Life on Denali: the cold and the gear

--- The cold ---

They said this mountain would be cold. And I thought, hey, I’ve been up Everest, how cold can it actually be? ... They were right. It was cold. Definintely colder than I’d expected. That cold that comes from all the moisture in the air. The kind of moisture that would make your hair turn all curly were it not underneath three layers of hats and buffs.

Not cold all the time mind you, but enough of the time. Like when we flew into the glacier on a Saturday, late afternoon, and decided to head up to our first camp, leaving base camp around 8pm (remember all that light I talked about earlier?). By the time 12am rolled around and we were still hiking up the Kahiltna glacier, sun long set but no headlamp needed, it felt like I shouldn’t really need my down parka for hiking since I was only around 7,000 feet above sea level--wouldn’t it feel like giving in if I put it on now? What would I do 13,000 feet higher on the mountain if it got cold and I had nothing left to put on? I stuck it out, putting my puffy pants on and my Goretex on up top, and donned the down when we finally set up camp at 7,700 ft, but decided that this was a mountain not to be taken lightly.

The cold hit me hardest up high heading to 17 camp (that is, the camp at 17,200 feet). It was day 8 of our expedition, and we were doing a ‘full carry’ to Camp 17 (high camp). ‘Full’ meaning that we decided not to do a trial (aka cache) run with some of our gear up to 16 or 17 on an earlier day, but rather to put everything we’d need for a stay at high camp and our summit push in our backpacks and trudge on up the mountain, roped together as a team of five. By the time we made it to 17 camp, it was the longest day up to that point in the climb, we had divided into two rope teams, my two Nalgenes were frozen from the cold, I had waited a little too long to put on my down coat, was actually shivering sitting on my pack, and was supremely thankful to Cindy for putting up the tent and boiling water for us and to Jaroslaw for doing similar things for Pete and Jim who came in to camp two hours later. This is partly why we climb in teams, and why even when only a subset of the team stands on top, the success is for the entire team. One day you may have more energy and go retrieve a cache from down low, one day you may do all the cooking, and the next you may sit resting in your tent while others prepare the food and water.

--The gear—

Start with your backpack.

Add essentials such as sleeping bag (bring the warm one, rated to -40F, you’ll need it. Extra long ones are nice so you can keep all your clothing and boot liners inside), pads (bring two, re-inflate the thermarest if it is a rest day so you don’t get cold that second night and end up sleeping on your side the entire night), tent (keep it dry, which may be impossible if it snows 1 foot overnight, but is usually possible if you let the frost dry out and don’t break camp until after 10am), pickets (useful for getting your friends out of crevasses, even if they are generally just extra weight), snow saw (essential for reinforcing or building those snow walls at 11k camp, 14k camp, 17k camp), shovel (useful for digging caches, which you’ll leave up the mountain many many places, especially when you find out that you’re carrying too much. Bring a sturdy one and don’t bury your caches tooooo deep), fuel (hmmm, bringing lots is good; don’t step on your fuel funnel or you’ll end up improvising with a plastic bag with a hole in it), stove (clean it, know how to clean it, and keep it clean so it actually melts snow and warms it up up high), pot (you may also bring 2 other pots for melting snow, one other pot for cooking soups and noodles, one frying pan for cooking pancakes and cheesy noodle sauces, ... or you may decide to cache these things down low when you realize how much weight you’re carrying), contact solution (remember to always keep this warm in your sleeping bag or you’ll end up warming it up between your legs or underneath your armpit the next morning), snack food (keep the favorite secret summit stash of food separate from the general climbing snacks, make sure things don’t freeze easily, and bring some extra jerky to trade with your climbing partners for gummy snacks up high).

At this point you’re probably running out of space in your huge backpack. Time to load up the duffel in the sled so you can drag the rest of your ‘essentials’ (broadly defined) up the big hill with you. Note: your sled will be really heavy, and you will feel your hip flexors. Too heavy at first, but you’ll learn tricks to help out--like putting an extra pair of gloves in your harness for extra padding. Going downhill with a sled will also be tricky at first, but you’ll try things such as flipping the sled upside down, or tying a knot or bungee underneath that will make travel much better.

Bring a cook tent (useful as a gathering place, especially during rest days, when it is windy, or when you want a change of pace from your little tent. Important: make sure and have lots of snow stakes on this ‘extra’ tent so you can steal them to anchor your partners’ tents down on summit day so their tent doesn’t blow away up high. Always a good thing to have a tent to come back to). Bring some food. Scratch that. Bring a ton of food. Scratch that. Start with a ton of food (go ahead and bring some hard to make things so you’ll have something to do on rest days, though you’ll rethink that when making the meals). Once you realize you don’t need that ton of food, cache as much as possible at camp 9,500 ft, then cache some more at 14k, and finally bring a lot back down to base camp with you when you’re done with the climb. Be really really thankful that you were able to fly out from the glacier on the last plane your air service sent before the weather closed in too much to fly, and didn’t need to eat that same food again and again at BC.

Round out your gear with things you have on you: a good harness, lots of warm clothes (bring a few extra layers, white layers for down low because it gets hot too on that mountain, a clean set for above 14 camp), poles (useful almost all the time on the mountain), snow flotation (my favorite was snowshoes, but make sure whatever you have stays on your feet...please), crampons (don’t forget those anitball plates...please), sunglasses (complete with the ugly nose covers so everyone looks just as silly in pictures, but everyone also avoids big burned noses). And bring all those extra things I haven’t mentioned. Then cache 60% of those things on your way up the mountain.

We're back!

We're back to civilization--and we had a successful trip! Two of us made it to the top (Jaroslaw and I), and four of us are back in Talkeetna (weather is preventing the planes from picking up Jim from the glacier). More later, but I wanted to get a quick update out. :)

Val

We're climbing that!

We're off!

Don't worry if you don't hear from us for 2 weeks :)

All packed up

The sharp things are separated: ice axes, crampons, snowshoes,
shovels, ... the food has been divided: breakfasts, dinners, high camp food, condiments ... our personal gear is ready. Now it is time to get some lunch and then fly in to the glacier! We're lucky that it is clear today as yesterday they weren't flying in.

Land of the midnight sun

Well technically it was midnight in Boulder, and only 10pm when we
landed and I took this picture. I can tell I'm going to love all this
light.

Things are looking good: all five of us made it to Alaska, our bags
followed us as well, and we're driving to Talkeetna as I write!

The team and the plan

There are five converging in Anchorage tonight. Two from Boulder, one from Manhattan, one also from the east coast and one from the west. There are two ladies and three gentlemen. Two who have been up Everest, two who have attempted, and five who have climbed in Nepal. There are two who have summited Denali before, one who has attempted, and two who are new to the mountain. Two in their 30's, one in their 40's, one in their 50's, and one in their 60's. Throw them all together and it should be a good mix! The team started with Jaroslaw, who is working on his 7 summits, expanded to Jim and Pete, who love climbing in Alaska, then finished up with Cindy and myself from Boulder, who have climbed together a lot previously and are excited to give Denali a try.

The plan involves getting on the mountain quickly (by Saturday eve if flights are flying in--the weather looks promising), moving up the mountain using four camps (7,800 ft, 11k, 14k, and 17.2k), carrying on the order of 90 lbs combined in our backpacks and sleds, and hoping that it only snows (if it must) on our planned rest days :) We of course have flexible days in our plan, as anyone who goes to the mountain must, but we're hoping the weather and the mountain treats us well.

We're expecting snow. Lots of it.

Here is picture from a friend's expedition in 2007 to give you an idea of the terrain.

Headin' to Denali!

It's that time of year again. The flowers are coming up, the grass is greening (it is very green in Boulder), the days are getting longer (okay, they have been for a while).... And it just so happens that this time is also the best time to go climb big, snowy, high altitude mountains! So I'm off to Alaska to climb Denali, aka Mt. McKinley, and hopefully make it up to the tippy top--this time 20,320 feet.

You can expect updates when we get cell phone service ... which is probably not until we reach 14 camp. We do have solar power for charging, but no fancy laptop / satellite phone modem this
trip.