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

Dispatch #1: June 25

Team 6 Lead Guide, Forest, called in today with the following update for Team 8:

"Hey this is Forest again. I've spoken with Justin and Team 8 via the radio. Apparently their satellite phone has decided to stop working, which is why you haven't heard from them yet. They did a carry from Camp 1 to 9600 ft in two feet of new snow. It was hard work. Today they are moving to Camp Two. Justin also let me know that Jon sends a happy birthday to Moulin. When we descend from the mountain I am going to pass our satellite phone on to Team 8 so that they may continue to send dispatches."

Dispatch #2: June 29

AAI Guide, Chantel Astorga, called in today with the following update for Team 8:

"This is Chantel calling in with a dispatch from Team 8. We just got Forest's sat phone last night so now we have a working phone, finally! We pulled into 14 camp today and are now getting our camp set up. Tomorrow we will back carry to our cache and bring our gear up to camp. We spent the first couple days on the glacier traveling with the GPS, routefinding and breaking trail through 2-3 ft of new snow. Things you never really get to do up here with the typical traffic seen on the glacier."

"One really incredible thing happened when we were still at basecamp. There was an earthquake that triggered avalanches from every aspect and slide path on the surrounding peaks. It was a truly amazing site to see that much snow moving at once! Luckily we were all safe and sound in basecamp. We are all doing really well and have a very strong team. Everyone says hello to their families and friends back home. Well, we'll be calling in more often now that we have a working phone, take care everybody!"

Dispatch #3: June 30

AAI Guide, Chantel Astorga, called in today with the following update for Team 8:

Chantel called to report perfect weather at 14 camp. She indicated that they were going to do a backcarry today.

"Everybody feels good," she said. "We had pancakes for breakfast and we're having cheeseburgers for dinner tonight. People are psyched for cheeseburgers!" Chantel continued to talk about food for a moment -- this is a common pasttime amongst those who spend a lot of time on Denali -- before she noted that, "our cook tent is sick! It's like a castle. We built a snow tunnel out of blocks to get into it!"

Early in Team 8's trip there was significant snow on the mountain. They had to find their way through complete white-outs with a GPS. Shortly thereafter they had to battle deep snow and break trail. People are burning some serious calories on this trip. It sounds like they deserve their cheeseburgers!"

Dispatch #4: July 2

AAI Guide, Chantel Astorga, called in today with the following update for Team 8:

"Hey guys, it's Chantel with Team 8. We are taking a rest day at14 camp today. Everyone is doing really great. Yesterday, Jon-Kristian, Lawrence, Phil, David and I went up to 17,000 ft and cached two days of food and plenty of fuel. We are going to move to high camp tomorrow and hopefully summit on the 4th. The weather is very beautiful right now."

"I've got some messages to send out for everyone. Eckhard says hello to Gabriela, Manoj say hi to Akasha, Kevin says hello to Colby and Mai, Jon misses Cecilia terribly, and Eldon wants to thank his team members at Vista Irrigation District for their support in making the summit attempt possible. Well, that's it for now, I'll call you guys from high camp!"

Dispatch #5: July 6

AAI Guide, Chantel Astorga, called in this weekend with the following dispatch for Team 8:

"Hey guys, I've got an update on what we've been up to. On Friday we moved camp to 17,000 ft. On Saturday we had a rest day at high camp. On Sunday we are going to go for the summit. Eldon would like to say hello to his wife and Manoj say hello to Sheri."

At this point the sat phone reception deteriorated and we lost the call.

Lead Guide, Justin Wood, called in today with the following dispatch for Team 8:

"Hey guys, just wanted to call in and let you know that we summited yesterday! Everyone is now sleeping in this morning at 17,000 ft and we are going to head down to 14 camp later today. It was a 12 hour roundtrip to the summit and back to camp. It is pretty quiet up here, there were only four other people on the summit in addition to our team. There is lots of fresh snow up here. It very beautiful up here. Well, we'll give you a call with another update soon."

Dispatch #6: July 6

AAI Guide, Chantel Astorga, called in today with the following dispatch for Team 8:

"Hey it's me again. We are pinned at high camp in high winds and can't descend until tomorrow. Stephen wants to say hello and happy birthday to Irene...he also wanted to apologize for not calling yesterday but he was busy summiting. We are planning on flying out on Tuesday or Wednesday."

We would also like to congratulate Andries Botha on his successful completion of the Seven Summits! Way to go Andries!!

Dispatch #7: July 7

AAI Guide Chantel Astorga called from 14,000 feet on Denali this evening at 6pm Alaska time, 10pm Eastern time with the following dispatch. Her team summited Denali on July 5th (along with only one other team of four climbers). It's the end of the season, and the mountain is now largely deserted. In addition to the AAI guides Justin Wood, Mike Pond, and Chantel, this successful team was composed of 4 Americans, 2 British, and one member each from Canada, Germany, and Norway. Andries Botha (Edmonton) deserves special mention for now having succeeded on all of the Seven Summits!

"Hello everyone. We're glad to tell ou that we are back at 14,000 feet. Getting here we felt like we were walking into summer. It really is summer here, and we've been basking in it! It's 50 degrees in the shade and a lot warmer than that in the sun. If I had a bikini, I'd be wearing one, but didn't think to bring one. Never thought I would need one on Denali."

"We stayed at our 17,200 ft high camp yesterday because it was so windy. It was cold, and there were super high winds last night. They were consistently running at 35-40mph with 60mph gusts frequently. There was also a lot of new snow, so it was continuously spindrifty, and it would have been extremely unpleasant climbing. Staying put was definitely the right thing to do. It's important to be patient on the way down as well as on the way up!"

"The wind dropped to 15mph at 6am and then went down to 5 to 10mph by 8am. So we were happy to pack up and come down this morning. We made it in about four hours. Most of the time was spent between the top of the buttress and the camp at 14,000 ft. Coming down from 17,000 ft along the top of the buttress was nice - most of the snow had been blown off by the wind, but coming down the fixed ropes the snow was thick and wet. IT really balled up on the crampons and was a pain."

"So here are a few messages from this very happy group of climbers:

Kevin will call Jean on Thursday afternoon.

Andreas wants his daughter to change his flight to Edmonton to Friday afternoon.

Phil says 'hi' to his dad!"

"So the current plan is a dinner of big, juicy cheese sandwiches and then early to bed. We'll get up in the night and pack up and descend to Camp 1. We want the lowest possible temperatures to freeze up the snow pack. We'll spend Wednesday day there and then get up in the night again and descend to base camp, arriving there in the early hours Thursday. We scheduled our ski plane pickup with K2 Aviation at 9:00am Thursday morning. Hopefully the weather will cooperate! We're looking forward to being down and soon seeing friends and loved ones."

"We're still psyched about reaching the summit. We should tell you that ust like summit day when we had the mountain to ourselves except four other people, Camp 3 at 14,000 ft is now deserted except for one other group. This is normally such a busy place. It's funny how quiet and empty it is here now. The rangers are packing up all their stuff and getting ready to leave for the season."

"It's been a challenging year for weather, and we feel lucky we had the good conditions when we really needed them. AFter all the other AAI teams did so well again this year, we were especially glad that our team could summit too, since it's the last of the season."

"It's been a great trip and we've had some really good times together. These guys are pretty funny. We'll call you again to let you know how we are doing as we make our way down. Talk to you soon and see you pretty soon!"

Dispatch #8: July 8

AAI Guide Chantel Astorga called in the following dispatch at 10:00pm:

"Hey this is Chantel from Denali Team 8. We left 14 camp today and headed down to Camp 1. There were pretty challenging glacial conditions which made for a very long day I must say. Right now we are watching the sun set and it is quite a beautiful evening. We are planning on leaving around 1 or 2am back to basecamp to catch our 9am flight back to Talkeetna! We are cooking a Thai dinner tonight and since our feet our so tired we are giving foot massages and applying copious amounts of foot powder (laughter in the background). Ok, we'll call you guys tomorrow."

Dispatch #9: July 10

Denali Team 8 is off the mountain. They got off yesterday at about 9:00am after a massive push from Camp 1.

The entire lower mountain is now covered with large suncups that make it incredibly difficult to move with a sled. [Suncups are formed by uneven melting of snow, creating pillars of melt-resistant snow, and bowls of faster melting snow.] After manuevering sleds through the suncups, they climbed up Heartbreak Hill to meet their pilot.

After a big day, everybody was very happy to get off the mountain.