(Photo from snow cave during 2012 climb) Unfortunately, Lonnie was forced to use yesterday as a rest day once more due to high winds reaching 60mph on the mountain. He spent most of the day in white out conditions digging his Hilleberg Soulo tent deeper into the snow for extra protection. Today he is still hoping to travel back down 600ft for the rest of his gear if the winds will allow. Dupre called last night with a message from his satellite phone at 11,200ft mentioning his game plan for the day as well as some gear info and hello's including Granite Gear, Hilleberg, Hear in Americaand a few more:

Last evening Dupre called in from 11,200ft. Battling winds up to 50mph, yesterday he traveled from 10,200ft to 11,200ft. Tired from the long haul, he plans on retrieving the rest of his gear 600ft below today and spending a rest day at his current camp tomorrow. With a hearty meal of mac and cheese he hit the Montbell sack with plans of waking up early today to a little Prairie Home Companion. Photo: John Walter Whittier

Dupre spent Christmas evening at 9,500ft. He treated himself with his last cup of instant coffee before the gear haul up to his current camp. Lonnie enjoyed a white Christmas, light snowfall all with great mountain views and some radio tunes to accompany. He's in great spirits and plans to begin taxiing some of his gear up to 10,000ft today.

Lonnie is continuing up the mountain today to 10,200ft with the rest of his gear for the evening. Here is a photograph of the reflective tapped wands he uses to flag his route for the taxiing journeys as well as his final descent on this trip. Dupre called this morning with a message from his satellite phone at 9,500ft :

Yesterday was spent taxiing gear up to 9,500ft and returning to last camp at 9,000ft. Lonnie called in yesterday after his seafood dinner to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. You can listen to Lonnie's satelite phone message below. Photo: Monovita

Lonnie called in yesterday evening at around 9,000ft to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a few thank yous, couple of shout-outs and even a birthday! With the first cup of coffee of the trip, Lonnie will continue the deep snow trudge, upward!

Today, Lonnie will carry the rest of his gear up 900ft to the haul yesterday and make camp there for the evening. He called last evening from camp 1 reporting snow 3ft deep which slowed the trek a bit yesterday. Overall feeling good, warm and ready to continue upward tomorrow. You can listen to Lonnie's call in last night:

With light snowfall, Dupre is spending today taxiing half of his gear up from his last camp at 7,800ft. He will again return to camp 1(7,800ft) this evening with plans of taking the rest of his gear up tomorrow. For two consecutive days, Lonnie's travels on Denali have been accompanied by a raven. A good omen, also intertwining into many of Dupre's past expeditions. A Raven's Gift by Kelly Dupre is a book written about one of the extraordinary encounters Lonnie Dupre had with a raven on his Greenland expedition. This book is available through the website. All books purchased through www.oneworldendeavors.com will have 50% of profits donated to The Nature Conservancy - Plant a Billion Trees

Denali is clear with nothing but pink and purple apelglow. We'll be taking off with Talkeetna Air Taxi in the next hour with hopes of landing at basecamp if all is clear once in the range. Lonnie is continuing his way up the glacier. He called in yesterday reporting heavy snow, thus slower travel, but beautiful weather. He ended his day with a dinner of mashed potatoes, peas and bacon and is feeling well.

At last I am in Talkeetna Alaska, the quaint little town that will be home base for me until I leave for the lower 48 - hopefully after a succcessful solo Summit of Denali. I had an uneventful trip here with my small mountain of luggage, thank goodness everything arrived at the same time as I did. The high temp today in Talkeetna was 18 degrees, sunrise was at 10:16 am, sunset was at 3:30 and days are still getting shorter - that trend will reverse soon. One nice thing about the very short days of winter here is that when they do start getting longer you can really tell a difference from one day to the next. I have been hoping to fly out to Denali to start my trip for real on Monday, but