Consider:
1) The entire mountain is snow and ice covered, meaning that crevasses will potentially be an issue for nearly the entire mountain.
2) There are no porters/mules/yaks on Denali. If you choose not to go guided, this means you will be carrying 90 pounds of gear for a good portion of the climb.
3) You have to melt every drop of water you drink on the mountain.
4) Because of the latitude, the thinner atmosphere near the poles means that the summit "feels" several thousand feet higher than it actually is - closer to 23k than 20k.
5) It is COLD! Even with a -40 degree sleeping bag I did not sleep well at all - and summit day was brutally cold through Denali Pass.
6) 13,000 ft of prominence. Climbers travel from 7k up to 20k. The 13k of vertical is a lot of ground to cover.
That said, it was an amazing climb and a memorable experience. I would climb the mountain again in a heartbeat if I could explore another route.
Day 1: Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Departed Denver via Air Alaska through Seattle and into Anchorage. Arrived in the evening and checked into the Courtyard close to the airport. Met Patrick Keefer here - Patrick and I were sharing a permit and planned to climb together.
Day 2: Monday, May 10th, 2010
In the early morning we boarded a shuttle van to Talkeetna, filled mostly with folks headed up to near Denali National Park to work the summer tourist season in the hotels and restaurants. Patrick and I were dropped of in Talkeetna, a good 60 miles SE of Denali. Here we checked in at Talkeetna Air Taxi, our $500 plane ride onto the Kahiltna Glacier. We also checked in with the National Park ranger station here, finalizing our permit.
Day 3: Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Bad weather on the mountain prevented us from flying onto the glacier today. Kahiltna was a ghost town at this point, so we just wandered around a bit and picked up a few remaining supplies at a climbing shop. There were about 20 hours of daylight at this point, so I never really felt like it was completely dark.
Day 4: Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Mid-day the weather finally lifted, giving us a window to fly in to base camp.
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| Talkeetna Air Taxi - Our Ride onto the Glacier |
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| Flying Above the Glacier |
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| Leaving Base Camp |
Day 5: Thursday, May 13th, 2010
We carried a cache of gear up to Kahiltna Pass (KP - 9,700 ft.) and marked it with wands. We would be making a lot of trips on this climb to cache gear, given the sheer amount of gear required. Weather was fairly bad, with low visibility. The approx 2,000 ft of vertical ascent took us approx 4 hours - probably too quick as I sweated through my base layer and had to change shirts in the freezing wind mid-way up. We descended back to camp at 7.8k to spend the night.
Day 6: Friday, May 14th, 2010
We made the trip more quickly up to KP in 3 hours today, picked up our cached gear, and continued with the full load to the Motorcycle Hill camp (MH - 11,000 ft.). The snow was fairly fresh and not at all consolidated, so areas with much steeper slope closer to camp became a challenge to navigate in snowshoes. I'm convinced that skinning the route with skis is the way to go for most of the lower mountain - but unfortunately we were stuck with only our snowshoes. As we pulled into camp the weather was fairly clear, but was degrading. We found an abandoned camp site and set up our tents and quickly set to work melting snow and cooking food.
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| Camp at Motorcycle Hill |
Day 7: Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Not much to do on this day, as the weather was poor with very little visibility. All we could do was just sit and wait. Fortunately the wind was not bad. |
| Low Visibility at 11k |
Day 8: Sunday, May 16th, 2010
A break in the weather gave us a chance to take another cache of gear higher on the mountain. We climbed Motorcycle Hill, nicknamed for the sport where motorcycles speed up a progressively steeper hill until either the top is reached or the motorcycle and rider fall back down the slope. After ascending the 1,000 ft hill, we continued us a somewhat steep but very icy pitch until we reached a flatter area preceding Windy Corner. Windy Corner is an aptly named ridge that has to be crossed where winds are very stout and very cold. We went up to 13.5k - just short of Basin Camp, and stored our cache here, again marking it with bamboo wands.
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| 500 ft Above the Turn from Motorcycle Hill |
On my descent as I neared the top of MH I noticed a group of climbers and a helicopter making passes over the cliff. Apparently a climber had just lost control of some of his gear, and as it slid down the mountain he leapt at it in an attempt to save it. Unfortunately both the climber and the gear gained speed quickly and launched off the cliff and onto the glacier far, far below. It was sobering to witness the search so soon after the incident happened, and all I could think about were the phone calls his climbing partner was going to have to make to family and friends.
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| R.I.P. |
3,200 ft of ascent today as we left MH and ascended to Basin Camp at 14.2k ft. We rounded Windy Corner, left up our gear cache at 13.5k ft, and set up camp. Views were absolutely astonishing, and spirits seemed to be high among most climbers here, with only another 6,000 vertical ft of ascent to the summit.
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| Headwall Above Basin Camp - 2,000 ft of Vertical, with 500 ft of Fixed Ropes |
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| Spoiled by the Accommodations |
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| Stunning Views All Around |
Primarily a rest day. We briefly descended back to collect our cache at 13.5k ft. I could tell at this point that Patrick was having some issues acclimatizing, but he was nevertheless still pushing himself hard.
Day 11: Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
With Patrick staying at Basin Camp, from this point I was on my own. Day 11 was an acclimatization hike and caching run up to 17k. The headwall above Basin Camp was a long, slow slow, with 1,500 feet of steepening ascent followed by 500 vertical feet of fixed ropes on an icy slope. This area can be a bottleneck, so it's best to try to stay away from the crowds and slow climbers. Once at the top of the headwall I rested before beginning the ascent along the ridge. While not highly technical, the ridge is dangerous. There are minimal fixed ropes, and one slip can be the end of things. As a solo climber, this is an area to be particularly deliberate. I ascended to 17k to a rocky prominence know as Washburn's Thumb where I cached my gear and then descended back to Basin Camp for the night.
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| Climbers Below Washburn's Thumb |
A very, very tough climb today. We had snowfall during the night - about 8-10 inches. All the climbers sat in Basin Camp waiting for someone else to ascend and break trail. If you've ever climbed in fresh snow - especially over a layer of consolidated snow, you know that it can be exhausting and risky. Finally I had enough of waiting and headed up the headwall, breaking trail the entire way. Near the fixed ropes a small bit of snow gave way and I slid for 15-20 feet, self arresting and quickly getting back on track. Once at the fixed ropes I found the ropes buried in snow and covered in ice - so I proceeded, foot-by-foot, freeing the rope and using my ice axe to shave the ice off so that my ascender had solid purchase on the rope. Slowly I made it to the top of the headwall at 16k ft, noticing that a few others had ventured out of camp below and started up.
I continued climbing along the ridge up to Washburn's Thumb, where I retrieved my cache and continued on to high camp. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the day because I just felt too tired to dig out the camera. 7 hours of climbing with gear at altitude was rough. The views along the ridge were remarkable, and there were many areas where the mountain just fell away on both sides into thousands of feet of thin air. I finally made high camp, happy to have a chance to rest, but also aware that the temps at this altitude were becoming much colder. I used my collapsible shovel to dig a platform for my tent, set up camp, drank, ate, and burrowed in for a cold night.
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| High Camp at 17,200 ft. |
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| Spry and sprightly? No. |
Day 13: Friday, May 21st, 2010
After a long climb the day before, I decided to take a rest day at high camp in order to take in some calories and to tend to blisters. I used La Sportiva Spantiks for the ascent, and these tend to be fairly narrow boots. On Aconcagua it was not much of a problem, given that the climbing was not at all technical - but on the steeper slopes and terrain of Denali it was clear the boots were shredding my feet. I was finally resigned to using a patchwork of gauze, socks, and duct tape to keep climbing. So fair warning - although the Spantiks are a popular and capable boot - you my look at other options if you have Sasquatch-sized feet like mine.
Day 14: Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
Weather updates were generally provided by the ranger service in the evenings via radio. Instead of giving reports by geographic area, reports tended to be segmented by altitude (i.e. "Calm up to 11k feet with increasing winds above 14k feet"). The evening of the 21st I was not able to hear a report, and asking around camp it was apparent that no one else had heard it either. I woke up at 5 AM and left camp by 6AM for a summit attempt in very high winds and very low visibility, betting that the storm would pass as the day wore on. I climbed the "Autobahn" up to Denali Pass at roughly 18k ft, careful not to lose footing on the new snow, planting my ice axe at each step to gain a third point of traction.
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| Autobahn - Picture Taken During Descent - High Camp is Visible Near Ridge |
The next 1,000 vertical feet after the pass was a blur of slope and ice and ridge rocks. The weather progressively cleared, and I finally reached a part of the ridge sheltered from the wind. I reached a flat area just shy of the summit called the "Football Field" and felt like I was probably home free - big mistake. In this area near the summit it was interesting to still be stepping over crevasses. Before long I came to a feature called Pig Hill, from which the summit ridge rises. Pig Hill was steep with loose snow, and the accumulated effort and altitude turned this part of the climb into a Sisyphean task. Finally I found my way up the hill and onto the summit ridge, which I followed for several hundred yards to the actual summit. Being in the US, Denali is marked with a USGS metal disc, and a few colorful prayer flags were draped from the summit. The views were completely indescribable, made even more special and exhilarating because I was the only person on the mountain that day above high camp - I had everything completely to myself.
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| Mt. McKinley USGS Marker |
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| Trusty Ice Axe on Summit |
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| Self-portrait |
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| Summit Ridge Cornice |
I reached the summit in 6 hours, and took 2 hours on the descent. Once back at high camp I decided to pack my gear and continue the descent to Basin Camp, where I hoped Patrick was still camped. I was ecstatic to find Patrick still at Basin Camp, where he was kind enough to make me cup after cup of hot chocolate.
Day 15: Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
Another extremely long day as we descended all the way from Basin Camp back out through Motorcycle Hill Camp, Kahiltna Pass, Ski Hill and back to base camp all in one day. We were even fortunate enough to catch one of the last planes off the glacier, and so we were able to fly back to Talkeetna for showers and a hearty dinner. We each ate an entire large pizza, guilt-free.
Gear List:
Boots: La Sportiva Spantiks
Tent: Black Diamond / Bibbler Eldorado tent (did not like this tent - set-up required too much time without gloves on)
Base Layer Gear: Mostly Eddie Bauer First Ascent
Mittens: OR Altimitts
Pack: Mountain Hardwear BMG Pack
Parka: Eddie Bauer Peak XV (love, love, love this coat)
Shovel: Black Diamond Deploy 3
REI Ice Axe and Black Diamond Crampons with Extender Bars
Sleeping Pad: Exped Down Mat
Sleeping Bag: EMS -40 bag (did not love this bag)
Stove: Jetboil Flash used up to high camp - really great stove, but make certain you have matches or a flint
Sunglasses: $15 cheapies bought at Target
Goggles: cheap skiing goggles
