SummitPost.org

Chris Simpson wrote:3 days? Ha j/k. Yea 5 - 10 days is ambitious. We shall see...

In that case 22 days will give you plenty of time to tick off Foraker and Hunter after you dispatch Denali.

FWIW, I will also be slogging up the WB this June, unguided.

What I got: MH Belayman Jacket, MH Absolute zero parka, Absolute zero puffy pants, Patagonia mixed guide hard shell pants, thermal underwears, thermal top base layers, beefy smartwool socks, heavy top fleece, thin puffy, OR goretex shell balaclava, buff, hat, glacier glasses, snow goggles, thermarest neoair pad, plus foam pad, Scarpa Phantom 6000 boots. I still need to get a sleeping bag. Am thinking of getting a -20 degree bag, and I'll bring a sleeping bag liner that I already have. We'll be skiing up the lower section of the route to 14 camp, where most of my friends will be basing there to do harder routes. I'll stick to the WB. Cassin is way over my head

There are a bunch of little personal items I cannot recall, and probably more little things I need. I am still debating whether or not I need overboots, but I may just bring down booties.

We'll be in a 4 season HM tent we all share with the local univ's climbing club, and my buddies have all the necessary cooking equipment.

We fly in June 2. Hopefully I can get up and down in 15-20 days. Want to give myself plenty of time for this one. With luck it'll be my 30th state highpoint.

Chris Simpson wrote:This May will be our first go at Denali…..We are strong climbers and are going with intent to summit in 5-10 days but have allocated 22 days to get it done. If we feel really great we go straight to 14 camp from BC. If the weather is is good that is.. it all depends on weather.

Like others, we did early May, single carries to 11K, rest, double carries to 14K on foot, rest, carry up lines, rest, up lines, pickup gear continue to 17K.

Spent three days in a Bibler Fitzroy, three of us, not recommended. Went down, rested. One friend summited alone, regular style. Me and other friend tried two times to go straight from 14K to summit - both times got rebuffed by bad weather coming in. It's hard to tell the weather from 14K, the forecasts were no good, and the first time we couldn't even see it coming until we were at 16K.

You need a really good spell of weather to do this, especially if you're not super-fast. Like a 72+hr window, no less. The other bummer with this plan is that I calculated the timing - for us - and it meant getting up out of the tent around 1am at 14K camp. It was incredibly cold, below -40C, which made it hard to prepare and get going. With no real experience of how you travel on the upper mountain it's unwise to plan for this tactic.

After both friends went home I went up again alone and summited, 23 days after arriving. Others who were on a different timing, arriving later but different tactics, summited in under 14 days, but their experienced guide expressed how unusually lucky they were. Planning for a 10-day ascent is planning to fail - or worse.

I descended alone, on snowshoes and had no problem with crevasses (June 2000) though I left 14K at 0100 to travel in the cold. It was a great trip down, but took 8hrs or so from 14K, pickup and re-pack at 11k and on to KIA.

To plan such a rapid ascent after flying in from Talkeetna (elevation 346 feet) is to invite HAPE or HACE. At your mandatory meeting with the National Park Service, you will be advised against this plan for your own safety as well as for the safety of those same rangers who might be called upon for the rescue. Be wise and plan to move and acclimatize more slowly.

This is why we have 22 days cut out for this. Yes, we'll get as far as we can as fast as we can. But I doubt we'll summit in our proposed 5-10 days. I think it was last yr that a guided group went up in 11 days. Could have been 2013. This is why I think it's possible. Yes they were lucky.

As far as acclimation goes, there is a 10,000 ft mountain 20 min from my door which I spend the night on almost every weekend and the sierras are 3 hrs from me. We'll be spending a few nights at 14k before we leave. There would be no chance in hell of us going to straight to 14 camp without already being acclimated. We exercised this on Orizaba, which is no comparison, I know. HOWEVER, we walked up to about 17k upon arrival. We set up the tent outside the hut, slept for a few hrs and climbed it in 9 hrs round trip. No speed record by any means but we were completely fine at 18.5. Denali is no joke, we know this.

If it doesn't work out it doesn't work out. But, look at it this way, say you have great conditions (unlikely), you're acclimated and head straight for 14 camp where you rest for a few days and climb the headwall once. Then head to 17 camp for a day or three, then summit There's our 5-10 day plan which probably won't work but it's possible if conditions are right. That's all I'm saying.

So you're going to get 22 days worth of stuff to 14 camp in a single day? Have fun with that, regardless of whether you're acclimated.

All 25 days worth of supplies is not going to 14 camp. Even if it did, more food! Like I said. If it doesn't work it doesn't work. If it takes us 15 days to summit then so be it! Hell, there's a chance we wont summit at all. If and when hazard presents itself we're not going to try and power through it. We stop. Bad weather, we stop. Signs of HACE / HAPE, we stop and descend. It's not a superhuman feat and we would not be the first people to exercise this. I should add we are going late May, which should make for more favorable conditions. But, again, it doesn't mean we'll get them. If we don't get them then no summit in 5-10 days. Last yr stats only show somewhere around a 20% success rate. Believe me, we are aware of what can happen.

I have a buddy who summited and descended in late may with a vet who lost his leg in Afghanistan. He fell into a crevasse at least 10 times on the way down and each time his leg would fall off and hit the bottom of the crevasse. Poor guy. But shit, he made it.

This looks like a good one:
http://www.alanarnette.com/climbing/gearlist.php

ExcitableBoy wrote:In that case 22 days will give you plenty of time to tick off Foraker and Hunter after you dispatch Denali.

The plan to climb all three major summits in a single season has been made before and this team seems to have the same qualities as those who have previously planned such an endeavor: absolutely no experience in the Alaska Range and a whole lot of hubris.

Steve Gruhn wrote:

ExcitableBoy wrote:In that case 22 days will give you plenty of time to tick off Foraker and Hunter after you dispatch Denali.

The plan to climb all three major summits in a single season has been made before and this team seems to have the same qualities as those who have previously planned such an endeavor: absolutely no experience in the Alaska Range and a whole lot of hubris.

I know a guy who with his girlfriend climbed all three in one season.

If I were doing it again (I did summit) I would summit from 14k and not high camp at 17.2. My .02

ExcitableBoy wrote:I know a guy who with his girlfriend climbed all three in one season.

Low down on the headwall above 14K I met a French(?) couple who had walked in from Talkeetna, summited Hunter, summited Foraker, and were on their way up Denali. They eventually summited and traversed over and out the other side, having the obligatory near-death experiences with rivers etc. Obviously they could not carry enough food for the trip, so they planned to get excess food off climbers along the way. I think they ended up eating a lot of pasta. Not much of a plan, but a good result.

Steve Gruhn wrote:

ExcitableBoy wrote:In that case 22 days will give you plenty of time to tick off Foraker and Hunter after you dispatch Denali.

The plan to climb all three major summits in a single season has been made before and this team seems to have the same qualities as those who have previously planned such an endeavor: absolutely no experience in the Alaska Range and a whole lot of hubris.

Hubris? Hardly. Lack of experience in the Alaska range? Correct. Hubris would be to go in without contingency. But that's my opinion and you obviously have yours. In 1978, 2 men (Galen Rowell and Ned Gillette) climbed from old B.C. to the summit in 19 hrs with no prior acclimatization. Steve House has guided 11 parties on Denali under a normal and fast schedule which had them on the summit by day 8. I believe him and Vince Anderson (??) Could have been Mark Twight and someone else, have seen the summit in 5 days on the W. Buttress. This doesn't seem hubris to me either. This seems like a good plan. Fast and light from 14 camp to the summit. So, go ahead and judge and call it an ego thing. Whatever you think is your business. This thread asked for unguided insight on Denali's West Buttress. I feel like I'm in the 50's and 60's with all the "you can't do this and you can't do that". We're attempting it and are hoping to stand on the summit if it takes us 8 days or 20 days.

Chris Simpson wrote:Galen Rowell and Ned Gillette) climbed from old B.C. to the summit in 19 hrs with no prior acclimatization. Steve House ... and Vince Anderson... Mark Twight ... have seen the summit in 5 days on the W. Buttress. This seems like a good plan.

Clearly you are the equal of all these climbers so you should have no problem climbing Denali in 8 days.

I wonder what kind of shape the teams House led were in?

What kind of physical shape do you think it takes to climb Denali in 8 days?