Tent Life on Denali

The weather on Denali now includes 90 mile per hour winds. This has left us tent-bound since we can’t climb in those conditions. As you can see by the photo below, tent-bound life on Denali is not always comfortable. It is common to be stuck in your tent for days at a time while waiting out storms. During these times, we play cards, read, talk, or just stare at the ceiling of our tents. These four season tents are durable most of the time. However, you are always sitting or sleeping on snow, which requires 2 Thermarest style sleeping pads. These are to prevent your body heat from melting the snow below you throughout the night. Being stuck in your tent on storm days is part of expedition climbing. It is not a fun part but a necessary part.

As I sit here in my tent at 14,000 feet, held hostage by high winds, I think of making it to the summit. I know the summit is as few as three days of movement up the mountain ie: cache gear at 16,000 feet, move to high camp at 17,200 feet and then summit day. For now, I must wait while I try to keep my mind focused on the task at hand, and try not to think of home; homesickness will kill your motivation. I am very excited to be this far on the mountain. We look forward to good weather so the team can move higher and closer to the goal. I am feeling strong and well acclimatized to the altitude.

The Mountain Said “No.”

The Route Up The Headwall, 2000 ft high

We woke up this morning to calm winds, clear skies and a temperature of -20 degrees F. We hadn’t planned on moving up today but conditions looked promising, once the sun came out and heated things up a bit. So, we decided to try to reach the top of the headwall at 16,000 feet. The headwall is a steep section of ice and snow 2,000 feet tall and 45-55 degrees of incline. At the top, there is a ridge leading to high camp at 17,000 feet. We packed half our gear to make a trip up the headwall to cache our loads at the top. About an hour into the climb, the winds really started to pick up and began to blow snow across us. The wind gusts were about 60 miles per hour. I started to feel my cheeks getting painfully cold. I turned around and saw a cap cloud forming over Mount Foraker, the mountain next to Denali.

Example of a Cap Cloud

These types of clouds spell bad weather and higher winds coming. I yelled up to George that I thought we should turn around. I had to yell because he could not hear me any other way due to the wind and snow. We agreed as a team turning around was the safest thing to do. We are now back in camp resting at 14,000 feet. We had made it to 15,000 feet on the headwall. Overall, it helped our bodies get used to the altitude. It also helped by breaking up a string of three straight days stuck in a tent. We are hoping for a fair weather window tomorrow to complete the climb to high camp at 17,000 feet.

The Storm

The storm has arrived on Denali. We are at the 14,000 feet camp. We had to build snow walls around our tents to shield them from the 50 mph winds and blowing snow. I remembered building snow forts as a kid and they were a lot more fun than this. Although, they were also not built at 14,000 feet in the Arctic. It took us 2.5 hours last night and another 4 hours this morning to finally secure camp from the raging storm. Yesterday, we were in a tough spot as we had carried all but one day worth of food up to our cache spot at 13,600 feet. Our plan was to pick it up on our way to 14,000 feet camp However, we received 18 inches of snow overnight, which made travel very difficult because we had to break trail the whole way. With a storm coming and almost no food left, we had no choice but to continue up the mountain, even in difficult conditions. We worked very hard and had a grueling day. The team moved up 3,000 vertical feet while breaking trail. At the same time, we felt as if we couldn’t breathe, due to the altitude. Once we arrived, we setup camp as described above and crashed into our sleeping bags.

One interesting fact the team was discussing about the route from 11,000 feet to 14,000 feet is the hill you have to climb called Squirrel Hill. I always had wondered about the name but yesterday we were reading Colby Coombs guidebook on Denali. He says, in 1993, a red squirrel was spotted on the hill surviving off dug up climber caches. So yesterday, we were trying to come up with logical explanations as to how a squirrel could end up at 13,000 feet on Mount McKinley. This is, of course, taking into account there are no trees within almost a 100 mile radius. The best we came up with was an eagle or some other bird of prey picked up the squirrel from a tree, was carrying it back to its nest, and dropped it over Mount McKinley. I know this is far fetched but it was the best we came up with. If anyone has a better theory, please email me at climbing@paulelwell.net. I will share the best theory on my website.

May 22, 2008

Paul reported yesterday the team had successfully moved half their gear and all of their food supplies to Camp 4.  They are planning to make the journey again from Camp 3 at 11,000 feet to Camp 4 today.  This will be completing their move to the 14,000 altitude before a large 3 day storm moves in on the mountain tomorrow.

Last night an additional foot and a half of snow fell across the trail from Base Camp 3 to Camp 4.  Paul said his team was hoping other climbers would break the trail open. This would save his team the extra work as they move up the mountain.

Paul mentioned they were starting to feel the effects of low oxygen, due to the altitude.  With all of their food cached at Camp 4, the climb today was of extreme importance.  Paul’s spirits are still good and the team is hopeful they can reach the summit as scheduled.

May 21, 2008

The Alaskan tundra from 12.5K feet

View between 11K and 13.6K ridge

We enjoyed great weather again today. We carried 1/2 our gear to 13,600 feet. We hope to pick that gear up tomorrow and move everything to 14,000 feet (camp 4). It was a grueling grind to move up the 2,600 feet in elevation. We could feel the thin air making every step much more difficult.

Our climbing group at 11K

The team is feeling good though and is very excited about our chances. The weather looks good for tomorrow for our move to 14K camp. The forecast shows the next 3 days to have 50-70 mile per hour winds. We plan to have a rest day on Friday and wait out the storm at 14K feet.

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