static) – my foot – (static) – is infection and could get it healed. We will know further about the foot on a day-by-day basis. Conditions are challenging up here and the winds are rough. The first summit of the year took place yesterday. (static) – and our team is strong. I'm strong except for this damn infection and solving an infection at 14,000 is going to be a monumental feat – so a little depressing right now, but there is medical care up here so I'll know more on a day-by-day basis.

May 16(static) – carry up to 16,002 which was crucial to put us with enough supplies for a summit attempt. – (static) – Saturday night everyone rested well and I was on antibiotics all day to correct an injury. (static) – Sunday a rest day. Sunday came. This is now Sunday evening. It was indeed a rest day. My foot improved tremendously and I feel confident and ready to get back in the game.

(static) – at 14 – previously for the summit… weather clearing. And it's done by a move from 14, camp at 17, with a rest day, and then a take on the summit. What we're doing now is waiting for a forecast or a field that gives us a three-day period of good weather. It may come as early as tomorrow. It possibly could come (static) – may come on Wednesday. The reason we are saying that – if you judge that off a high – there appears to be a high pressure front moving in. So with the carry that the guys made on Saturday – We are now just simply waiting for our three-day shot at the summit. Because of the rest day the team appears ready to get on the go and healthy (static) – that of course, unless something unforeseen occurs to me during the night, which we give about one in a million.

May 17End of the day Monday – still pounded by terribly bad weather. Our team is poised to move but the weather is very bad. (Static)

May 19Yesterday, Tuesday, the weather was real bad and we had a rest day. Today, Wednesday, the weather was a little bit better and the team -- looking at supplies and the weather -- has decided that if the weather is better, we will make a two-day summit push instead of a three-day push. If the weather worsens the team will come down. Everyone is strong and acclimatized. We climbed a good bit today to get the cobwebs out. The weather forecast is better and we are predicting a 36-hour window we can summit in. A lot of teams have had to come down. The weather has been brutal. If the window opens -- we will push to summit Friday.

Communications Manager's Note: (Wednesday night NOAA weather report for Mt. McKinley)...ABOVE 14,000 FT... ...HIGH WIND WARNING THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT... .WEDNESDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOW AT 17,000 FT...15 BELOW. WINDS FROM 17,000 FT TO THE SUMMIT...WEST 60 MPH. .THURSDAY...INCREASING CLOUDS. HIGH AT 17,000 FT...ZERO. WINDS FROM 17,000 FT TO THE SUMMIT...WEST 50 MPH. .OUTLOOK FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY... WEST WINDS 40 MPH INCREASING TO SOUTHWEST 70 MPH SATURDAY NIGHT. CHANCE OF SNOW FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. SNOW LIKELY SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY.

May 21Communications Manager's note: NOAA Reports the following conditions and forecast for Mt. McKinley as of 6:00 am ADT Friday May 21, 2004: ...ABOVE 14,000 FT... .FRIDAY...INCREASING CLOUDS. HIGH AT 17,000 FT...5 ABOVE. WINDS FROM 17,000 FT TO THE SUMMIT...WEST 40 MPH. .FRIDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SNOW. LOW AT 17,000 FT...ZERO. WINDS FROM 17,000 FT TO THE SUMMIT...WEST 35 MPH. .SATURDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SNOW. HIGH AT 17,000 FT...5 ABOVE. WINDS FROM 17,000 FT TO THE SUMMIT...WEST 30 MPH. .OUTLOOK SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY... A CHANCE OF SNOW. SOUTH WINDS 30 MPH SUNDAY...DIMINISHING TO 20 MPH MONDAY AND CONTINUING THROUGH TUESDAY.

May 24I'll leave a lot of messages today. Sorry for the delay. We traveled very light. One, we did not make the summit, the weather worsened, we didn't even try. But let's go first with Thursday, the team had plans to start a two day push to the summit. Woke up and through the night the jet stream had dropped and settled on the mountain. While the weather report was correct and it was clear, the jet stream created winds at 14 at around 30 - 50 mph and up on top around 80 mph, making it impossible to advance. The team tried to advance but felt it fruitless to move. Unfortunately, because the weather conditions were crystal clear except for the wind, a lot of the teams — most of the teams — while staying behind, a few teams did not read the jet stream correctly and advanced to high camp. This was very concerning as a few people felt that something bad could happen. A team from Korea was been reported to us Thursday were even talking about, in the winds, making an attempt for the summit which concerned everybody. We all stayed in our tents and hunkered down beginning to question whether or not we were going to get a shot at the summit.

Friday, on Friday we awoke. The winds stayed up high. Unfortunately a snowstorm and whiteout conditions came down bad onto the team. Not only did we now become convinced that we were not going to get a summit attempt based on our days on the mountain and supplies that we had left, but if we did not descend very rapidly that we could be stuck on the mountain for another for another 7 - 10 days. We had combined ourselves with another team and (static) this team from Canada and from America conferred and decided not to go for the summit and decided to descend quickly and safely. The storm was above us and below us. Unfortunately we received reports that the Korean team unfortunately decided to go for the summit. One of them returned with severe frostbite and reported three of his fellow team members were missing and search and rescue were launched and several people were giving their last bits of energy to search for people that had made a questionable decision in the first place and now were missing. The team descended Friday.

Our night ended with teams descending down towards the airstrip on the glacier. Reports from the Koreans, two had been found with severe frostbite. The third was found with severe head injuries and rescue attempts were underway to try and bring him down from around 19,000 feet. Reinforcing that it was ill advised to advance. The other teams on Friday that had moved to 17 were beginning to retreat down to 14.

Saturday. Our team and the other team from (static) as well as some Canadian teams and several other international teams were able to successfully, through a brief weather window in the evening of Saturday, were able to take advantage of that and fly off the mountain and get safely to Talkeetna. All of our teams are safe and happy in Talkeetna. Rescue attempts for the Korean with severe head injuries were shorted by the bad weather. We had received reports that he had gone comatose and fainted and things were not looking good.

Sunday, teams departed for home, safe and at this recording had knowledge that we had made good decisions. Some had not and were going to pay for those with loss of limbs, digits and possibly life, but we were safe.

A postscript and closing note on the climb is that the five members of our team performed and did everything correctly. And not only did our group rely on the fine leadership of Tap, but several other groups also followed his leadership and it was despite having a great desired to summit, Tap made everyone realize that sometimes the mountain says “no” and its best to accept that decision and live to climb another day. Some people, as I referred to, did not accept the mountain's decision and paid for it dearly. As a historical note, this is the worst weather recorded on McKinley we were told in the last 12 years. But everyone climbed strong, acted with character and is safe and it was a pleasure as always to climb under the leadership of Tap.

Sometimes you get a shot at the summit, and when you get one you either make it or you don't. And sometimes you fight the mountain to a tie. And this trip was neither a success nor a failure; it will simply go down as a tie. Simply, the mountain said no even though the team members had the character and the power, the mountain said “no.”