Denali Alaska - Mt McKinley climb - 6194m

May 2011

Alaska - Denali National Park

I don't know how many trip of a lifetimes i have had in the last 8 months of travelling, but I managed to unexpectedly squeeze one more in at the end of my Latin America trip.

In fact its turned out to be a trans America trip, busing all the way from the North America to Argentina, making a quick return by plane, but continuing all the way past Canada to the Alaskan mountains of Denali National Park and Mt McKinley, North America's highest peak at 6194m (20320ft).

I'm back home now, sucking in the thick sea level oxygen and getting used to people speaking 'proper' English again. Before heading back though I was lucky to be able to join a team of French Canadians climbing Denali, (Mt McKinley), in Alaska.

About 5 years ago i met a guy in Beijing on Christmas Day in Tiananmen Square, wearing a Santa Claus outfit. In fact i was wearing one too, along with about 20 other spirited expats and Chinese friends. We were out for a crazy day, marching around and making fun of the army guards, haha! Anyway, i stayed in touch with this guy Dan, and followed his climbing exploits on Facebook for the last few years. The Denali expedition was being planned for about 6 months or so, but when one of the team members dropped out a month and a half before the climb Dan said, "how about climbing with us?".

I wouldn't say Denali has been on my wish list of mountains to climb, but as soon as I was asked, i said, "sure why not!" Mt McKinley is one of the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on all 7 continents. Aconcagua was my first, back in March, so i thought it would be cool to do another one this soon.

A couple of problems stood in my way, first, you need to apply for a permit at least 2 months in advance, and second my flight home was the same day the Denali trip was starting. As soon as i could i checked if i could change my flight - yes, for $200. Next we contacted the Rangers at Denali to see if i could still get on. While i was waiting for a reply i checked the climbing regulations again and found small print that said 1 member could be added up to a month before the trip. Problems solved :)

Next was getting a flight to Anchorage, $450, not cheap but worth it, done. Then i had to pick up some gear in Denver, Colorado, on the way to Alaska. Everything went smoothly except for an aborted landing coming into Denver, when the plane literally fell out of the sky seconds before touching down. A strong storm cell at the airport got us diverted to Colorado Springs about 100 miles south, and a lot of scared looking passengers who had been screaming most of the way in!

By coincidence my flight from Denver to Anchorage, and the other plane from Canada (via Seattle) arrived within 40 minutes of each other, and even better our baggage came out at the same conveyer. All i had to do was sit there and wait a while.

After introductions with the four others in our team we got in 3 taxis, with enough luggage to fit a department store full of clothes.  The team was myself, Dan, Louise and Mario Soulard, Donald (10 years in the Canadian SWAT), and Remy, a fire chief and inspiration for the whole expedition. In September Remy's wife died of cancer, and wanting to do something big to to commemorate her, and raise money for a hospital cancer room at the same time, decided on a climb of Mt McKinley, even though he had never been above 2000m before. The expedition was to be called Courage McKinley.

Denali is no small undertaking, it unusual in being a long climb (2-3 week), but without support other than a plane to fly you the mountain itself. Instead of having tents, food and other gear carried by yaks, mules or porters, you have to carry it all yourself. Its also near the arctic circle with its thinner than usual air which means there is less oxygen for the height than at sea-level, so 6194m actually feels more like 6500-7000m. Carrying 50kg+ of gear up a high mountain is tough enough, but if you have never even been on a big mountain before it must be a daunting prospect. Nevertheless, Remy looked like a tough guy, so it was going to be interesting to see how things turned out.

I wouldn't say Anchorage is the most interesting place in the world, it was only established about 90 years ago, so it doesn't have much character, the people, however, are a bit more colourful, read:strange, so spending a couple of days there stocking up on food and other last minute things wasn't too bad. After an $800 shopping spree in the supermarket (enough food each for 3 weeks), and the luxury of dining out, we headed to Talkeetna by shuttle to get an air taxi to the glacier on Mt McKinley.

waiting to put bags on the plane out to McKinley

Luckily the weather was in our favour and we were able to load our gear and take off on schedule, landing 30 minutes later in a wilderness of snow and very big mountains! For most people its an exhilarating moment, after months of planning and anticipation, they find themselves at the bottom of the mountain, packed and ready to go.

Daniel Klinck

base camp landing strip

'Base Camp' and the airstrip (a relatively flat bit of snow covered ice and crevases), is at 2000m, so we stay the night to acclimatise, organise our gear into backpacks and sled, and soak up the expedition atmosphere! Having so much gear, it is near impossible to carry everything in a backpack. Sleds and fuel (you cant fly in with it yourself) are provided by the base camp ranger. But Courage McKinley brought 6 sleds all the way from Eastern Canada. They are bigger than the normal ones so we can get more in and save our backs while walking or resting.

the first push!

The first 3 days are fairly routine, as we make our way directly from base camp 6 miles to camp 1, a few more to camp 2 and then up to camp 3. We arrive at camp 3 in a white out and light snow fall. Overnight however, it has turned into at least 2 feet of fresh snow! As the camp is quite high (3400m) we plan to stay here 3 nights to acclimatise and also carry food up closer to camp 4 and stash it in the snow to be picked up later and make climbing easier. Because of this we made big snow walls around our tent to protect us during our long stay here. When we woke in the morning we could barely see the walls or the trench we had dug around the tent. The wall we had made seemed to be funnelling snow into the site and drifting high up all around us. Its lucky the tent hadn't collapsed on us! This 'rest' day kept us busy as we tried to clear the snow and reinforce the walls, making them higher and longer. By the end of it we had a real fortress surrounding our little tent!

Christian Kober

first snow fall - camp 3!

Remy

Dan

Team Courage McKinley

Louise Soulard

 Alaskan summers are very long with daylight never really fading. By the evening the clouds started to clear and a fantastic blue sky and fresh powder dazzled over the whole mountain.

Dan

Camp 3

Mt Hunter

The next day, as planned, we could take a stock of food higher up the mountain, both as a way to acclimatise, and make climbing easier when we eventually moved up to the next camp.

Instead of using sleds though the team had created what we called penguins, dry sacks filled up and dragged behind on the snow with a rope. This was easier than a sled as the terrain was getting steeper from here and would likely tip the sleds over or even start pulling us off the mountain. They worked really well, although as we found out, they were easy to rip, so we had to be careful pulling them on the hard snow and ice.

heading up to Camp 4

Half way between camp 3 and 4, is the infamous Windy Corner.  Alaska can have ferocious weather at times, even in the summer temperatures can drop to -30c with wind making it feel like -50c, but on all 4 crossings of it we we able to stand and look at the views without any wind at all. Just after Windy Corner we made our stash of food, burying it at least a meter under the snow to prevent snow melt and ravens exposing it. On the way back to camp 3 we got to experience another white out but make it back down safely. It snows again the whole night, another 2 feet of snow! and the next day we are unable to move higher up to camp 4. We have a good rest and make the push after staying a 4th night. Its a hard day for some of us and instead of picking up the stash on the way, we go straight to camp 4 and come back for it the next day.

Windy Corner

Camp 4 (4200m), is the main camp, its where people stay the longest to acclimatise and is the highest camp you would want to stay during prolonged bad weather. The setting is fantastic and there are no crevases in the immediate area which makes for a relaxing stay.

Camp 4

Above camp are the fixed ropes leading up towards high camp, arriving tired after a long day they look dauntingly steep. Two ropes, one up, one down, have been placed here to stop people falling off the mountain. Other dangerous places have been given nicknames like Denali express and The Autobahn, so-named because several German climbers met disaster there, and indicating the potentially fatal dangers.

The fixed lines above Camp 4

The next day the fixed ropes look a bit less intimidating, and by the time we go up to make a stash at high camp on the third day they have lost all sense of foreboding. Even though we hear that two people have died higher up, their bodies waiting to be flown off the mountain, it doesn't distract us from getting on with the climb.

The fixed ropes turn out to be fairly straight forward. Rather than being roped up to someone else as before, we go up individually, placing an ascender device on the rope which grips into it one way with metal teeth, but slides up when you are moving forward. This allow you to move up but stops you falling in case of a slip. Above the fixed ropes is a spectacular ridge leading up to high camp. It proves to be a bit unnerving for Remy, but Donald gets him through and eventually the whole team is at high camp. We don't stay long though, as this is just another day to carry up food and move back again.

the ridge below high camp

 

We take a rest day and then move up two of the three tents for the summit bid. Dan is the first at camp and is helping another guy we met earlier to make snow blocks and build protective walls for the tents. His name is Donald as well, and he is a building machine, not stopping in about 3 hours.  Its hard work but with more people helping the blocks are going up quickly and we have a wall 2 meters high and stretching easily around 3 tents.  For the next 3 nights we squeeze three people into each tent to save weight on the carry up and also keep the tent warmer at night.

High Camp

 During the next day's rest i make the most of the good weather and fantastic views to do some photography, making some death defying leaps on the edge of a 1000m drop!

leap of faith!

Its finally time to make a push for the summit, i have two meals tonight for extra energy. Unfortunately the self heating meals we brought up have frozen and the first attempt at cooking ends in a cold mush that isn't very edible. We soon learn to thaw them out under our jackets before trying to heat. Its a big improvement and after a restless night i heat up two more for breakfast.

Its windier than we expected in the morning so we wait to see if things improve, and they do, by 12pm we are off. The two dead bodies are still on the snow as we make our way over to the Autobahn. There are so many people though that going up to Denali pass is more at a snails pace than an express lane. Still, we only take about 3 1/2 hours to get to the pass which is good enough to keep going for the summit. There are two guided groups going up ahead of us and we upset a couple of the guides by overtaking them. They seemed to think they own the mountain, and moving over to let someone faster through doesn't occur to them, overtaking is apparently not the thing to do…whatever!

The rest of the climb is a hard slog to the summit ridge and even at 6000m its getting really hot. After 8 hours of climbing I'm getting dehydrated too and with my camera pressing down on me on a new chest harness I'm using I'm struggling to catch my breath in the heat. Things cool off near the top though and its an easy 20 minutes over the knife-edge ridge to the summit.

summit ridge

After a lot of celebrating and summit photos we head back down at 10pm! The sun is still shining so we don't need to worry about light, but most deaths on Denali happen on the way down, so we still need to concentrate!

summit success!

Its 3am and -30 celcius when we get back, 15 hours in total, and its a relief to be down again at high camp safely. Its much easier to sleep this time, now we are used to the altitude, but its soon time to head down further in the morning.

heading back

Packing up by 11am we go back down the ridge to camp 4. On the way we pass Vern Tejas, a guide who has done the seven summits 9 times! He has also done them in the quickest time, 134 days. Inspiration for my next climbing challenge I think?!

Getting back to base camp was an interesting adventure too. Warm weather here normally doesn't set in until mid July, but unusually it was already raining on the lower glacier nearing base. All the crevases were starting to open up and some of them were already filled with water! Coming back was probably the most dangerous part of the trip with more 'punch-throughs' than was comfortable. I went up to my neck in one and stories of dangling feet above a precipice were entertaining us for the next few days!

Unfortunately we missed the last plane out before poor visibility stopped any more coming in. What we didn't know was it was going to be 5 days before another one could get us out of there! We had a glimmer of hope early on day 4 when two planes got in but couldn't fly out again. We had missed a weather window by a few minutes. It was a depressing time for everyone but finally late on 4th June we managed to scrape over the mountain passes and back to Anchorage, arriving at the airport only 2 hours before a flight the rest of the group had to get on to go home!

waiting out the bad weather at base camp

I stayed a night in Anchorage enjoying lots of fresh food and a drink with the locals at a bar. The next day i caught my flight back to Denver to stay with my friend John that i met in Ecuador in February. Since then we have been planning how we will fund our next big mountain, Mt Everest!

to be continued….

that's it for now, but hopefully there will be bigger things to come, in the not too distant future!