West Buttress of Denali (20,320')
This is it, the big one. Mt.McKinley (official Federal name), otherwise known as Denali
(as climbers prefer, which is the native name of the mountain, meaning "The High One"), is the highest point in North America.
As such, it is one of the sought-after "Seven Summits." This trip has
been several years in the making, and the decision to climb Denali
was finally reached in December 2004. The climbing team would simply consist of
me and Chuck Booten, my climbing partner of the past five years. Although a
bigger team usually would mean more safety and a greater chance of success, it
is hard to argue against of team of two climbers who know each other well and
who have climbed many mountains together. We were hoping to come up with an
expedition name that would capture our shared roots: MIT, Stanford, and Los
Alamos National Lab. After several iterations, we finally settled on
"Green Chile." After researching the past several years of climbing
history on the mountain, we decided to schedule the climb such that we would be
ready to summit around June 1. This is historically about the most optimal time
to summit. We would arrive in Alaska on May 14, and fly into the mountain on May 15. We would aim to summit between
May 30 and June 3, and fly off the mountain June 8. Our return flights back to New Mexico and California were scheduled for June 11. More of the details of the climb will be posted
later. For now, here are some of the pictures. Commentary will also be added in
the future...
Ryan, with gear in Anchorage hostel
All of Ryan's gear in Anchorage hostel
Chuck, with gear in Anchorage hostel
Chuck, with gear in Anchorage hostel
Chuck, with coffee shop girls at the train station.
Chuck, in front of the train (Alaska Railroad Denali Express)
View of the train through a window in an observation car
Chuck, at the Talkeetna airport
Chuck, at the Hudson Air hanger in Talkeetna. Climbers with RMI in the background.
Chuck, inside the hanger with all of our gear packed and ready to fly
Chuck, loading gear onto the plane
Chuck, loading gear onto the plane
Chuck and Ryan in the backseat of the plane, just before take-off
View out of the plane at the Alaska landscape around Talkeetna
View of the Susitna (?) River
A good first look at Denali. The picture doesn't do it justice -- it was huge!
As we approach the mountain, the landscape starts turning white...
Another view of Denali as we fly into the Alaska Range.
A picture of the Alaska Range.
Snow-covered mountains, all around us.
A windy day on top of the mountain.
Ryan, with a view out the window.
A view out the window at some of the steep Alaska mountains.
Chuck and Ryan in the plane.
Another view of some rugged terrain. I believe this is One-Shot Pass.
A good close-up view of Denali as we approach the landing strip.
A view of Mt. Hunter?
Another close-up view of Denali.
Yet another view of Denali.
Ditto.
View of mountains out the window.
A look at the Kahiltna Glacier, Alaska's largest.
Another look at the Kahiltna.
A look up the Kahiltna at our route -- we'll be climbing up the glacier. Kahiltna Pass is in the distance.
A closer view of the route up the Kahiltna.
A look down on Base Camp and the landing strip as we are in the middle of a huge bank turn to line up the approach.
A view ahead of plane of the landing strip.
A view of Chuck and the beautiful views at Base Camp. (Elevation 7,200')
Another view of Chuck and Base Camp.
Chuck in Base Camp, with other climbers in the background.
Chuck in Base Camp.
Chuck in Base Camp.
Ryan in Base Camp.
Ryan in Base Camp. The NPS Fuel Tent is the red tent in the background.
Ryan with fully-loaded ski pulk (sled) in background. (www.skipulk.com)
Ryan, with Mt. Foraker (17,400') in the background. The summit is over 10,000 vertical feet above us!
Helicopter at Base Camp. It was picking up some of the Alaska high altitude rescue troops ("PJ's").
Loading up the chopper.
Helicopter taking off.
Chuck, building our first igloo with the ICE-BOX igloo tool at 7,800'. It was 10:30 at night.
Chuck, building our igloo.
Chuck, inside our igloo at 7,800'.
Ryan, inside our igloo at 7,800'. Our chimney is on the left behind our stove.
Chuck, inside our igloo. We hung our wet gloves and clothes from a ski pole above.
Chuck, with a good look at our igloo at 7,800'.
Another view of Chuck and our igloo, with the trail behind him. "The most photographed igloo in the world," as one climber speculated...
Our next igloo, built at 9,800', immediately after completion.
Entrance to the igloo at 9,800'.
Chuck at 7,800'.
Chuck at 7,800'.
A view up Motorcycle Hill at the 11,000' camp.
Chuck at 11,000'.
Looking back at the trail up to 11,000'. Kahiltna Dome is on the right; Foraker is on the left. Kahiltna Pass is just out of view to the bottom right.
Chuck, at 11,000', inside our third igloo.
We used our boots and packs to block the entrance to the igloo from the inside to keep out the wind.
Climbing up Motorcycle Hill.
Chuck, at the top of Motorcycle Hill. We had to wait here for about 15 minutes for our turn to keep moving up the trail.
A view of the waiting crowd and the route above Motorcycle Hill.
Another view of the crowd and the route.
Chuck, at the top of Motorcycle Hill. The "Father Son Face" is in the background.
A nice view of the mountain landscape, with a cloud-capped Mt. Foraker in the distance.
A view up the route at Chuck as we approach the final plateau before Windy Corner.
Looking back down the route from the same spot.
Chuck, resting and putting on warmer clothes on the plateau before Windy Corner above.
Looking back in the opposite direction at some guided climbers putting on warmer clothes.
A view of Mt. Foraker at midnight from the 14,200' Basin Camp.
A view of Mt. Foraker and our igloo at 14,200' in Basin Camp.
Another midnight view of Foraker.
Midnight view of Mt. Hunter.
Chuck, at 14,200', with Mt. Foraker in the background on a beautiful rest day.
Ryan, at 14,200', with Mt. Foraker in the background.
Ryan, at 14,200', with the route up to 16,200' in the background.
Another view of Ryan with the igloo at 14,200', with the route up to 16,200' in the background.
A view up the mountain looking at the Messner Couloir.
A view up the mountain looking at the West Rib Cut-Off.
View of Messner Couloir and the West Rib Cut-Off Routes.
A view from the Edge of the World
Chuck on a Rock, at the Edge of the World.
A great Chuck on a Rock picture at the Edge of the World, with Mt. Hunter in the background.
An even better picture of the same...
A great shot looking back down at the Kahiltna Glacier from the Edge of the World.
Another view of the Kahiltna, with clouds rolling up the mountain.
A view of the 14,200' Basin Camp from the Edge of the World.
A great shot of lenticular clouds forming over Mt. Foraker. This always is a sign of a storm moving in. Sure enough, we were igloo-bound for the next three days.
Chuck, waiting at the bergschrund, waiting to get on the fixed lines.
Another pic of Chuck at the 'schrund.
A view looking back at 14,200' from the 'schrund.
Chuck, bundled up at 16,200' as we prepared to climb the "16 ridge" up to high camp.
A view of the top of the fixed lines and some caches at 16,200'.
More caches, and a group of climbers digging in for the night at 16,200'.
Back at 14,200', after leaving a cache at Washburn's Thumb. RMI built a snow castle.
A view of the latrine at 14,200'. It was luxurious compared to the other alternatives!
A view of the headwall and the route to 16,200'.
Chuck at the 'schrund, waiting to get on the fixed lines as we moved to High Camp.
Chuck, getting ready to clip into the fixed lines, with incompetent climbers ahead of him (look at their rope work!).
This poor guy lost a crampon along his fixed-line descent. Crampons falling off is a common problem that caused huge delays on the fixed lines.
Chuck on the fixed lines, and more stellar rope work by the team above us. 30 seconds after I took this picture, the second climber above Chuck tripped on his rope and fell!
Chuck at the top of the fixed lines (16,200'), as we got back in the queue to keep moving up the ridge.
Chuck, climbing up the ridge.
Chuck, on the ridge.
Chuck, on the ridge, with Denali Pass (18,200', the low point on the ridge in the distance) behind him.
Chuck on a Rock on the ridge, with High Camp coming into view (on the snowy plateau above the "V" in the rocky ridge to the right of Chuck).
Chuck, nearing the top of the ridge, with Denali Pass in the background.
Ditto.
Chuck, with some nice couloirs in the background. I want my skis!
Chuck, nearing High Camp. The route up Denali Pass is visible on the bottom left, traversing up and the the left.
Chuck, with High Camp (17,200') in the distance.
Chuck, with Yenhui and James from the Taiwanese team at 17,200'.
Our Bavarian friends (Luther, Sabene, and Helmut) with Denali Pass above them.
A view of the NPS rescue cache.
The "victory!" shot of Jeff, another friend we made on the climb. He summitted earlier in the day.
A climber leaves camp late at night, heading up Denali Pass.
Climbers descending Denali Pass.
A view of the cool rocky peak to the left of Denali Pass.
A view of Foraker, from the edge of camp. We're only 200' below the summit of Foraker.
A view of the lower portion of the 16 ridge, with 16,200' at the low point. Washburn's Thumb is the prominent rock toward the upper right.
A view of the upper portion of the 16 ridge and Washburn's Thumb.
A view of the top of the 16 ridge.
Cloudy picture...
A look down at the 14,200' camp from the overlook at 17,200'. That's a long ways down!
Another view of the 14,200' camp from 17,200'.
A great shot of the 14,200' camp and Mt. Foraker in the distance.
Ryan, self-portrait at about 3am on what would be our summit day.
Chuck, trying to cope with his morning headache, on summit day.
A view of some other climbers preparing for the summit. The RMI tents are in the distance.
Chuck, climbing up Denali Pass.
An other shot of Chuck climbing up Denali Pass.
A shot looking back down at Grahm and Dave, two of the Brits.
A shot looking up at Chuck and the Koreans. We had lengthened our rope to 50m at this point to maximize the number of pickets we could clip into for safety.
Chuck, above Denali Pass, with the route above. This picture was taken at around 18,300'.
Another picture of Chuck, further up the route. The weather is improving.
The Japanese try to maintain a weather station on the route. Here's their (non-functioning) equipment.
A view back at Denali Pass from several hundred feet higher on the route.
Chuck climbing up towards Archdeacon's Tower. We're almost out of the clouds.
Chuck, just below the Football Field.
Chuck, on the Football Field. Pig Hill is in the distance. The last hurdle!
Ditto.
Ditto.
At the top of Pig Hill, looking up the summit ridge at the summit. Mark Luscher's climbing team is on the summit!
Another view of the summit ridge and the summit.
Mark Luscher and Chuck, on the summit ridge.
Chuck, after just reaching the summit of Denali!
A view down at Foraker.
A view of Mt. Hunter and Mt. Foraker from the summit of Denali.
View of Mt. Hunter (14,570') from the summit of Denali.
View of two Alaskan climbers on the summit. They were about 10 minutes behind us.
View of Mt. Hunter from the summit.
View of Mt. Hunter from the summit.
Chuck on the summit, with his "Chuck on a Rock" summit flag.
Views from the summit.
Chuck and Ryan on the summit.
Chuck on the summit, Mt. Foraker in the distance.
A view down at the North Summit of Denali. (We're technically on the South Summit, which is the high point.)
More views from the summit.
Some impressive snow/ice formations below the summit ridge.
Summit Ridge with Mt. Foraker in the distance.
Mt. Hunter in the distance.
Official USGS Summit Marker, placed there in 1989.
Chuck, on the summit. Summit flags in the foreground.
Chuck on the summit. I need to fix this picture.
Summit flags and Tibetan prayer flags.
Mt. Hunter in the distance.
Summit Ridge, Mt. Foraker.
Chuck on the summit, with Mt. Hunter in the distance.
Chuck on the summit, with Mt. Foraker in the distance.
A look down at the Football Field and Archdeacon's Tower.
A look down at the Summit Ridge, Football Field, and Archdeacon's Tower.
A look down a couloir from the summit ridge at Mt. Hunter.
A view of the mountains to the north, with Fairbanks somewhere in the distance. Picture was taken near Denali Pass.
Mountains to the north.
A view down at the 17,200' camp near Denali Pass.
Chuck, preparing to descend Denali Pass.
Chuck, with 17,200' camp and Mt. Foraker in the distance.
Chuck, descending Denali Pass.
Chuck, descending Denali Pass, with Mt. Foraker in the distance.
A view looking down at the 14,200' camp from the 16 ridge on our descent.
Another view at the 14,200' camp. It probably doubled in size while we were high on the mountain!
Another view of Basin Camp.
As we exited the fixed ropes at the 'schrund, Chuck dropped his helmet. About a thousand feet lower, it fell into a crevasse. Here's Chuck pulling it out of the crevasse!
Back at our igloo at 14,200', sorting gear for our descent.
All of our gear. We made two carries to 14,200', and we needed to fit all of that gear on our packs for a single trip down. We should have brought a sled!
Chuck, with about 100 lbs of gear, preparing to descend from 14,200' to 11,000.
Another view of Chuck's pack.
Chuck, roped up and ready, with garbage bag in hand (no room for it in/on the pack!)
Huge crevasse, about 75' wide, along the trail near the 14,200' camp.
Back at 11,000' camp. Our igloo survived very well. More people were staying in it.
Chuck, digging up our cache at 11,000'. It snowed a ton!
Chuck, standing in the bottom of the cache hole at 11,000'.
Chuck, pushing his sled towards our igloo in the distance at 9,800'.
Chuck, moving along the trail towards 9,800'.
Ditto.
A large wet-slide avalanche near the trail.
Chuck and our igloo at 9,800'. It survived very well!
Our igloo at 7,800'. It was in the best shape of any of the igloos!
Back at Base Camp, waiting for our flight out on Hudson Air Service (HAS).
Chuck, at Base Camp.
ditto.
Our airplane, on approach.
Our airplane, landing at Base Campl
Our airplane, at the end of the runway.
Chuck, loading my sled into the plane with the help of the pilot, also named Chuck.
Chuck, strapping himself into the cockpit.
View inside cockpit of the Chucks preparing for take-off.
View out the plane as we roll down the runway.
View out the front of the plane as we take off.
View of the glacier.
View of the glacier.
View of crevasse field on the glacier.
View of an icefall on the glacier.
View of the glacier.
View of the glacier.
View of water forming in crevasses low on the glacier.
Looking out the front of the airplane as we approach One-Shot Pass.
Getting closer to One-Shot Pass...
Flying through One-Shot Pass, looking to the right.
Flying through One-Shot Pass, looking to the left.
View of a rocky ridge on the other side of One-Shot Pass
Beautiful view of more of the Alaska Range.
Another cool looking mountain and rocky ridge.
A view of the head of a river as the mountain range ends.
A parting view of the mountain.
A view through the front of the plane, with take-off and landing instructions visible.
The glacier terminus, and the beginning of the Susitna River. The land turns from white to green!
Looking down at the forest and the retreating snow.
Great view of the glacier terminus. Alaska rivers tend to be muddy -- this is why!
Similar pic to the one above.
Looking back at the mountain and the headwaters of the river.
Similar pic to the one above.
View of some lakes, rivers, and the mountain.
Some lakes and trees below.
Nice view of the river.
View of the river junction, town of Talkeetna, and the airport.
Another view of Talkeetna from above.
The runway in Talkeetna, as we are on approach.
Getting closer to the runway...
Closer yet...
Landing in Talkeetna.
Hudson Air hangar -- home sweet home!
Chuck, removing his headset in the plane.
Railroad tracks in Talkeetna, with Denali in the distance.
Climbing information board in the ranger station: 146 successful summits...
Make that 148 successful summits!!!
National Park Service Ranger Station in Talkeenta
Another view of the Ranger Station.
Celebration time in the West Rib Pub! Ryan, with Mark Luscher behind him, and Preston and Dave.
Same picture, with everyone actually looking at the camera.
The legendary mountaineer Fred Beckey, at The West Rib Pub.
Party crew -- Mark Luscher's team, our team, and the Brits (before we all got kicked out of the bar!).
Talkeetna -- Train tracks and airport. Talkeetna has always been a transportation hub.
"Welcome to beautiful downtown Talkeetna" Sign
Downtown Talkeetna
The West Rib Pub. One of two bars in the town. (The one we got kicked out of.)
Mountain High Pizza Pie. Our first stop back in Talkeetna (after showering).
The Roadhouse Cafe. Great breakfast spot.
The river in Talkeetna.
Another view of the river.
Another view of the river.
One more view of the river. We missed king salmon season by a week.
Our Taiwanese friends -- they summitted! Yenhui, James, and Jay.
Much better picture of the Taiwanese trio.
We didn't have a pencil, so we had to take a picture of the number for the shuttle to Anchorage.
Same as above. We ended up taking the train instead.
And here's our train!
A parting view of the mountains and the Alaska wilderness from the train.
OK, now the last picture of mountain. I hope you enjoyed the pics!
