Denali
Denali, at 20,310 feet is the highest mountain in North America. It is surrounded by the massive glaciers and peaks of the Alaska Range. This is a truly amazing mountain that I was fortunate to climb in May of 2015. I chose to climb via the West Buttress route which is the route used by the majority of the people who climb Denali.
Getting to Alaska - May 12, 2015
Today is the day! After months and months of rigorous training, it is time to head to Alaska to climb Denali. My day began with an early morning flight from Chicago to Anchorage. I arrived in Alaska the same morning (there is a 6 hour time difference between Chicago and Alaska, so I landed at roughly the same time I departed). I was one of the first team members to arrive and, after collecting my bags, I met my guides for the trip - Pete, our lead guide whom I had climbed with multiple other times, Robby, and Josh. We had some time to kill until the others arrived, so we chatted over coffee in an airport cafe. The other climbers flights were spread out over several hours, but by around noon everyone had arrived and we loaded up a van with all of our gear for the drive to Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is located four hours north of Anchorage and is the starting point for almost all Denali trips. Everything in Alaska is incredibly scenic and the drive to Talkeetna is no exception. We were surrounded by large, beautiful mountains the entire drive. We made two stops along the way - First we stopped at an outdoor gear shop to buy a few last minute items needed for the climb and then we stopped for lunch and groceries in the small town of Wasilla.
Grocery shopping took several hours. We needed to buy food to sustain the 9 of us (3 guides and 6 clients) for 22 days on the mountain. The guides handled buying all of the food we would need for breakfasts and dinners and we were each responsible for our lunches and snacks. I had brought a fair amount of my food with me from home, but topped it off with some fresh items like salami and bagels.
Another hour of driving and we arrived at our hotel, the Talkeetna Inn. The hotel had an A frame lobby entrance with a small bar and pool table inside. The rooms were located in a separate building just outside. They were a bit dated, but clean and the hotel staff were wonderful.
After checking in, we had our first team dinner and then headed off to sleep. We were all tired after a long day of travel.
Packing and Organizing - May 13, 2015
We woke up early today as we had a busy day planned. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we walked over to a nearby cafe for a team breakfast during which we got to know each other a little better and discussed the plans for the day. Once we finished eating, we walked a short distance to the Talkeetna airport, where we would reorganize and pack all of our gear for the flight onto the mountain.
On the walk, we passed a location along the road where we could see Denali in the distance. From this spot the mountain looks HUGE!. It is hard to believe that we will be climbing all the way to the top of it.
At the airport, our team took over the entire K2 aviation hanger. Each of us needed to take all of our personal gear and food out and review it with the guides. Once we fly onto the mountain, we need to have everything necessary to survive for several weeks, so it is very important to ensure that all of our gear is in order and we are not missing anything we might need. Once our gear was checked, we took all of our own personal gear and a portion of the group gear and re-packed it into large duffel bags. Each of these bags and each of us was then weighed.
Packing for living three plus weeks on a mountain is tricky. We want to make sure to bring enough food and fuel, but since we have to carry every single thing we bring, we don’t want to bring too much. We spent several hours obsessing over our food and gear and deciding what to bring and what to leave behind.
We finally finished packing in the early afternoon and after a quick lunch, we walked over to the Denali National Park ranger station for a briefing with the climbing rangers. All Denali climbers are required to attend a pre-trip briefing. The rangers discuss safety on the mountain and leave no trace rules and ensure that all climbers are prepared for what is ahead.
We had the afternoon free to relax before meeting up as a team for dinner. All of our gear was ready to go. If the weather cooperates, we will fly onto the mountain tomorrow.
A Rain Day - May 14, 2015
We woke early today filled with excitement in anticipation of flying onto the mountain, but one look out the window told us that we would not be going anywhere anytime soon. The sky was completely clouded over and it was raining steadily.
Almost all Denali trips starts with a flight from Talkeetna to the Kahiltna glacier where the planes use skis to land on a snow runway. This flight involves flying visually through some fairly tight mountain passes. Visibility needs to be good for the pilots to fly and that was definitely not the case this morning.
We enjoyed a long slow breakfast at a local cafe and discussed plans for the day. After breakfast, we walked over the the airport to review our crevasse rescue skills. That took a few hours and then we were free to do whatever we wanted the rest of today, but the guides needed to know generally where to find us at all times. If the skies cleared up, the air service would call and we would have 1 hour to get to the airport and be ready to fly.
Talkeetna is a small, interesting town with less than 1000 permanent residents. During the late spring and summer months the town is filled with Denali climbers and tourists. In the morning, as we had breakfast, town would be pretty quiet. Around 10 am each day, several buses full of tourists from the cruise ships docked in Anchorage would arrive and the town would be bustling with hundreds of people until around 4 pm when the buses would depart and town would go back to being quiet again.
The rain and clouds persisted throughout the day. We walked around town and spent a few hours going through the Talkeetna historical museum. At 8 pm the air service told us that we were definitively not flying today.
We met up as a group for dinner and then retired to bed hopeful for better weather tomorrow.
On the Mountain - May 15, 2015
We awoke to a gorgeous, sunny day. That meant we needed to get moving quickly and get to the airport! We checkout out of the hotel and had a hasty breakfast before walking to the airport where we were told that we were going to be the on first flights that morning.
We would be flying onto the mountain on a pair of Otters. These as single engine airplanes that each seat 6 people plus gear. These are really cool airplanes that can take off on a normal runway in Talkeetna and land using skis on the snow runway on a glacier on Denali. Everyone was excited as we arrived at the airport. We had a few minutes to double check our gear and make any last minute adjustments.
A little before 10 am we boarded the two airplanes that would fly us onto the mountain. The weather was amazing and the 45 minute flight was a scenic wonder. As we departed the Talkeetna area, we left the greenery behind and ascended into the Alaska range. Looking down as we flew over these huge glaciers was fascinating. The pilot (there is only 1) has his work cut out for him on these flights. The route flies through several mountain passes including one called “one shot pass”. It is called that because there is only room for one airplane in the pass and the pilots have to carefully coordinate with other airplanes in the area.
We arrived at the spot on the Kahiltna glacier where the runway was stomped into the snow. In this environment it is very hard to differentiate the sky from the ground and I was quite impressed when our pilot landed the plane as softly as I have ever landed in an airplane. The plane touched down and immediately taxied over to the side so we could unload and make room for other airplanes to land.
We hopped out into a completely foreign, snow covered world - Denali base camp. We hurriedly unloaded our gear from the airplane and moved it to a spot uphill where we could get ourselves organized. My teammates arrived moments after us and shortly we had all of our gear in a large pile up a small nearby hill.
The National Park Service keeps a coupe of rangers stationed here for the duration of the climbing season (late April - early July) and there is also a base camp manager who coordinates flights to/from base camp. Some teams camp here for a night upon arrival, but we planned to start on the trail today.
We had a lot of work to do though before we could start climbing. First we needed to leave a small cache of food for our return. Teams sometimes get stuck waiting to fly off of the mountain on their return, so most teams leave a couple of days of food and fuel here. Building a cache on Denali is quite an endeavor. The cache needs to be dug deep enough to keep ravens from finding the food and deep enough that if it warms up it won’t melt out. It also needs to have a very long pole attached to it so that if there is a lot of snow we can still find it three weeks from now. Denali is famous for massive snow storms, so these poles must be several feet high.
After properly securing our cache site here, we began getting ready for the climb. On Denali, there are no porters or Sherpa to help carry loads. This means that we need to be completely self sufficient and carry everything we will need for 3 plus weeks on the mountain. On the lower part of the route where the slopes are moderate, we will be using sleds towed behind us to help haul all of our supplies. Each of us will be carrying a backpack with 40-60 pounds of gear and pulling a sled with an additional 40-60 pounds of gear.
Denali is a heavily glaciated mountain with lots and lots and lots of crevasses. Due to all of these crevasses, we will be roped together at all times while on the mountain. Our team consisted of three rope teams of three people each. One guide and two climbers on each team. On the lower part of the mountain, each rope team would consist of a guide leading, followed by his sled, then a client, then a sled, then a client, then a sled. It took us a while to get everything rigged up so we could start walking. For this lower part of the mountain, we also utilized snowshoes (the guides used skis) to help us not sink into the snow as much.
Eventually we got everything ready to go and it was time to start walking. The weather was pleasant and a mix of clouds and sun. Walking as a rope team means we were 40 feet apart from each other all day. The reason we walk this far apart and are roped up is so that if any one of us were to fall into a crevasse, the other members of the rope team would throw themselves onto the ground and dig in with their ice axes to arrest the fall of the person who went into the crevasse. Smaller crevasses get easily filled with snow and ice and sometimes you think you are walking on solid ground only to find it disappear beneath you as you discover that you were actually walking on a thin snow bridge.
Base camp is located at 7300 feet of elevation and the first section of the trail descends down a feature called Heartbreak Hill, due to the fact that when climbers return here at the end of their trip they have to ascend this last hill in order to fly back to Talkeetna.
After descending about 400 feet to the bottom of the hill, the route turns to the right and starts heading uphill. The Kahiltna glacier may be the most beautiful place I have ever been. It is a massive glacier and we were walking in the middle of it with towering, snowy, mountain peaks all around us. The route meanders up a series of rolling hills and winds its way around the many crevasses. It was still early in the season, so many of the crevasses were filled in. When we return in a few weeks, it will likely be much more broken up.
All afternoon we would climb for an hour, take a short break, and repeat. Due to the crevasse danger, we stayed roped up and spread out even during breaks. We would just pull off to the side of the trail, take our packs off and sit on them until we were ready to start moving again.
We pulled into the 7800 foot camp in the early evening. On Denali, once you get to a camp, there is a ton of work that needs to be done before you can relax.
First you need to probe the area for hidden crevasses. This is done by using a very long pole and poking it into the ground at regular intervals.
Once you have ensured there are no hidden crevasses, you mark off the boundaries of your camp area.
Then you need to stamp out level platforms for each of the sleeping tents. This involves compacting the snow with your snowshoes and using snow shovels to ensure a flat level surface that a tent can be put on.
Once the platform is complete, each tent needs to be set up and anchored into the ground.
After the tent is up, snow walls need to be erected around the tent to protect it from wind.
Once the walls are up, you move all of your gear into the tent (sleeping pad, sleeping bag, etc..).
Then everyone helps dig out a Posh tent for dining (more on this later) and a toilet tent.
After all of the above is completed, you can finally relax for a bit.
While we were getting settled into our tents our guides were busy melting water and getting dinner ready for us. During the day while climbing, I was very warm. You learn very quickly on Denali that as soon as the sun goes behind the horizon the temperature drops quite significantly.
After a very busy and emotional day, we met for dinner in the posh tent, each of us bundled up in our large down parkas, ate dinner, and started to settle into mountain life.
9600 Foot Camp - May 16, 2015
I woke up feeling good this morning. The clear mountain air felt brisk and refreshing. The weather was stellar with blue skies and light winds. We had a breakfast of bagels and bacon and set about taking down our camp. Undoing camp is a bit easier than setting it up but still takes a good hour or two. Once we had everything packed back in our duffel bags and the sleds loaded again, we roped up and hit the trail.
We warmed up very quickly this morning. Yesterday’s trail had been relatively flat. Today, right out of camp, we had to ascend ski hill which was the steepest terrain we had encountered so far. Back home at sea level, this would not have been too difficult to negotiate, but at 8000 feet of elevation with a heavy backpack and a fully laden sled, it was a lot of work. Slowly and steadily we progressed up the hill and we eventually made it to the top where the route mellowed out a bit. We were still ascending for the rest of the day, but not as steeply.
We started settling into a mountain routine. Walk for an hour, take a 15 minute break, repeat. The key to climbing a large mountain like Denali is to be as efficient as possible. At each test stop, we would pull over off the side of the trail, remove our backpacks, put on a down parka (you stay pretty warm while climbing, but get cold quickly once you stop), grab a snack to eat, and drink some water. Then we would sit on our packs to rest our legs for a few minutes while we finished eating our snacks. Once done, we would use the “facilities” if we needed to and then take our parkas off, stuff everything back in our backpacks, and start climbing again.
We were on the trail for approximately 5 hours today and we pulled into the 9600 foot camp in the afternoon. We then had to go about setting up our temporary home again. It was a little bit easier today since we knew what we were doing.
On Denali, you can do some really cool things with your tents since you are camping on deep snow. In our personal tents, we would dig a hole, a couple of feet deep, in the front vestibule. This allowed us to sit up like we were in a chair, to put on and take off our boots, which made it much easier. We also used a “posh” tent for our kitchen/dining tent. Posh tents are a wonderful invention. They are essentially just an umbrella shaped piece of tent fabric with a pole in the middle (think of a patio table umbrella). To set them up, you first dig a large donut shaped hole in the ground (how big depends on the size of your group). Once you have dug down 3 or 4 feet, you leave a higher outer ring and continue digging near the middle for another couple of feet. You then take the pole and stick it in the middle of the donut (where you didn’t dig out the snow) and then spread the fabric out to cover the hole in the ground. You now have a large circle with a bench seat that everyone can sit on. In the area where you want to do your cooking, you can dig out a flat area to keep the stove and pots, etc… The one thing you have to be really careful of is not to set the tent fabric on fire. The stoves that are used in high altitude often have a large flame when they are first lit. If you aren’t careful, it is very easy to set the tent on fire, which is obviously not a good thing!
After setting up camp we relaxed for a while and then met in the posh tent for some mac and cheese with bacon (you will notice a bacon theme!) for dinner and then headed off for a bit of well earned rest.
11k Camp - May 17, 2015
Another bluebird day. The winds were light and it was a beautiful day to move up to our first major camp at 11,000 feet elevation. The 7800 and 9600 camps are smaller and generally only used for one night as teams are on the way up the mountain. The camps at 11k and 14k are larger and most teams spend several days at each of them.
We ate breakfast and packed up camp much like yesterday and were back on the trail by late morning. Today would be our last days using the sleds. We had come to have a love hate relationship with these. On the positive side, they helped us carry a lot heavier loads. On the negative side, it was a constant effort to keep the sleds from tipping over and from getting under our feet. We had gotten better at managing them over the past two days, but they still required a lot of constant attention.
The route for the first few sections of today was similar to yesterday. We were still following the wide and beautiful Kahiltna glacier. After a few hours, around 10,500 feet of elevation, we reached a spot where the glacier took a sharp right turn. We dug a small cache here and left a portion of our food and fuel. We did this to lighten our loads for the last steep section. We would come back and retrieve this cache tomorrow if the weather cooperated.
Once we had finished securing the cache we turned right and the route got a bit steeper. A little over an hour later we rolled into the 11k camp. This camp was much bigger than the camps we had been at the previous two nights. There had been weather higher on the mountain recently and several teams were backed up here waiting for an opportunity to move up.
We planned to be at this location for at least 3 nights, so we spent several hours getting our camp set up. We dug out a very nice posh tent for dinning and we built really large snow walls to protect us from the winds and any major storms. It was quite nice out and relatively warm (by Denali standards). It was hard work but a lot of fun.
That evening we spent a few hours in the posh telling stories and enjoying the feeling of being at 11,000 feet on Denali!
Cache Retrieval and Rest Day - May 18, 2015
We awoke this morning to the sound of a large amount of people leaving camp to move up higher. Although we had light winds and beautiful weather the past two days, higher on the mountain the winds were very strong and that has prevented climbers from moving up higher. The winds finally abated today and all of the climbers who had been patiently waiting at the 11k camp were up early and headed uphill.
We, on the other hand, slept in until the sun came up. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of smoked salmon and bacon. With our bellies full, we roped back up to descend and retrieve the cache we had left behind yesterday. It only took 30 minutes to get back to the cache. We took a short break and retrieved the food and fuel we had left behind yesterday, loaded it back onto our sleds and were back at the 11k camp an hour later.
The terrain gets steeper above the 11k camp and from here on up, we will no longer be using our sleds or snowshoes. Instead we will use our crampons and transition to a “climb high/sleep low” mode. To help us acclimatize and to make the loads more manageable, for the rest of the trip, we will carry a load of gear to a location higher on the mountain, cache it, and then retreat back to our starting point. Then a day or two later (weather permitting) we will gather the rest of our gear and move up to the higher location. We will repeat this process several times as we move up the mountain.
In the afternoon we spent an hour practicing walking in our crampons and reviewing safety techniques for climbing on steeper terrain. Everyone on the trip has done a fair amount of mountain climbing, but it is always a good idea to review self arrest and other safety techniques frequently.
After training we had the rest of the day to rest which felt great after 3 hard days of climbing with heavy loads. The weather was beautiful all day and I was really settling into mountain life and enjoying the majestic beauty of Denali.
Rest Day - May 19, 2015
We were hoping to do a carry today up to 13,500 feet at Windy Corner, but the weather had other plans for us. We could see the winds and snow swirling on the mountain above us. After waiting and watching over a slow breakfast, to see if anything changed, we finally decided around 11 am that were were not going anywhere today.
This turned out to be a good decision. Around noon the winds and snow descended upon our camp with a fury. We retreated to our individual tents and spent the afternoon reading, sleeping, playing spades, and occasionally going outside to knock snow off of the tent. The day was relaxing and I got to know my tent mates a little better. We had 3 tents with 3 people each.
Pete, Robby, and Josh (our guides)
Kevin, Matt, and Matt
Renea, Jon, and me
I shared my tent with Jon from Seattle and Renea from Australia. They were really great tent mates the entire trip and we got along wonderfully. It can be tough to live in very small quarters for such a long time, especially on days we were tent bound due to weather, but we were all very tolerant of each other and enjoyed a lot of laughs. Poor Renea was also on my rope team (along with Pete). In the entire 3 weeks we were on the mountain, I don’t believe we were ever more than 40 feet apart!!
It snowed heavily throughout the afternoon and into the early evening before finally letting up as the sun was setting. (Note - on Denali at this time of year, due to it’s proximity to the pole, the sun never really sets completely but rather goes behind the mountain and the light dims for a few hours) We ended up with about 6 inches of fresh, fluffy snow. We enjoyed another fantastic team dinner and then retired to bed hopeful that the weather would be better tomorrow.
Carry to Windy Corner - May 20, 2015
The winds died down a bit today. They weren’t ideal, but they was tolerable so we decided to push upwards and deliver a cache up to Windy Corner at 13,500 feet. After breakfast we loaded our packs with several days worth of food and fuel for use higher up the mountain. We roped up and headed out of camp. Today was our first day without the sleds. Almost immediately after leaving camp we began to ascend Motorcycle Hill. It is named this after the sport of motorcycling up ever steeper hills until the slope is so extreme that you tip over! It was chilly as we started the climb, but a few minutes of exertion warmed us up quickly. This was definitely the steepest section we had been on so far and I was very happy to have my crampons on. It was hard work but we eventually made it to the top of Motorcycle Hill - a place know as Squirrel Point (apparently named after a rare red squirrel sighted here once).
The route up to this point was steep but there were not a lot of crevasses and was fairly straightforward. The next two hours were the opposite. We entered an area known as the Polo Field. This is a relatively flat area with a LOT of crevasses - many of them hidden by a light layer of snow. Although this part was easier from a cardiovascular effort perspective, we had to be constantly on the alert for crevasses. The route winds under the lower part of a rock formation called the West Buttress. We will be climbing on the upper part of the West Buttress in a few days.
After a couple of hours we made it to the other side of the polo field where there was another moderately steep incline that took us to the aptly named Windy Corner. It is named this due to the frequent high winds at this spot and today was no exception. We had been protected from the winds on most of the route so far, but as soon as we reached Windy Corner the winds kicked into high gear. We located a spot for our cache and did our best to complete it as quickly as possible as we were getting battered by the winds. Once we had the cache in place we moved back downhill a bit to get out of the wind and take a quick rest stop.
Following our brief break, we made haste to get back down to our camp at 11k. We had to negotiate the polo field carefully again and then drop back down Motorcycle Hill. We made it back to camp just in time as the winds picked up and it started snowing heavily again.
All in all it was a very good day - we had accomplished our goal of establishing a cache higher up the mountain and we spent the afternoon resting and relaxing.
If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we will move up to the 14k camp!
Weather Day - May 21, 2015
Not much happened today. We woke up to strong winds and swirling snow. It was obvious to all of us that today was not a good day to move up the mountain. Climbing Denali is all about patience. You need to have a general plan and then modify it based on the weather and team health.
We had a long leisurely brunch. We made pancakes and eggs and bacon and made sure to refuel our bodies. On a large mountain like Denali, your body burns a ton of calories and it is important to replace the used calories as much as possible. Food is fuel for our bodies and fuel is what will help get us to the top of this mountain.
After brunch we retired to our tents to read, play cards, and listen to music. We only ventured out occasionally to use the facilities. A little bit about the “facilities” on Denali. The mountain is run by the National Park Service and the park service requires all climbers to utilize leave no trace practices. The park service distributes a special waste can to each climbing team. This is a large bucket with a top that can be screwed on and has a sort of seat on the top. At each camp, we would dig a hole several feet down into the snow and then cover this with a tarp. We then took the poop bucket and put it in the hole. This then became our toilet. Garbage bags are inserted into the bucket. When the bucket gets full, the bags are tied off and replaced with a new empty one. At the outer edge of each camp, there is a designated crevasse where these bags would then be disposed of into. The bags are biodegradable and by the time they make it down the glacier in several years, it will have completely decomposed. All of our other non biodegradable trash was put into garbage bags that we carried back off of the mountain with us.
Denali is a majestic and beautiful mountain. It is important for all of us to keep it pristine so future generations can enjoy it.
We lingered over a long dinner in the posh tent and kept our fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow.
Move to 14k Camp - May 22, 2015
Very big day today. We woke to clear skies and light winds. After wolfing down a light breakfast, we packed up our home for the previous 4 nights and started back up towards Windy Corner. This time we were moving up permanently!
Our packs were a bit heavier than when we climbed two days ago, but we were better acclimatized and we knew the route now. After ascending Motorcycle Hill and safely navigating the polo field again, we found ourselves back at Windy Corner. It was actually more windy here than it was two days ago (I wasn’t sure that was possible!) and we hurriedly turned the corner to continue up the route toward 14k camp. The last couple of hours from Windy Corner to camp were very tough for me. The route was moderately steep with several crevasses that needed to be negotiated and I was feeling the effort and altitude heavily today. I grit my teeth and grinded out the last 1000 feet to camp. It was by far the hardest day of the trip for me so far! (and in retrospect I think this was the hardest day of the entire climb for me)
The 14k camp is huge. This is advanced base camp for Denali and many teams spend several days here. It is located in a large open basin with teams camped everywhere. The park service staffs a ranger station and medical services here during the climbing season. Rangers on Denali actually climb the mountain as they work. They will climb it in much the same manner as we do, only they will take a few extra days at each camp and assist when necessary for emergencies.
We found an open area large enough for all of our team and set about building camp. We planned to be here for several days, so we put extra care into setting up sturdy walls around our tents and digging out a large, comfortable posh. It took us several hours to get everything set up and organized.
We were all exhausted from the big effort today, so it was a quick dinner and then we all headed off to a well earned night of sleep.
Snow Day - May 23, 2015
Throughout the night, our tents were pelted with snow and strong gusts of winds. We awoke to similar conditions and decided today would be a good day to stay in camp and rest. We had a nice long breakfast and then spent a few hours reinforcing our camp. We ventured out into the moderate snow and winds and made the walls around our camp a bit taller and wider. The forecast was for stronger winds and more snow over the next few days, so we wanted to ensure we were as ready as we could be.
The rest of the day was spent playing cards, reading, and doing what we could to pass the time.
Weather Day - May 24, 2015
It was a good thing we tidied up camp yesterday. It sounded like a freight train was roaring through our camp all night. The rangers reported wind gusts of over 50 miles per hour. I didn’t sleep much due to the storm. The noise of the wind was really loud and we had to venture out every few hours to clear the snow off of the tent. Clearing the snow off means getting out of the nice warm sleeping bag, putting on all sorts of layers of clothing and then being blasted by the snow while clearing the tent….super fun! It has to be done though, otherwise the snow builds up on the top of the tent and the weight of it can collapse the tent. We also wanted to keep the tent doors clear of snow so we could get out if need be!
As we gathered for breakfast, we could see the damage the winds had done the night before. Even with our very large snow walls, our posh tent had been ripped in several places and portions of our snow walls had been knocked over. We bundled up and spent some time sewing the posh tent and repairing the snow walls. It continued to snow all day and so we spent another day in the tent relaxing. It’s tough not to get antsy when stuck in the tent for long periods of time, but patience is key and I fortunately had a lot of reading material and two great tent mates to help pass the time! We played a lot of spades!
The weather cleared for a little bit in the afternoon and we were able to get outside and stretch.
Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow!
Cache Retrieval - May 25, 2015
The weather was much better this morning. The winds were still blowing higher on the mountain, but it was calm and sunny where we were which meant that we could make a quick jaunt back down the mountain to retrieve the cache we had left behind at Windy Corner, 1000 feet below us. We fueled up with some bagels and bacon (you really can’t have enough bacon on a big mountain climb!) and then roped up to head downhill.
It took about 45 minutes to descend back to our cache and it was strangely calm at Windy Corner. The winds were light and it was very nice out. We took a long break to dig up the cache and refuel our bodies with a snack and water. We then turned around to head back up to 14k camp. Another hour and we had completed our main task for the day. We now had all of our provisions with us here at 14k camp and were in position to start our final push higher up the mountain.
We rested for a couple of hours and then set out to practice using ascenders and walking on a fixed line. When we next head up the mountain, we will be going on the steepest section (50 degrees) of the entire route as we climb up the headwall to the West Buttress. The park service rangers maintain fixed lines (lines that are anchored into the mountain every 50 feet or so) on this steep section. We remain roped to each other, but we also connect ourselves to the fixed line. That way if we loose our footing, we only slip a few feet and the fixed line will protect us from falling. An ascender is a device that slides easily forward, but will stop if it is pulled backwards. This allows us to move it along the rope as we climb upwards. The trick is every 50 feet or so there is a point where the rope is anchored into the ground. At these points, you need to remove your ascender from the rope and reposition it above the anchor. To stay safe during this maneuver, you also attach a carabiner to the rope. At the anchor point, you first move the carabiner above the anchor and then once this is safely connected, move the ascender. This ensures you are never completely disconnected from fixed line. This can be challenging to do under normal circumstances and is even more challenging when wearing heavy gloves.
Our guides set up a practice line for us around camp and we spent a few hours practicing moving along the fixed ropes.
Afterwards, we had another wonderful team dinner and reviewed the plans for the next few days.
Top of the World Views - May 26, 2015
We woke up this morning to see clouds and winds swirling on the West Buttress above us, which indicated that today would not be a good day for us to do our next carry higher on the mountain. Instead we had a lazy morning making pancakes and hanging out in the posh tent.
In the later part of the afternoon, the sun came out and our whole team took a journey out to a place known as The Edge of the World. This is a rock outcropping about a 15 minute walk from camp. When you stand on the there, you can see over 6000 feet back down the Kahiltna glacier. In order to safely enjoy these views, we roped ourselves up and took turns belaying each other our onto the outcropping. A fall would here be fatal, so it was important to be safety conscious.
A little about Denali — On the lower part of the mountain, we were walking on a massive glacier and we were surrounded by high mountain peaks. As we have progressed up the mountain, we have slowly left all of those below us. Here at the 14k camp, we are above all but a couple of other mountains in the range.
Out on the ledge, we could see our previous camps as little dots far down the glacier and we could see miles and miles of the beautiful Alaska range. It is hard to describe how amazing and awe inspiring these views are.
Eventually, it was time to return to camp. As the weather was still nice, we took the opportunity to sit outside and meet some climbers from other teams camped near us. Climbers come from all over the world to climb Denali. It was really interesting to meet and share stories with like minded people.
After another fantastic team dinner, we were off to bed hoping the good weather of this afternoon would stick around through tomorrow and allow us to do a carry up to the top of the fixed lines.
Carry to High Camp - May 27, 2015
Finally, a nice day! We awoke to sunny skies and light winds and immediately knew that this would be the day we make our last cache before the summit. The goal was to leave a few days worth of food and fuel at the top of the fixed lines around 16,000 feet of elevation. We wanted to get out of camp early so as not to get backed up behind all the others headed up the fixed lines. We were somewhat successful in this. There were a few teams ahead of us but we were definitely on the early side.
A very quick breakfast and we roped up and began climbing. It takes about 2 hours to get to the fixed lines from camp. The weather was beautiful and the terrain made for smooth walking. We took one rest break about half way up and then stopped again just before the fixed lines started.
We had to negotiate the bergshrund (a place where the glacier separates from the nearby rocks) to get onto the fixed lines. This involved carefully stepping/jumping over a few narrow but deep crevasses and some tricky maneuvering around rock formations, but soon we were at the base of the lines. One by one we clipped ourselves in and began heading upwards. It was much harder than when we practiced in camp. Due to the steepness of the route, there were a lot of spots that were barren blue ice. These blue ice spots were very tricky to get secure footing on, even with crampons.
There are two sets of fixed lines, one for traffic going uphill and one for traffic going downhill. It is important not to pull on the lines. Pulling on them can cause problems for others connected to the line. They are meant to be used only for safety in case of a fall. The trick is to maintain a good athletic posture, use your legs as much as possible, and leverage your ice axe as an additional contact/balance point. This is easier said then done when on terrain where your ankles are often twisted in weird ways to keep your crampons embedded in the ice and snow. In places where the snow was soft, steps of sorts had formed, and those were really nice, but they were somewhat few and far between. More often we were walking on hard ice and fighting to get solid footing.
It was hard work and I got quite hot on the fixed lines, but we made slow and steady progress and about an hour and a half after starting, reached the top. We unclipped from the lines and walked upwards another 15 minutes to a large flat area where we sat down for a rest break.
This was where we had intended to place our cache of food and fuel, but the weather was perfect and the entire team was climbing strong, so we decided to push on all the way to high camp.
To get from the top of the fixed lines at 16,000 feet to high camp at 17,000 feet, you ascend a very narrow ridge along the West Buttress. The trail is no more than 2 or 3 feet wide in most places and there is a 3000 foot drop off to one side and a 5000 foot drop off to the other side. This is definitely not a place for the feint of heart!
The climbing was fun, the views were amazing, and this was easily the most amazing place I have climbed in my entire life!
The route follows the ridge upward and after about 45 minutes there is a brief steeper section that passes around a large rock formation known as Washburn’s Thumb. It took a bit of tricky climbing to get through this narrow part. After that is was another hour or so of steady climbing on the West Buttress ridge until we reached the vicinity of 17k camp. Here we left the ridge and the route opened up a bit as we came into camp.
We found a spot on the far side of camp and cached our gear and took a good long rest while admiring the views and enjoying the phenomenal weather.
Eventually we turned around and started back to 14k camp. Walking back down the West Buttress was even more exhilarating because you could really see how narrow and steep the route was. It took about an hour and a half to get back to the top of the fixed lines.
Going down the fixed lines is fun but a somewhat tricky. On the way down you don’t use an ascender. Instead, you clip a carabiner into the line for safety and then wrap the fixed rope around your arm. Wrapping the rope allows you to create friction to help keep you steady. In this manner you can keep reasonably stable and walk quickly on the way down. The entire time you have to stay in a balanced athletic position and it gets very tiring on the legs.
We safely made it down the fixed lines, took a short break, and then practically sprinted down the lower section back to camp.
We 10 hours after we had left very exhausted, but exhilarated from the big day and filled with a lot of confidence in ourselves. None of us had expected to climb all the way to high camp and the fact that we all made it in good time and climbed well as a team really encouraged us that we were now ready to go for the summit once the weather allows.
All of us slept well!
Well Earned Rest Day - May 28, 2015
After the big effort yesterday, today was a planned rest day. We slept in late and spent several hours having another long, slow breakfast. We wanted to be in position to start for the summit tomorrow, weather permitting. The goal today was to rest and rest well. We could see there was wind up on the West Buttress, but it was sunny and calm in our camp.
My tent mates and I played cards most of the day and I took a few naps and read more of my book. I did my best to rest up today so I would be ready and strong for the summit attempt.
In the late afternoon, we reviewed our plans for moving up to high camp and heading to the summit. We re-organized our gear to prioritize what we needed to bring uphill with us and then we ate the last of our fresh food for dinner. From here on out we would be living on freeze dried meals.
The weather forecast is looking promising for the next few days. We are looking for three consecutive days of reasonable weather (light winds and no major storms). We need one day to move to high camp, a day to summit, and a day to get back down. High camp can be a rather unpleasant place to stay long, so the preference is to remain at 14k camp until there is a good weather window. That being said, on a mountain like Denali, forecasts are often unreliable and change frequently. So far we have been pretty lucky with the weather on this trip. I have friends who have experienced massive storms on Denali that pinned them in their tents for several days in a row.
We went to bed early hopeful that we would have our window tomorrow.
17k Camp - May 29, 2015
It was a glorious day to be on the move. We awoke to light winds, bluebird skies, and a forecast of decent weather for the next two and a half days. That was good enough for us to start our summit attempt. After a quick breakfast we began taking down our home of the past week and packing it all into our backpacks for the move up to 17k camp.
By mid morning we were finished and we began heading back uphill towards the headwall and the fixed lines. It always seems a bit easier once you know the route and what to expect. We made good time all morning and before long, we were backup on the West Buttress again. A short break and then it was a few more hours of climbing on this spectacularly scenic ridge. We once again had fantastic weather - sunny, light winds, and reasonable temperatures.
We rolled into 17k camp in the early afternoon and go to work setting up camp. It took a couple of hours to level out our tent platforms and build walls. At 17,000 feet of elevation, chopping out ice blocks for tent walls was was exhausting work and we were all sweating by the time it was complete. We intended to get up very early tomorrow and go for the summit, so we had a very early dinner and were in our beds trying to sleep around 7 pm.
Summit! - May 30, 2015
We had an early start today - 4 am! This meant we were up before the sun which meant it was quite cold while we were getting ready. We hurriedly ate breakfast and geared up for our summit attempt. I was nervous but excited. This was going to be the culmination of many months of training and two and a half hard weeks to get to this point! By 6 am we were walking uphill.
The first section of the route out of high camp on summit day, the Autobahn, is one of the most dangerous sections on the mountain. It ascends via a large, steep traverse up to Denali pass (18,000 feet). The trail is very narrow and the route ascends steeply and has a drop off of several thousand feet to the climbers left. The route is protected with fixed lines during this entire part for extra safety. There is no place to stop for rest or to make any adjustments once you are on the Autobahn. You are very committed to making it to the pass. It was hard work and I warmed up quickly even though we were still in the shadow of the mountain on this section. It was steep and an exhausting way to start the day. I took it one step at a time and tried my best to get into a steady stepping and breathing rhythm.
Two hours later we reached Denali pass where we were able to take our first break of the day.
The next two hours were up a moderately steep trail. There weren’t any dangerous drop offs, but there were crevasses to be careful of. We continued to progress steadily upwards. I wasn’t feeling very good at this point, but I damn sure wasn’t going to turn around after spending three weeks to get to this point. I focused on my breathing and did everything I could to get keep making steady progress.
Eventually we made it to the Football Field. This is a large flat section that leads to Pig Hill, which is the last major obstacle before the summit. It was tough going to get to this point, but seeing the summit in sight gave me a massive boost of energy. The football field was very interesting to cross. It was just this big open flat area, quite literally, the size of a football field!
We pushed on and reached Pig Hill. This is a very steep hill that leads to the summit ridge. I should have been thoroughly exhausted at this point, but I was so excited to be this close to the summit, I powered up the hill with no major issues. From the top of Pig Hill it was about a 30 minute walk along the very exposed summit ridge.
Shortly before 2 pm, I was standing on the highest point in North America!!!
The weather was windy but crystal clear. I had tears in my eyes I was so excited. We spent about 30 minutes on top taking pictures, congratulating each other, and enjoying the magnificent views. We were the only team on the summit.
Eventually we started to get a bit cold and recognized that we still had a long way to go to get back to the relative safety of camp. We put our packs back on and began the descent.
The first few hours back to Denali Pass were uneventful. We were tired but the trail was straightforward and the weather was quite nice. I felt wonderful. At the top of Denali Pass, we took a break before heading back down the Autobahn. It was windy and very cold at the break.
We were dressed in several layers due to the cold and wind as we started back down the Autobahn. The downward traverse is even more dangerous than the upwards traverse. We were all tired and it was very steep. A few minutes into this section, the wind died completely and it got unbearably hot. Unfortunately, once you are on the traverse, there is no place to stop and remove a layer. It took an hour and a half to get to the bottom of the Autobahn and by that point I was so hot I was genuinely worried I was getting heatstroke. I apparently wasn’t the only one. As we unclipped from the fixed lines, we all immediately dropped our backs and stripped off every layer except a light shirt. I was drenched in sweat. I never would have expected that happen on summit day on Denali.
It was another half hour back to camp. We arrived late in the afternoon, 11 hours after we had started. We were thoroughly exhausted, but excited to have summitted the highest mountain in North America and happy that we were all safely back at high camp! We hungrily ate another freeze dried meal and retired to bed, looked forward to starting our descent back to civilization tomorrow morning!
Descent - May 31, 2015
Today was all about descending. After our big day getting to the summit and back yesterday, we were ready to get back to some thicker air and civilization. It was sunny but very windy when we woke up, which made packing up camp interesting… The wind was howling and we had to be very careful to not let any of our gear fly away. As we were packing up, a tent from another party camped near us almost blew away. They were lucky in that one of my teammates was able to catch it before it was gone for good.
We watched as a few other teams left camp to begin their own summit bids and then we started back down the West Buttress. The previous two times we were on the buttress, the weather was gorgeous with light winds. Today it was sunny but the winds were blowing a good 20-30 miles per hour. The high winds forced us to go a little slower on the descent down the ridge and be extra cautious. The last thing we wanted to do was get blown off the mountain on our descent! We moved carefully but steadily and after a couple of hours we were back at the top of the fixed lines.
We took a short break and then arm wrapped into the rope once again and two hours later we were back at the welcoming site of 14k camp. The winds were much calmer here and we stopped to retrieve some gear we had left at camp.
After a nice, long rest break, we roped back up and continued downhill. Our legs were getting tired and as we descended back down motorcycle hill, all of us were feeling it heavily in our legs. We were stumbling all over the place and we all fell a few times, but the snow was soft and we just plopped into the snow and got back up and continued on down.
A few more hours and we were back at the 11k camp. It felt great to be in such thick air, but my legs and feet were killing me. We had descended over 6000 feet and we still had a long way to go. We debated camping here for the night, but we really wanted to be at the airstrip first thing in the morning tomorrow. The forecast was calling for a large storm to arrive tomorrow afternoon and we wanted to try and get on a flight back to Talkeetna. The thought of spending several more days stuck at base camp was unappealing to us! Ultimately, even though we were all very exhausted, we decided to push on and descend all the way to the 7800 foot camp.
We took another good long rest and then repacked our gear once more. We would now be using our sleds again. We traded our crampons for snow shoes and resumed walking downhill.
Managing the sleds on the way up was difficult. Managing the sleds on the way down was impossible. For the first two people on the rope, the person behind them can help control their sled. I, unfortunately, was in the back of our rope team with my sled behind me. This meant that my sled was free to do pretty much whatever it felt like doing. My sled continually crossed under my feet, bumped into my legs, and just generally made itself a real annoyance. I probably tripped over it at least 10 times on the way down. Each time I would face plant myself in the snow, curse the sled, get back up, and continue.
It had been quite warm the past few days which was really nice for us up high on the mountain, but down low it meant that we had a lot more crevasses to contend with. Many of them were thinly covered with snow and easy to fall into if not careful. I fell in one up to my waist, but thankfully was able to drag myself back out with my arms. It is a bit scary to fall into a hole that is hundreds of feet deep. At that point though, I was so tired, I didn’t care terribly much. I just wanted to get down the mountain. Several of us fell into small crevasses, but thankfully we had no major mishaps.
We plodded ever farther downward and eventually, around 11 pm, we rolled into the 7800 foot camp. We hastily put up our tents. Another team was kind enough to let us use their posh tent for a quick meal. We were all extremely tired as we had been on our feet for almost 15 hours.
Flying Off the Mountain - June 1, 2015
We slept for about 3 hours. We were back up at 3 am to complete the final section back to Denali Base Camp. We were all very tired, but also very motivated to get to base camp and catch a flight back to civilization before the oncoming storm.
It was a beautiful morning and as we headed back down the Kahiltna glacier, the alpenglow of the morning light was stunning. Although I was tired, I had an immense sense of peace about me. I knew it was likely I would never return to this magical place. I tried to soak up and enjoy every minute of it even though my sled was still making my life difficult!
It took us about 4 hours to get back to Heartbreak Hill. Here we had to do one last bit of hard work to get back up the last 400 feet to base camp. We were tired, but the weather was still amazing and we pushed pretty quickly up the hill.
We arrived in base camp, found the cache we had left here three weeks ago, and dug it up. We had buried several cans of beer which we promptly opened and had a huge team celebration. The base camp manager informed us that the planes would be arriving in about 2 hours.
We spent the two hours celebrating and dreaming of a hot shower and a restaurant meal!
The planes arrived as expected and after they had unloaded a load of arriving climbers, we loaded up all of our equipment and embarked back to civilization. I got to sit in front with the pilot on the flight back and had some amazing views of the Alaska range and Talkeetna area. For three weeks the only real color we had seen was white. As we got closer to Talkeetna it was awesome to see so many other colors.
After arriving in Talkeetna, we all went straight to our hotel to take a long hot shower and then we met for one last celebration dinner. It had been an amazing 3 weeks with an amazing group of people.
This was a trip I will never forget.
