The descent! Italian falling off the mountain & 18 hours out and counting…
Posted on June 2, 2010
Getting back from the summit didn’t take too long, around 2 hours. Nick was a little more tired than i was so i took lead and lead the way down using all the available protection in-case tired legs should give way.
We made good time on the way down the ridge, straight down ‘pig hill’, across the ‘football field’, pass the ‘weather station’ and down the ridge, all the way across the ‘Denali Pass’ and finally with in 100m of camp there is a very slight incline…it was this that killed us! This last 100m was probably the hardest 100m of the day. We had been out for nearly 11 hours and all of that at an altitude higher that 5200m (400m higher than Mont Blanc!), we finally staggered exhausted, shattered and dehydrated into camp and Nick went straight to bed! Summoning any energy i had left i melted some more snow and ate a few bars before joining Nick for some well earned rest.
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SUMMIT SUCCESS!!
Posted on June 1, 2010
We woke excited and ready for action, melted some more snow, ate some yummy oats and stuck our heads out the tent….not so good. A large lenticular cloud suggesting high winds and very pour visibility was covering the upper mountain and getting worse and teams already on the route were turning around, and soon we were covered in the mini storm. Today Denali had its own weather ideas…not the predicted forecast. We had a forced ‘rest day’ and did exactly that….rested!
Take 2
Again the weather was predicted to be good ‘clear with summit winds of 15-25mph’, a bit windy but hopefully not to bad. The usual morning process took place and at 10:00 we were roped up and ready to go, the weather was calm and the sky was blue, the upper mountain looked a little windy but ok, we could see small amounts of spin drift being blown off the ridge. We set off across towards the ‘Denali pass’ and a 2 hour high traverse. The DNP (Denali National Park) have put in pickets (protection) along the traverse to encourage climbers to clip in and travel safer. We moved slowly across the steep traverse Read more
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Build up to the summit attempt..
Posted on June 1, 2010
(I am writing this in Talketna, Alaska – incredibly sleep deprived, slightly drunk and a little delirious so sorry if there any spelling mistakes!)
After another rest day we pack up everything and head upto high camp at 17,200ft – about 5,200m i think (sory its not in meters – its how they work out here!) This turned out to be a huge day, gaining over 1000m. The fixed lines were easier the second time and the ridge (similar to a UK Winter grade II ridge) was amazing, super exposed and set in the most incredible surroundings. We arrived into camp around 18:00 and luckily there were some walls already built. Melt snow = drink water, eat food and bed.
The next day we woke to wish our American and polish friends good luck to the summit and after a lazy breakfast headed half way down the ridge to collect our cache. The only problem with a ridge is that its very hard for people to pass and again we got stuck for a while Read more
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