Hypoxico on Denali
After being delayed for three days in Talkeetna due to poor weather, Slava and I finally departed to start our climb of Denali in the afternoon of May 29th via a tiny Cessna operated by Hudson Air. Because of our strong pre-acclimatization, we were a little bummed to lose a few days and wanted to get back to altitude asap. We made excellent progress the first few days and moved quickly and comfortably to the 11,200 ft camp before getting shut down for a day by 70+ mph winds at the top of squirrel hill. After a day and a half at this camp the storm had a brief lull. We packed frantically and moved through 50+ mph winds to the 14,000 ft camp. This was a solid intro to the gnarly conditions of Denali where the wind, weather, and load hauling really does make every day feel like a summit day.
I was relieved to cache our one sled at this camp and move freely with “only” about 60 lb. Perhaps the greatest advantage of “pre-acclimating” before Denali was that we were able to leave BC with about as much equipment between the two of us as one person typically carries. It’s amazing because practically everyone does double carries between camps and is constantly managing a nightmarish amount of equipment. Because of our pre-acclimatization, we were able to move with much less equipment in half the time. This ultimately conserved our energy levels for Summit day, thereby drastically improving our Summit chances.
We were ecstatic to advance to 14,000 because many of the climbers had been at the 11,200 camp for a week. Feeling well and showing no signs of acute mountain sickness (AMS) (oxygen saturation’s were in the high 80’s), we made a similar decision around the same time the following day and left 14,200 around 5pm. The option of moving at night is about the only yielding element of climbing in Alaska. That night was very challenging. After ascending fixed lines we had an interesting few hours on the exposed ridge in fierce winds before reaching high camp at 17,200 around midnight. Slava was showing signs of excessive fatigue upon arrival and we were both relieved to see his recovery after eating and hydrating.
Although we were hoping to bunker down for a day of rest at 17,000 ft, the weather was great and we left for the summit around 2:30 pm. Slava and I moved strongly through the famous autobahn section erasing all worries of his recovery and potential AMS. The summit day was relatively uneventful compared to the preceding days and we popped the top in around 6 hours and were back to high camp by 11 pm. The following day we marched all the way back to BC and found ourselves having climbed Denali round-trip in under 7 days.
Speed Attempt
After five days of rest in Talkeetna I flew back to Mt Mckinley to attempt a speed ascent with Vern Tejas. The two of us had been working on the details of this 24 hour climb for a few months but still found ourselves making last minute adjustments to our modified equipment. The two major challenges of this climb were to utilize extremely lightweight footwear while avoiding frostbite, and to carry enough water for a 24 hour push so we would not need any outside support. We used Nike Javelin spikes with 1 1/4 inch spikes with some combination of overboots. This system came in at about 1 lb vs. my Superboots and crampons would have been close to 8 lbs. For water, Vern and I each carried 4 liter MSR Dromedaries near our stomachs by utilizing backpack like straps in the reverse direction. The spigots could be closed on top and we attached a 3 inch piece of hose, which ultimately worked amazing as the water never froze. Vern had used this ingenious set-up on a previous speed attempt a few years back and I will most certainly use it again in the future. Other individual equipment included: 20 liter ultralight day packs, 2 liters of water in bottles, a trekking pole and BD Whippet (instead of Ice Axe), mittens, food, a children’s sled, and hard warmers.
After an excellent night of sleep, we left base camp (BC) on June 11th, at 5:15 am. We made solid progress and removed our harnesses and rope at Camp 1 (7800 ft) by 7 am. We also left a liter of water there as we passed through. We moved through the 11,200 ft camp by 9 am and reached 14,000 by 11:15. The snow conditions were quite good and luckily there was no post holing in our “shoes.” There were several groups to pass on the headwall to 16,000 ft, but we passed most of them near where we cached our sleds just below the fixed lines. The plan was to utilize the sleds to conserve our legs on the descent by sledding headfirst back to Camp 1. Climbing the fixed lines for 800 ft without a harness proved uneventful and there was no wind on the ridge to 17,200. I’m not positive but I believe my elapsed time passing through the camp was just over 10 hours and Vern was shortly behind. Because I climbed to the top the week before in about 6 hours, I was very confident that we were on pace to be very close to the 14 hour 22 minute time that is the unofficial ascent record.
The autobahn is a long semi exposed traverse that leads to Denali Pass at just below 19,000 ft. Unfortunately it was here that the snow conditions were very inconsistent and awkward. Both Vern and I were losing javelin spikes from our shoes throughout the day. By this time I would say I had lost about 40% of mine and he was about the same. I resorted to kicking steps and drastically slowed the pace through the sketchier sections but was a bit unnerved at some of the moves. Already questioning continuing with the loss of the spikes and the quickly dropping temperatures, I turned the corner to Zebra rocks only to find 40+ mph winds. In normal gear this would not be a major obstacle, but I don’t think it was an option on that day and I’m sure it was the right decision to turn around. My turn around time was just about 5 pm. Vern quickly agreed with the decision because he was having trouble keeping his toes warm and wanted to avoid “the bite.”
While descending we both openly questioned our acclimatization because our pace had slowed a bit when we hit the 17,500 ft mark. Vern had been off of Everest for almost 3 weeks while I had been out of our Hypoxico training tents for over 2 weeks. We both thought these acclimatization plans were adequate, but in retrospect we would have benefited from using a hypoxic tent in Talkeetna. I had originally planned to spend a few nights at the high camp on my first climb to avoid bringing my generator to Alaska, but because the weather was good I only spent about 36 hours at 17,000 ft and above.
The decision to turn around shy naturally sapped our adrenaline and so we were pretty conservative with our descent speed. Vern is practically the pioneer of “death sledding” but still found the conditions too fast and the snow too hard to use this technique from just below the fixed lines. The basic concept is that you hold onto the sled going head first and shift more or less of your body on or off of the sled to control speed. We were able to sled most of the way between 11,200 and 7,800 which offered a great break for our legs. We arrived back in BC around 2:15 am, or 21 hours after departing feeling pretty good.
Unfortunately, we could not fly off the glacier for the next 3 days due to weather. This gave us plenty of time to talk about adjusting the equipment and strategy for a future attempt. Because it is such an ambitious project that requires a significant amount of luck with weather, neither of us were particularly upset about turning around. In fact, I am left with confidence that the roundtrip time of just under 24 hours can be significantly reduced and that a roundtrip time of around 18 hours is entirely possible. In a future attempt I would use a lightweight randonee ski set-up and am already excited about an opportunity to try again!!!
