To hear this Denali 2007
To hear this Denali 2007 audio dispatch, store just click on the play button. Thanks for listening and following me on The Road Back to Mt. Everest: Memories are Everything. This is about more than just climbing mountains…. Climb On! Alan
To hear this Denali 2007
To hear this Denali 2007 audio dispatch, just click on the play button. Thanks for listening and following me on The Road Back to Mt. Everest: Memories are Everything. This is about more than just climbing mountains…. Climb On! Alan
To hear this Denali 2007
To hear this Denali 2007 audio dispatch, just click on the play button. Thanks for listening and following me on The Road Back to Mt. Everest: Memories are Everything. This is about more than just climbing mountains…. Climb On! Alan
Night Shift
Friday, June 15 we moved from base camp at 7200′ to Camp1 at 7800′ Not a lot of altitude given the summit is 20, 320′ but it was a lot of work. Mid June is starting to be late to climb Denali. The day time temps are moderate – in the 30’s and night sees single digits below zero – downright balmy! So the lower glacier becomes a very dangerous place with deep crevasse all over. The snow bridges become very soft and collapse with the slightest pressure. All this means travel at night. After arriving at base camp, we had a quick bite and went to bed – at 11:00 AM! We awoke for dinner around 5 and promptly went back to bed. This climbing is hard work! But at midnight we were up. After breakfast of coffee and rolls we tore down the tents, packed our backpacks and sleds and around 3:00 AM. Each of us had over 100lbs combined in our pack and sled. The sun sets at midnight and rises at 4:00AM at this latitude but it never really gets dark. A mild breeze was blowing and at each rest stop we donned our heavy jackets. We made great time covering the 5 miles and arriving at camp at 7:30AM. More later on setting up these winter camps but it is a work of art. Tonight we carry some gear up about 2000′ and dig a cache in the snow to hold it until we move the next night. The loads will be much lighter but it will be a 8 hour day. Thanks for following along. My technology is giving me problems so I hope to be able to keep sending these every few days. Climb On! Alan
To hear this Denali 2007
To hear this Denali 2007 audio dispatch, case just click on the play button. Thanks for listening and following me on The Road Back to Mt. Everest: Memories are Everything. This is about more than just climbing mountains…. Climb On! Alan
Get to the Airport Now!
Sitting at the local pizza place, we were enjoying the local High School band led by Jason, playing lead guitar and singing lead vocals. Just as the peach skinned young star finished their creative rendetion of a grateful dead hit (a real crowd pleaser according to Jason) we headed back. March saw us as we walked up and he gave the thumbs up …. With the urgency of Jason’s band groupies, we hustled to put on our climbing boots and throw the 100lbs of food into the van. Soon our team of eight was bumping down the dirt road towards the airstrip. Hearing the droan of turbo props above we high-fived and joked with anticipation as we pulled up to the hanger. And then it was over. Not going to happen. Our pilot had made the only run to the glacier today and radioed back that he would take us up. But as he was taking off, the cloud moved back in and he called it off. He even turned back a team about to land in another plane since it had become unsafe. There are over 200 climbers waiting to be picked up at base camp on the glacier so the pilots are anxious to clear things out. We just want to get started. Maybe tomorrow… Climb On! Alan
Hurry Up and Wait…
The theme of climbing. We are still in Talkeetna waiting for low clouds over the glacier to clear. While it is sunny here and also high up on Denali, > the Turbo-Props can’t land in poor visibility on the glacier landing strip. So we are hanging out, reviewing some basic skills in knots, rope work and crevase rescue. We hope that the afternoon sun will clear out the clouds thus allowing flights. There are teams on the glacier waiting to get out so if I had my choice for a delay, I’ll take it here in town! Climb On! Alan
Made it to Talkeetna
Made it to Talkeetna, a small tourist town serving as the gateway to Denali National Park. I visited the National Park Service headquarters to see how the season has gone thus far – not good news. As of today, June 11, there have been 1176 climbers registered to attempt all routes on Denali. Of the 547 who have finished their attempts only 193 have reached the summit. That is a 33% success rate. Normally about half summit each year. The 2007 season has extremely high winds pinning down many teams at the Basin Camp at 14,000′. There have also been 41 people fall into crevasses thus far and of course, 5 deaths in the area. So once again Denali proves it reputation as one of the world’s toughest mountains. I meet up with team tomorrow morning. I rode up from Ancorage with Mike, the tattoo studio owner from New York. A very nice guy and, as you would expect, covered in colorful tattoos! I expect to learn about the business after spending the next three weeks with him. We will have a briefing with Park Rangers tomorrow to understand the various rules. As a US National Park, Denali is tightly controlled for pollution, unsafe behavoir and overall saftey. We also pay a $210 permit fee each which inlcudes helicopter resuce in dire cases. It is raining today with temps in the 50’s. On the Hill, highs range from 5 to 35 and lows from -10 to +10. The winds have finally calmed down a bit allowing a slew of summits the past few days. Let’s hope it continues when we go for the top near the end of June. After a 40 minute bush plane ride, we will be dropped off at 7200′ on the Kahiltna glacier to start the climb. Next dispatch from the glacier! Climb On! Alan
Denali 2007 Trip Report
This is a very personal, detailed and sometimes graphic report. It chronicles my attempt on Denali in June 2007. My intent is to bring readers into my world of high-altitude mountaineering by showing the incredible rewards, the obvious dangers and what happens when the human body hits the wall. Remember to click on any picture in the report to enlarge it then use the back arrow to return to the report. Denali 2007 was the first of four climbs for my return to Mt. Everest: Memories are Everything® journey. I aimed to raise $100,000 for the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (CAF) by using the Denali, Shishapangma, Orizaba, and Everest climbs. My hope was/is to summit each peak and raise awareness and money through real-time dispatches sent directly from each Peak. I left Denver International Airport for Anchorage on June 10, 2007. With Everest in the plans, Denali was almost an afterthought for my journey – a familiar climb designed to test my body once again against the rigors of high altitude. I was there in 2001 and was turned back by poor weather at Denali Pass or 18,200’. I was confident I could make the climb, weather permitting. My only concern was the heavy loads involved: 120 lbs split between my pack and sled that needed to be hauled up almost 2 miles purely through my strength. Hey, I am 50 years old! The week before I left, I worked closely with the CAF’s Tim and Katie to coordinate both websites to post my dispatches and receive donations marked for the Memories Are Everything® fund. My training was as good as it would be, thanks to some challenging climbs in the Colorado Mountains with my partners Patrick and Robert. Leaving Colorado, I felt confident, strong and nervous about the year-long commitment I had publicly announced. What if I failed? What if I didn’t summit this “familiar” climb? What if… I met my guides and teammates at the Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS) on June 12 in Talkeetna, Alaska. I selected AMS due to its reputation as a solid guiding company with an excellent record of safety and success and its focus on the basics. I felt this reputation would attract more competent climbers, enhance my chances of success, and, more importantly, deliver an overall positive experience. Christian March was the lead guide. A young man of 27 years, he shook my hand with an air of confidence and gave orders on what to do and how to do it. I liked him immediately. Next, I met his assistant, Leighan, an impressive 26-year-old native Alaskan who oozed with personality. She gave immediate life to the team. Soon, the other five climbers arrived at the old house AMS had converted into their offices. They were a diverse group, including a father-son pair, a banker, a tattoo studio owner and a British law enforcement officer. Most had good mountaineering experience, and all were eager to summit Denali. Thus, the team was set. Scheduled to fly out the next day, we rushed to check our gear and review some basic glacier travel skills. But the weather in June 2007 had been challenging. Colder than normal temperatures and high winds had reduced the usual 50% summit rate to a very low 33%. And it continued. Our flight to the Kahiltna Glacier was delayed for two days. We rushed to the airstrip twice to load the DeHavilland Beaver Turboprop, but we were told the flight was canceled. So we bided our time in the township of Talkeetna by doing more “classes,” as AMS calls their review of skills, and scrambling at the last minute to find a place to spend the night. We also enjoyed the sights and entertainment of the local bars and restaurants. Remember that Talkeetna has one main road – paved, that is – and is straight out of the television series Northern Exposure. It’s a great place, to be sure. Finally, we got the word on June 14th, we would be flown to the glacier. The flight is one of the best I have ever taken in my mountaineering travels. Second only to the landings at Lukla, Nepal, in the late 1990s when the landing strip was dirt with Yaks crossing it and pilots who chatted casually as the plane appeared to be on a direct collision course with the steep mountain side! But this flight, smoothly operated by Paul Roderick, the owner of Talkeetna Air Taxi, was more like a scheduled commercial flight – no wait – better. We rose to about 10,000’ over the Alaskan tundra as we approached the Alaskan range. Mounts Denali, Foraker and Hunter stood proudly above the rest of the snow-covered mountains in the range. Another plane passed by a quarter of a mile away with sightseers. I thought about the fact that their journey would end in half an hour, ours in 21 days. “500 feet,” announced the comforting female voice of the automated flight systems as we flew over a high mountain pass. Paul banked the Beaver to the right as we approached the “landing strip.” Memories of my 2001 climb came back, and I felt the adrenaline flow as we made the steep descent and abrupt landing on the hard-packed ice. I had made it back. Now, all I had to do was climb Denali and get home safely. Due to poor weather, over 200 climbers were stranded for several days. So, as the plane spun around, we saw a refugee camp of climbers with the 100-yard stare in their eyes, drooling at our tiny 8-person plane. I was slightly afraid of a rush to take it over, but the National Park Service (NPS) has Rangers at the base camp (BC) to organize flights in and out. All quite civilized, as my British friend would say. Our first order of business was to unload our gear from the airplane—a 60-lb pack each, over 500 lbs of food, three tents, stoves, fuel, and God knows