Denali Dispatch

He's headed to the top of the (North American) world: Hamden man sends first dispatch from benefit trip to climb Mount McKinley

Editor’s note: Lew Nescott Jr. of Hamden, shown at right, senior research analyst in Yale University’s Office of Development, will climb Mount McKinley over the next several weeks to raise money for breast cancer research sponsored by the Yale Cancer Center. During his climb, he will send regular reports to New Haven Register readers. Read more about the climb at http://www.nhregister.com/.

This is the first dispatch:

"Hello Connecticut. This is Lew Nescott Jr. calling in.
"I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, on the 22nd, Sunday, and I’ll be meeting the rest of the expedition team this afternoon, which will be around 8 o’clock your time, here in Anchorage. Anchorage is about three hours south of Mount McKinley in Denali Park, and we’ll drive to Talkeetna, Alaska, a hot tourist destination and also the base camp for all climbers departing for a climb of Mount McKinley.
"You might be interested in knowing that if you get on the Internet and enter the terms ‘National weather service’ and ‘Fairbanks forecast office,’ you could follow our progress online, because it will give you the Mount McKinley recreational forecast over the next three to four day period.
"It’s pretty hard to predict the weather up here. I am not a meteorologist, but I’ve got to tell you, when I flew into Anchorage and checked in and looked at the local news, the meteorologist said that the weather is now flowing from west to east, instead of east to west, so it’s interesting. I can’t explain that one but that’s the situation here in Anchorage, again where (it’s) clouds and sun, probably in the low 50s ...upper 60s, rather, and hopefully we’ll have decent weather as we proceed up the mountain.
"That’s it from my end and I will be checking in with you from Talkeetna, Alaska, tomorrow, the 25th, where we’ll be doing an extensive gear check. There are six members on our team and two guides.
"So, I’ll catch up with you and let you know how things are going as we progress.
"Take Care. Bye."