ipadio: stuart's channel - 12th phonecast

Gear drying!

After returning home from wearing the same stuff for 2 straight weeks the proper etiquette is burn the underwear, wash the clothes and put everything else on the porch to sun/air dry! The smells which bring me back to the mountain pretty much are only offending the olfactory senses of everyone else!

Brad and christi on their way to 7200 and yet a long ways from this stage! They'll be out to talkeetna tomorrow they hope and can begin the ascent to humankind then!
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brad & christi sunoitted @ 5:20pm in perfect weather! sunny warm & no wind. today we head down to 7200 hope to fly out wed

No place like home

Nice to be a dad and have signs like this on the front door!
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leaving on a jet plane!

I am sitting in the plane and we'll be taking off shortly! Matt is already back in seattle and playing with charlotte! I am getting picked up by nicole and ben and then will pick maddy up at school so going to be a nice family day!
Sounds like Christi and Brad had a great weather window and got to the top in calm conditions! Can't wait to see their pics and hear the stories!! Matt and I will just have to come back another day!
Much more when I have a few hours this week!
Stu on Delta
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summitted @ 520pm heading to 17k cmp weather perfect

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Breakfast at the roadhouse!
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In the West Rib bar- Bradford and Barbara Washburn's signature! On his 90th bday.
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s_remensnyder.expedition2011@blogger.com cm & brad @ 17200k camp. weather looks gd 4 summit attmpt mon.

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Wow its big!

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cm & brad moving up to 17200k hope to summit mon. matt & stu flying to talkeetna today

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stu & matt are heading to 7200 camp today

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looks like we are getting a weather window. cm & brad go to 17 camp sun for mon summit bid

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the sun is out! we hope it stays a few days!

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stormy & snowing today. sunday will be our decision day. matt & stu are stuck @ 11k cmp w/ 100 climbers

ipadio: stuart's channel - 11th phonecast

ipadio: stuart's channel - 10th phonecast

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<1/2> s_remensnyder.expedition2011@blogger.com stormy today. team is splitting up. matt & stu are going down. christi & brad are joining ziggy to make attempt @@

i have noooooo idea is this is going to be received or not ......but please tell brad that im thinking of him.

ipadio: stuart's channel - 9th phonecast

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s_remensnyder.expedition2011@blogger.com heading to 16200 acclimatization hike & to look @ upper rib rte.

ipadio: stuart's channel - 7th phonecast

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s_remensnyder.expedition2011@blogger.com 14 may arrived @ basecmp 14200ft sunny and beautiful! having a blast. christi

ipadio: stuart's channel - 6th phonecast

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ipadio: stuart's channel - 4th phonecast

ipadio: stuart's channel - 3rd phonecast

ipadio: stuart's channel - 2nd phonecast

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all welk@7800ft. breakfast of 5piece bacon,bagel&creamcheese with cafe au lait. yum!

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all is well @ camp1@7800' sunny too! love to all

Beautiful mountains!

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Headsets

Its so load we have head sets and are talking to each other with little microphone!

The phone signal is pretty weak now so we'll see how many more I can get off!

We are all thinking of our loved ones at home as we near the hill.
Love to you all!
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Copilot brad!

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In the air!

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Email us!

881631557209@msg.iridium.com

Drop an email to the above address and keep messages top less than 140 characters!

We'll love getting them!
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Wheels up!

We are taxiing now and the noise is pretty strong! Here is our little plane to take us to 7000camp!
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Final Packing!

We are making all the final choices and soon will live with the choices. Things with many uses win over single use etc.
Nearly there now and looks like we'll be out of phone contact for 5-6 days but will use the sat phone to dispatch. Likely no more pics til we are out!
Love to everyone!!
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Airplane next!

Ranger meeting done and all the rules for going to the bathroom, getting weather and more!
Super mellow and nice ranger ran us through a slide show and answered all our questions. Sounds quite cold and windy at this time but snow conditions like June.
We'll catch one of these planes in a few hours and then we'll be out of touch perhaps a day or so. Hopefully all goes well with the sat phone and look for note to come with how to drop us a note!

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Washburn pics

Matt taking in one of the many pics by Brad Washburn of Mount Foraker, a close neighbor of Denali.
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Waiting room at the park

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Denali weather!

Key thing to note is HIGH temp is -20F at the 17000ft camp and the High temp is -10F at 14000ft. Chilly!!

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Talketna at last

Amazing food everywhere and we have no time! Ranger meeting 130pm!
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Denali photo op

The mandatory view from 10mins from the ranger station. The air is cool and fresh and we are feeling good!
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Denali in view!

Our first view of the massif and we are now appropriately humbled. Excited chatter of routes and history and so on now replacing the earlier food talk!
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Searching for Sarah!

Just passing Wassila and still have not seen the former VP candidate! We'll keep our eyes out!
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En Route!

Well somehow it happened that 4 mountains of gear, food, clothing and sundries made it into bags and onto the shuttle and 8 minutes ahead of schedule! There were doubters among them but even those of us with a rep for lagging a little behind put on a good sprint and got 'er dun!

We have an easy 3hr ride to Talkeetna and the view are outrageous. The mountains simply rise up out of the water and land everywhere you look and they soar into the sky gaining the look of a pointy topped unside down cake with drizzled vanilla frosting, (note the food reference as we begin to think of entering our 2 weeks of "limited" options for meals!)

More along the way!
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View from costco!

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Shopping done...almost

At the checkout going oh my god it weighs a lot! 3lbs hash browns, 4 lbs bacon, 10lbs cheese, 96 granola bars, 6lbs coffee, 36 bagels, 6lb pasta, 6lbs quinoa, 4 packs of salmon jerky, 4 packs of turkey jerky, 2 jars orgamic peanut butter, 120 packets of swiss miss hot cocoa, random amounts of falafel, sausages, bbq pork, peanut m&m's, coconut curry and so on!
Now we are sitting realizing we still don't have pancake mix, soup, rice, brown sugar and so on. After knocking off a carne asada at the famous Costco luncheon we'll be off to REI and AMH to get last bits of rope, snowshoe rentals and then a finish at Carr's for last food and med kit items. Phew!!!
More later!
Stu and gang from Costco
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Shopping day at costco

From stu in anchorage
It is a beautiful sunny day with mountains to look at at we are haggling over family sized bottles of cooking oil! Ahh the exciting life of climbing!
More soon!
Pic is Christi, Brad and Matt!

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Brad and his gear explosion

More pics at the end of the day but loads gear all over! Brad came 32hrs travel from singapore so gets the long distance award!
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Gear prep day!

We are all settled into the Earth B&B and getting out our gear to check it all over before heading out for food and gear shopping!
We'll pass on an update along the way!

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En Route to Anchorage!

Hi All,
Brad had begun the long flight already, I board shortly and Matt and Christi soon. We'll all be jamming into a large renta-vehicle and arriving late at the Earth B&B. In the morning we'll update you all on the progress.

Word on the "street" is that the night temps low on the mountain are -20F but pretty "warm" days and reasonably clear weather. Some snow has fallen which will make the path softer so that is nice!

We are all leaving behind people we love and care for and this is perhaps the hardest part of any expedition and we send our love to each and every one of them. We promise to be safe and make smart decisions for as Ed Veisturs likes to say "the summit is optional, getting down is mandatory"

More soon!

Stu
Ps
How travel has changed...attached pic of my ipod and mac charging up while I wait so I can work on the plane to Minneapolis!

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