Scott, doing some last minute food preparations. Scott Woolums checked in from 14K. He, Brian and Johnny are all very strong. They have just been chillin and "catching some rays" up there. The weather has been super good the last few days. No wind at 14 for the last couple days. I heard reports of some wind up higher but that's pretty normal.
Scott sounded like he was having a good time. Tonight is their 2nd night at 14K. He said he was going to be there for a minimum of 4 nights. 4 nights at 14 is a good number of nights to be there. It gives people the best possible chance to get their oxygen saturations up and ready for high camp. They are going to make their cache tomorrow up on the ridge, then they will take a rest day and start looking for the right weather window to move up.
Last year Scott Woolums was up on the mountain guiding a trip. Towards the end of the trip while he and several other groups were up at high camp they received a whole bunch of snow and winds. It made the avalanche danger go way up on the route to Denali Pass. So Scott busted a route straight up out of camp through some rock bands to avoid the avalanche hazard. The route has been done on some other occasions but not often, and he was able to still make the summit while most groups had to turn around. The route topped out at well over 19,000 feet and was more difficult that the standard West Buttress route. Scott is a dedicated and motivated guide to say the least.
McCullough moved up to high camp. He was able to do a tent swap with Postle's crew. That alone saved over 26 lbs. that they didn't have to carry up. Usually if they are able to tent wswap they can also get away with swapping some other equipment too.
Kirby is moving up to high camp tomorrow. I didn't talk to Kirby. Scott just passed that message along.
Colby and Greg's crews are out and we're just now eating Henrik's cake. More soon.
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