Denali Day 12: 17 Camp, Position for Summit

We made it to 17 camp, one carry yesterday, the rest of our gear today. It’s noticeably colder up here, and the breeze cuts in a way it didn’t lower on the mountain. There’s a whole little village of tents and people though, which makes the place feel less isolated than the elevation would suggest.

The weather window looks good for the next couple of days, which means a real possibility: summit tomorrow, descend in clear weather. That’s the dream sequence. The only open question right now is how we get all of our gear down in a single carry, a logistics puzzle we’ll solve when it’s actually in front of us, not before.

The team feels good emotionally, mentally, and physically. All three matter equally up here. Sandro and Tom went back for our cache, about an hour round trip from camp, while Jacob

And I settled into our tent.

I’ll be honest. Being the one guiding this expedition has challenged me in ways I didn’t fully expect going in. There’s a real difference between climbing with a guided outfit, where someone else carries the accumulated knowledge of when to move, when to layer up, all the small details you only learn by doing this over and over, and being the one who has to know all of that herself. It’s a lot. But challenges like this are exactly the kind that are good for you, and we’re choosing to embrace it rather than resent it. This is absolutely going in the memory books.

Jacob is in great shape, and getting to share this with him, to chase this dream side by side and finish the pursuit together, is something I don’t take for granted for a second.

Thank you to everyone cheering us on from home. You’re part of why this is working. And thank you, Mother Nature, for the window.

One thing that’s kept spirits high through the hard stretches: whenever a negative thought crept in, we’d hit it with a mantra. Ours was simple and a little ridiculous: the world is flat. Say it enough times and it becomes funny instead of true, which is exactly the point. If the world is flat, I’m not climbing a mountain right now. Problem solved. Humor has done as much for this team’s morale as any gear in our packs.

We’re in position. Tomorrow morning we’ll check in with how everyone’s feeling and make the call then.

Something to think about today:

Sometimes the most useful tool against a hard moment isn’t grit. It’s absurdity. A little humor, a silly mantra, a shared joke can do what willpower alone can’t. Where could you use a little “the world is flat” energy in your own hard moment right now?

— Jenn & team at 17,000 feet