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