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Resume Rainier Denali Khan
Tengri
Speed Ascent Via West Buttress:
June 17th and 18th, 2003 14:22 hrs./23:55 hrs.
RT
Method:
Ski's, Running Shoes, Plastic Boots
Start Time:
2:15 AM June 17th - Kahiltna Base Camp 7,200 ft.
Splits:
4:45 hrs. 11,000 ft. Camp
7:05 hrs. Medical Camp
14:22 hrs. Summit
17:30 hrs. Medical Camp
22:00 hrs. Base Ski Hill
22:55 hrs. Kahiltna Base Camp
End Time:
2:10 AM June 18th
Denali Speed Ascent Via West Buttress:
The summit of Denali rises 20,320 ft. above sea
level, making it the highest point in North America and one of the
so-called "seven summits" - the name given to the highest mountains
on all seven continents. I first laid eyes on Denali in 1998 when
my friend Chris Schlotfeldt and I flew into the Alaska Range to
climb the SW Ridge of Mt. Hunter. In June of 2002 I reached the
summit of Denali solo. This year my wife Lara and I flew back into
the Kahiltna glacier to summit the mountain together. The best season
to climb Denali is between May and July. I wanted to train on Denali
for the speed climbing competition held on Khan Tengri, and Denali
was the highest mountain I could climb that was "in season."
Lara and I flew into the SE Fork of the Kahiltna glacier on June
6th. We climbed the Upper West Rib from 14,000 ft Medical Camp to
the summit. Lara and I carried over the route and left our gear
at 19,500 ft. We summitted together on Friday June 13th under perfect
weather conditions. There were over 100 people coming up the mountain
via the West Buttress as we descended to medical camp. The next
day I soloed up the West Buttress to the summit in 6 hours to test
my time on the upper half of the mountain. I felt like I was ready
to try a one day ascent of Denali.
On June 15th, Lara and I left Medical Camp and descended back to
7,000 ft. camp on the SE fork of the Kahiltna glacier. On the descent
I cached my plastic shells and steel crampons at 11,00 ft. camp.
When we returned to base camp I spoke with Lisa Roderick about my
plans. Lisa Roderick was the Kahiltna Base Camp manager as well
as a mutual friend. We agreed that she would keep tabs of my progress
via CB. Lisa had my running shoes and a CB flown in with TAT. The
afternoon of the 16th Lara flew back to Talkeetna and I gathered
my thoughts and energy for a push the following morning. At 11:00
PM I finally had all the preparations in order. I thought about
our late friend Dave Gundstone before I caught a few minutes of
sleep. Let it be known that I climbed this following day in memory
of Dave.
At 12:45 AM: I awoke to cook some tasteless gruel for bodily fuel.
Just after 2:00 AM I awoke Lisa to synchronize stopwatches. I started
my stopwatch at 2:15 AM on the morning of the 17th. I broke the
climb into three stages. The first leg was on ski's. I made good
progress on the ski down from 7,200 ft to 6,600 ft at the bottom
of Heartbreak Hill where the SE fork meets the Kahiltna proper.
I quickly put on skins and crossed the most-crevassed five miles
of the climb during the coldest part of the day. At the bottom of
ski hill, I jettisoned the skis, skins and shells for running shoes
with aluminum crampons attached. I made good time between 7,800
ft and 11,200 ft, arriving at 11,200 ft. camp in 4 hours and 45
minutes. There I dug up my plastic shells and switched out of running
shoes and into the plastic boots with steel crampons. The ski boot
liners I had below fit into my plastics. I made great time up Motorcycle
Hill and up past Squirrel Point around Windy Corner. The sun began
to break around the West side of Denali bringing welcome warmth
to the morning. I rolled into 14,000 ft. camp at about 9:20 AM.
I had planned to meet Peter Getzel from National Geographic to film
a short clip on the ascent and refuel with two liters of hot water
between 9:00 and 9:30 AM. Right on schedule I refilled and related
how the climb was progressing. The only snafu with my plan was the
following: I had cached some food with the National Park Rangers
for pickup on the seventeenth; however, the ranger that I had left
the food with had gone climbing. Luckily, the other rangers on hand
helped me out, finally coming up with some energy bars and I was
off again. Lesson learned: Directly control every part of the climb
that concerns your food and equipment.
On the way up to the fixed lines on the West Buttress I ran into
my friend Dave Morton and his guided group. There was a National
Geographic film crew with him as well. The crew shot a short clip
as I passed them by. I made it to 16,200 ft. with a total elapsed
time of just less than nine hours. At High Camp (17,000 ft.), I
jettisoned all of my extra gear and continued toward Denali Pass.
There was almost no wind and the sky was clear. I made good progress
on the well-traveled path toward the summit. Near 19,000 ft. I ran
into Colin Haley from Seattle and talked for a few minutes. I then
crossed the 'football field' and climbed up the last few hundred
feet to the true summit. Luckily, two couples arrived at the summit
just before me and one of the climbers gave me his name as a witness
to the fact that I was on the summit at 4:37 PM. His name was Ivo
Vessely and I called this down to Mark Westman at Base Camp via
the CB that I carried. The total elapsed time to the summit was
14 hours 22 minutes. I was then off toward Medical Camp again. When
I arrived to 14,000 ft camp Dave Morton and Neil McCarthy made me
a hot dinner of chicken burritos. Again I interviewed with Peter
from National Geographic. I was feeling the strain of the 17.5-hour
push by this time and had almost written off trying to round-trip
the mountain in less than 24 hours, but I decided to persevere despite
the conditions.
I descended into a whiteout just below 12,000 ft. The snow began
to pile up and I wondered if I should crawl into one of Joe Reichart's
National Park Service tents for shelter. Joe, the lead climbing
ranger, encouraged me to continue down. I grabbed my running shoes
and aluminum crampons and shuffled on in the wet and white conditions.
Sure enough, I walked right out beneath the cloud and had complete
visibility of the Kahiltna Glacier. Yahoo! My spirits improved and
the worry that I might get stuck in a storm quickly vanished with
the clouds. I hurried down Ski Hill to my skis and boots, and then
checked my watch to verify that I still had an hour and a half left
in the 24-hour window. I made a quick changeover and strapped my
plastic shells to my daypack and began to skate ski in my AT gear
across the final five and a half miles of glacier. Just after midnight
the snow bridges were solid and I made rapid progress. At 1:45 AM
I was at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill. There, I slapped on my ascension
skins and started the last trudge up the final 500 ft. to Base Camp.
At 2:10 AM I rolled into camp to roundtrip Denali in a day! Total
elapsed time 23:55 hours.
The next day I flew back to Talkeetna and met Lara. I had three
days off before I was scheduled to guide a trip up Denali with Alpine
Ascents International. Guiding gave me an opportunity to work on
Denali, earn some money and stay acclimated for the upcoming race
in Kazakhstan.
LINKS:
Photos:Denali
Gallery
MountEverest.net: MountEverest.net
Talkeetna News: www.talkeetnanews.com
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