Following is a series of dispatches received via satellite phone throughout the expedition:

Dispatch 1, June 20: Dylan Taylor, guide for Team #6, called yesterday evening to report that "Day 2 of the expedition was really more like Day 1" after a thunderstorm turned the team's plane around midway on its flight path out to the glacier. Superstitious members of the group describe the storm as a follow-up to a strong earthquake that took place earlier that morning during the climbers' orientation meeting with park rangers. Dylan said, "Right after the earthquake, we all looked at each other and joked that it didn't bode well for our chances of making it onto the mountain that day. Sure enough, we got turned around after takeoff by that thunderstorm and had to spend an extra night in Talkeetna."

"It was a pretty insignificant delay though in terms of keeping to our schedule," Dylan said. "We were able to fly out this morning (June 19) no problem and made it up to 8,000' on the Kahiltna Glacier, where we stopped to set up camp and take in our new surroundings. It was a little hot during the day while we were going from the airstrip to camp, but there was a nice amount of cloud cover that saved us from really baking on the approach. Tomorrow, we're going to put in a cache between 10,000' and 10,500' and spend one more night at this camp before moving further up the mountain. Everyone is doing well and is really glad to be here in this awe-inspiring setting."

Dispatch 2, June 21: Justin Wood called us last night from 8,000' where Team #6 was spending its last night before moving up to 11,000'. To prepare for today's 3,000' ascent to Camp 2, the team spent June 20th carrying food and gear to a cache location at 10,000', weathering warm temperatures and the occasional wet snow shower as they traveled up the lower Kahiltna Glacier.

Justin reported, "Crevasses are starting to open up on the lower Kahiltna, so we were thankful for the cloud cover, even though we got hit with some really wet snow on the climb up. The clouds kept the glacier cool for the most part and firmed up the snow bridges, which made for a more direct route and a quicker trip. We were able to put in a cache at 10,000' today, and tomorrow we plan to move camp to 11,000'. Everything is going smoothly after our shaky start, what with the earthquake and thunderstorm, and we are all happy and excited to be moving our way up the mountain. We'll be in touch within the next couple of days."

Dispatch 3, June 22: We received a very brief message from guide Dylan Taylor of Team #6 today at 5:30pm Pacific time. He said that the team is currently at 11,000 feet, after having arrived there yesterday. Today's major highlight was the "breakfast extravaganza" which consisted of "an artery-clogging meal of eggs, bacon, bagels, hash browns, and cheese." After lying around long enough in camp to let the hearty meal digest, the team then descended to 10,000 feet where they retrieved the cache they had placed there two days prior. Tomorrow the team is planning on putting a new cache in at around 13,000 feet. Dylan said that the weather is pretty good, though a little "warm and boggy" with a light but consistent snow falling.

Dispatch 4, June 24: "This is Dylan, calling from 11,000 feet on the West Buttress. Yesterday we made a cache at Windy Corner (13,500 feet). It took us eight full hours because there was three feet of fresh snow, and we seemed to be the only team that had brought snowshoes. All the other teams waited for us to head out first and so we ended up breaking trail the whole way up - it was definitely a full and very strenuous day. We're leaving pretty soon today to head up to 14,000 feet - we first have to do our 'mountain yoga' but then we'll be on our way! We'll call tomorrow hopefully from 14,000'."

Dispatch 5, June 25: "Hey all, it's Dylan again. This time I'm calling from 14,000-foot camp. We arrived here last night at 9pm, built camp, dug a kitchen, and ate dinner around midnight. Needless to say, we slept in late this morning and so we're just getting going. Some of us will head down to our cache at Windy Corner today to grab our remaining supplies (we took some of what we had stored when we passed by there on our way up yesterday). The weather seems to be pretty stable. This morning my thermometer read 10 degrees F inside my tent, so it was probably a little colder than that outside. It's a little foggy and it snowed a bit last night, but other than that it's pretty nice and there isn't any wind at all, which makes hanging around at Camp 3 much more pleasant. Camp 3 itself is a bit shrunken down at this time in the season - it was downright easy to find a piece of real estate to move into when we arrived last night! Tomorrow we plan to make a cache at 16,200 feet, which will give our team some practice at going up and down the fixed lines and will also give them a feel for an even higher altitude. Then after that we'll be considering our options for moving to High Camp. Until next time, this is Dylan Taylor signing off."

Dispatch 6, June 27: Aidan Loehr, guide for Team #6, called during yesterday (June 26th) at 10:51pm Pacific time with the following update:

"Hey everyone, this is Team #6 calling again from 14,000' to give you all an update on what we're up to and what our plans are for heading up to high camp. We spent today (Tuesday) resting and storing up energy for the move up to high camp at 17,200' - which is definitely the most demanding stage of the climb. Dylan, Justin, and I have been focused on making sure that everyone has the opportunity to eat and drink lots.

We had a few hours of practice on the fixed lines this afternoon in preparation for tomorrow's cache run up to 16,200'. Right now, we're enjoying the sunshine and looking forward to sleeping a bit more before we head on up to 17,200' and play the weather game from there on out. All in all, we've been having an awesome time together, and we give all our best to family and friends. We'll talk to you all soon."

Dispatch 7, June 28: Justin Wood called Tuesday night, June 27, at 11:37pm Pacific time to say that everything is "peachy keen" with the climbers of Team #6, who were able to achieve more than they had originally set out to do for the day. Justin provided the following to report:

"This is Justin Wood calling from 14,000' on a lovely evening high up on Denali's West Buttress. On behalf of Team #6, first I want to send out a great big hello to all of our family and friends - we keep you all in our thoughts constantly. The weather today was absolutely calm and beautiful, and we got a lot done as a result. There was a high-pressure system that chased away the clouds and wind for most of the day, and we woke up early this morning to take advantage if it. After breakfast, we shouldered our packs and made a smooth ascent of the fixed lines. Everyone on the team was strong and steady as we ascended the 2,000 feet to our cache location at 16,200'.

From there, one of the strongest members of our team, Bryan Fry, accompanied guides Dylan Taylor and Aidan Loehr all the way to high camp at 17,200' to drop off the group gear they were carrying. It was Bryan's thirtieth birthday, and he celebrated it in style by cruising 3,000 vertical feet up on one of the world's most beautiful mountains - a pretty awesome accomplishment on his part, not to mention a good favor to the team now that we have less weight to carry on our climb up to high camp. After that we had an uneventful descent back to 14,000' camp, where we discussed our plans for Wednesday over a tasty dinner.

Now we're all set to make our move up to high camp, but we've decided to take tomorrow as a rest day given the amount of energy we all expended today. Tomorrow's forecast is for a low-pressure system moving through, with an increase in winds of up to 20-40 mph over the next two days. That's pretty much it here. We'll talk to you all again soon."

Dispatch 8, June 30: Dylan Taylor called Thursday night, June 29th, at 11:38pm Pacific time to tell us that Team #6 has successfully made it to High Camp on Denali. The climbers tackled 3,000 feet of steep terrain at altitude to establish their high camp at 17,200 feet and are now within striking distance of the summit. They are all excited to be sitting at 17,200' - so close to the highest point in North America - with plenty of strength and time (knock on wood) to spare for their summit attempt.

Dylan's phone message went as follows: "Hey y'all. It's Dylan Taylor calling from 17,200 feet on Denali to report that the entire team has made to high camp safely and in good time. We got here at 5pm and experienced all different types of weather from the time we left 14,000' camp. The day started off hot and sunny, but following our ascent of the fixed lines and emergence out onto the ridge, we got stormed on a little. It became windy, snowy, and quite foggy, but we were able to climb out of it and got up above the cloud cover on our approach to High Camp."

"Now we're sitting pretty, fat, and happy only 3,000 feet from the top of the mountain! Everyone is psyched and a little tired from the day, and it looks like tomorrow's weather will give us the opportunity to rest up a bit. The forecast is grim for a day or so - calling for high winds and low visibility - but then it gets better, and we'll be ready to climb it if and when we get our window opportunity. I'm loving the strength of this team; the summit should be attainable for each and all. We'll just have to wait and see about the weather. Talk to you all soon. Over and out."

Dispatch 9, June 30: Dylan Taylor called again this afternoon at 1pm to relay the brief message that the team is currently taking a rest and acclimatization day at High Camp. Which is just as well, given that it's "cold, windy, and snowy" today. Aside from spending some time clearing away snow and maintaining the snow walls they use to protect them from the stormy weather, team members are for the most part passing their day in their tents enjoying the break from the hard work of climbing with heavy loads. "It's easy to tell it's the end of the season," Dylan said. "When we got to High Camp we found several pre-built walls, so establishing camp was much easier than normal. There were plenty of sites down at 14,000-foot camp as well that we could choose from for our camp."

Dylan said that everyone "powered up to High Camp" yesterday, and that "Barbara and the boys" (aka Matt and Brian), arrived in especially fast time. "Brian is the ox of the group," Dylan said. "He's the guy that you can literally load up with 10,000 lbs and he just goes." Dylan said the whole team is remarkably strong, and he believes that the summit is very achievable from their current position. We hope to hear from them soon with the good news!

Dispatch 10, July 1: "This is Justin Wood calling from 17,000' to let you know we took a second rest day today. It's been pretty sunny and nice here, but it's been howling at Denali Pass - whipping over the pass - and all along the ridge that leads to the summit. It's way too windy to be up there.

Everyone in good health and in good spirits. We played hacky sack today, and the big new from 17 is that we completed a complete hack - all 8 team members were able to touch the sack it without it touching the ground. It was very impressive and a new personal altitude record for all all of us. We recognized it as a good omen! We'll stay in touch. All is well here.

Dispatch 11, July 2: We've been stymied by weather again, but we had another exciting day of hacky sack and hanging out in our tents. We've almost run out of books though, and it's caused a little panic. We may need to take a run down to 14,000 to get any cached reading material.

The forecast is grim but we are going to hold onto some sense of optimism and hope for good enough weather to make a try for the summit on Tuesday. That's it from here. Everyone sends 4th of July greetings to their families and friends.

Dispatch 12, July 3: "This is Justin again at 17. Just calling to check in and to tell you we are all fine. There are some strong winds in camp today, but we are hoping this system will blow through and that we'll have a chance to climb tomorrow on the 4th of July. We hope you are all doing fantastic on this holiday weekend. We will check in again when we have more news."

Dispatch 13, July 5: Dylan Taylor called in this morning at 10:30am Pacific time with great news - Team #6 reached the summit of North America in the evening of the 4th of July! Dylan said:

"Hi everyone - this is Dylan, calling from High Camp amidst remarkably calm weather and a team of stoked but tired climbers! Yesterday, our fifth day at 17,200 feet and our second to last day for a chance at the summit before having to descend, we decided to go for it. The forecast hadn't looked good all week, and it definitely didn't look like it was going to change in the near future. We decided to watch for a break in the weather and make an attempt for the summit if it seemed at all possible.

At around noon the winds calmed down a bit and we packed up and left soon thereafter. We all departed at the same time, but Aidan, Matt, and Bryan were hot out of the gate and broke the trail through new snow for us and the teams behind us! We sort of had a domino effect at High Camp - it was as if each team was waiting for someone else to make the first move, and after we left a bunch of private parties headed out as well.

It actually turned out to be a pretty good summit day weather wise - it only got windy on the summit ridge. Aidan's team blazed ahead and summited at 7pm, while the rest of our team summited at 9pm. I am happy to say that everyone summited and stayed healthy for the most part (we had one minor case of altitude illness on the descent). It was definitely pretty awesome to be up there and to watch everyone succeed. We didn't stay too long, however, and were soon on our way back down to High Camp.

We returned to camp at about 1am, pretty exhausted but happy. We're resting now in our tents, giving our worked bodies a chance to recover a little before we start the descent to Base Camp. We're going to pack up and leave in a few hours and see how far we can get today, and then we will make the rest of the journey tomorrow. The forecast looks grim for the next day or two, but we're crossing our fingers that we can fly out of Base Camp once we arrive there. Though it's sunny and calm up here, we can see big clouds down below, so there may or may not be enough room for planes to fly onto the Kahiltna. We'll be calling in as we make the descent and will be in touch later!"

Congratulations to each team member of this expedition for a job well done!

Dispatch 14, July 6: Dylan Taylor called late last night to update us on Team #6's position after the first day of their descent to Base Camp. As of 10:50pm Pacific time yesterday (June 5), the team had established camp at 14,000 feet after what started out to be an easy day and ended up being arduous.

The team left high camp on the morning of July 5th, and the climbers were able to descend with relative ease until they reached the base of the fixed lines. Dylan said, "At that point we ran into three feet of 3 to 4-day-old snow and started to wear ourselves out post-holing. It was up to our hips. We really had to struggle from the fixed lines down to 14,000 feet, wriggling through the heavy snow with full packs. It was obvious after a few hundred feet of this that we wouldn't be able to descend beyond 14,000 feet as we had planned but would have to instead take a night there and get some rest. We decided to spend tonight at 14,000 feet and wait for the snow to firm up before continuing our descent down to Base Camp in the morning. We have some tired folks on the team, but we also have plenty of time in which to rest and wait for conditions to improve."

"Meanwhile, we're eating the best of our leftovers, both to energize ourselves and to lighten the load for tomorrow's push down to Base Camp. We're going to feast on bacon, eggs, and cheesecake tomorrow morning, then pack our bags and head down, hopefully to Camp 1 at 7800 feet. We're still on schedule to fly out Saturday morning, and we'll let you know how things go tomorrow as soon as we get a chance."

Dispatch 15, July 7: Guide Dylan Taylor called at 2:00 pm today to let us know that Team #6 has reached base camp! So the team has completed its descent and is now awaiting the chance to fly off the glacier. The weather that was finally co-operative for their summit climb has taken a bit of a turn for the worse. Their pick-up was scheduled for the morning of July 8th, but clouds and snowfall on the Kahiltna are casting doubt on that possibility, according to Dylan. Before his satellite reception was cut off, Dylan was able to provide a few details about the team's descent from 14,000-foot camp and this weekend's forecast.

Dylan said, "We left 14,000 feet last night and ran into clouds, fog, and a little snow from 10,000 feet on down to Base Camp. Right now, it's snowing hard and, by the looks of the forecast, we think we could be camped out until Sunday - waiting for a break in the weather and a plane to take us out. We're hoping that we'll get an opportunity to fly out tomorrow if we can get a long enough weather break, but all we can do now is be patient. We're happy to be off the mountain - for all intensive purposes anyway. Now we just need our ski plane to make it complete and official."

Dispatch 16, July 10: We received a very brief message from Dylan Taylor saying his team had successfully flown off the glacier and arrived back in Talkeetna on the afternoon of July 8th. He said everyone was very happy to be in Talkeetna, busy sorting gear, looking forward to a long shower, and excited about their soon-to-be-enjoyed first restaurant meal in three weeks.

Dispatch 17, July 11: We spoke yesterday with Dylan Taylor as he and guide Aidan Loehr were driving the AAI van back to Bellingham from Talkeetna, a return trip that marks the end of another successful climbing season in Alaska. Dylan offered some final details about Team #6's flight off of the Kahiltna and jubilant return to civilization.

"I know I said last time that the forecast was for poor weather throughout the weekend, but it actually wound up being beautiful on Saturday. All we had to do was wait for our turn to fly out, which came late Saturday evening. We left in two flights and reunited for a celebration dinner in Talkeetna. The team had a great time and decided to meet up again for breakfast, at which point everyone said goodbye and rushed to catch their respective flights home. Speaking for Aidan and Justin, we were quite proud of each team member's accomplishment, and we feel honored to have met and climbed with each person on our team."