However, we woke up to poor weather conditions. It was nothing but a cold, windy and a white out because of the snow. Regardless, we proceeded to get ready to summit while hoping for the weather to change. It did not change. We even got to the point of roping up. Meanwhile, I had a bad feeling in my gut. It kept getting stronger with each passing moment because of the the weather conditions. Finally, I told my teammates that I was not going to join them for the summit attempt. If they wanted to try for the summit that was ok with me. I was not comfortable with making the attempt in the white out conditions we were faced with. It was very tough to take a stand against the majority but I knew I was being true to my climbing phyolosophy. In addition, I was being true to the promises I made to my family and my wife. Hopfully, the weather is ideal tomorrow so I can reach the summit. For now, I know I made the right choice regardless of whether my partners make it to the top or not.

Denali Summit Ridge

Also, congratulations to my climbing partner, Peter! He solo climbed to the summit of Mount McKinley after I had to turn around yesterday.

Regardless of all this, we checked the forecast this evening. Saturday and Sunday are good summit window days. Right now, I am waiting for other teams to arrive to see who we can join to make a summit attempt. It could be tomorrow or Sunday, depending on the weather and the other team’s schedule. We only have enough food to last until Monday so the next three days are our last opportunities. I will keep everyone posted.

It is so cold that……
10. It feels like a masochistic camping trip not a mountain climbing trip any more.
9. We saw the squirrel of squirrel hill hitchhiking rides down the hill to lower elevations in climbers’ backpacks.
8. We had tears in our eyes that froze our eyes shut.
7. The pee hole in camp is now a pee mound since, right now, water freezes instantly when it hits the ground.
6. Your breath freezes to the top of the tent every night. We wake up to a layer of ice on our tent ceiling every morning.
5. We have to put our water bottles inside our sleeping bag with us to keep them from freezing.
4. We have stopped fighting it and now have acquired a taste for Gatorade slushies.
3. We are now sleeping in all our climbing gear to try to stay warm. This includes our down parkas; our sleeping bags are rated only to -20 F.
2. It is a race against time to finish your meal before it freezes.
1. We are now very excited to hear a weather forecast with a high of zero.

I look forward to getting back to 70 F in Michigan. I look forward to pizza, civilization, and family including the seven Golden Retriever puppies that were born last week.
The weather forecast has changed again. Our closest summit window is tomorrow, Friday, because the winds are going to die down sooner than expected. Our plan is to summit tomorrow, May 30.

Patience is the name of the game right now on Mount McKinley. We are still at 17,200 feet, waiting for the weather to clear. The weather report says winds may die down late Friday, which would make Saturday the earliest summit window. With overnight temperatures as low as -30 degrees F, our morale is beginning to wane. We are trying to stay positive but it is a struggle. At 17,200 feet, you can feel your body get slowly weaker. Your body starts to use any fat you have in search of energy, especially in this low oxygen environment.

View to the summit

On a brighter note, being at high camp puts us within view of the summit. It seems so close, only 3,000 vertical feet above us. The years of training and weeks of pushing through difficult conditions finally has an end and a reward in sight. With anticipation and respect for the mountain, we wait for the mountain to grant us safe passage to the summit.

A weather window has finally broken on Mount McKinley. With 2 days of good weather ahead, our team decided to split up, due to how strong Peter and I were feeling. So, Peter and I decided to forge up from the 14,000 foot camp to high camp at 17,200 feet. This was a major undertaking. It not only involves a move up in altitude of 3200 feet into much thinner air but also moving up Mount McKinley’s headwall. The headwall is 2,000 feet tall and has a 50-degree incline, followed by a thin ridge leading to the high camp. In order to have a chance to summit on the second good weather day, we had to carry all our gear on our backs without sleds, totaling almost 80 pounds each. This move to high camp yesterday took almost 7 hours. It was tremendously hard. Our bodies were not only taxed by the heavy loads but our lungs burned from lack of oxygen in the thin air at high altitude. We finally reached camp about 7pm Alaskan time. Exhausted, we put up our tent and started to make dinner. It was dehydrated lasagna; it is not that good. Every movement we made felt like it was a lot of work. Even simple tasks like unrolling your sleeping bag, moving your backpack 5-6 feet or even rolling over in your sleeping bag are enough to get you out of breath.

After we got camp settled and ate, we went to bed in hopes of attempting to reach the summit today. I could not sleep most of the night. I could just feel my lungs gasping for air and my heart pounding to pump my oxygen-starved muscles as much oxygen as it had to supply them. I realized I had a mild case of acute mountain sickness. So, I decided I needed to wait to attempt the summit until my body adjusted to the altitude. Peter conservatively attempted a summit today by himself but had to turn around to come back to our camp due to the altitude and weather. The weather forecast shows another summit window Friday. Between now and then, the winds are still at very high speeds making it dangerous to attempt any moves. So, now we wait. Hopefully, I will be adjusted to the altitude by Friday.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.