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| Looking westward onto the upper Kahiltna glacier, the 14,400’ camp on the West Buttress is barely visible just right of center. Low clouds can be seen creeping up where the upper Kahiltna glacier drops off to Kahiltna pass. |
Push for the Summit
The next day, July 19th, I alternatingly slept and ate all day as I would try for the summit the next day. My initial plan was to get an early start on the 20th – waking around 3a.m. I woke up around 11:00 on July 20th, and it was a stellar day - high pressure again! I ate some food, drank as much as I could, packed a light pack with some food and 2 litres of water, and headed off from the 14,400’ camp to regain the rib around 2:00 p.m. – so much for the 3 am. start.
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| Looking westward onto the upper Kahiltna glacier, the 14,400’ camp on the West Buttress is barely visible just right of center. Low clouds can be seen creeping up where the upper Kahiltna glacier drops off to Kahiltna pass. |
I thought I’d do an acclimatization hike and if I felt good, and would just keep going and climb the last 6,000’ to the summit. I passed a guided party who were just leaving the West Buttress route to try and climb the upper west rib. I regained the crest of the ridge at 16,500, slightly higher than where I had left off a day and a half before, about an hour after leaving camp. At 17,000’ I slowed to a crawl, one step and then three breaths. My prior acclimatization training – the scramble up to the 8,500’ summit of Mt. Lady McDonald clearly showing its deficiencies. The upper rib was mostly steep snowslopes and rocky outcrops, never more than 50°. By now I was moving at the pace of a very fast mollusc while kicking steps up the Orient Express. The aptly named couloir is in memory of several Japanese climbers who either had epic falls or died, coming back down from the summit exhausted. Just after midnight, I reached the summit plateau. Thoroughly exhausted, I crouched behind a boulder for some shelter from the winds and ate a few chocolate bars and drank some water, nothing like a snickers at 20,000’. The sun was just dipping below the horizon, but a few rays still tinted red and orange some of the boulders I was leaning on.
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| Looking south towards the Gulf of Alaska and Pacific Ocean from high up on the west rib. Mountain chains of the Alaska range trailing away in the distance toward the ocean, and the continuation of the Alaska range tapering off to the west (right). High pressure persisting as low clouds move in from the south. Mount Hunter visible in the left foreground. |
After an hour or so, I got my pack on again and started inching towards the summit ridge, deceptively over 300’ above.
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| The final portion of the summit ridge, quiet and ghostily illuminated by the midnight sun. |
I ever so slowly moved up this seemingly interminable, but easy angled ridge and at 2:00 a.m. on June 21st, I reached the summit. I was alone on top of North America, and the slowly rising sun of the summer solstice, lying beneath the northeast horizon, lighted the sky a pale orange, it was a spiritual moment!
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| Alone on the summit of Denali around 2 a.m., with the soft sun of the summer solstice just starting to rise above the plains to the north. The summit of the North peak can be seen just below the horizon right of center. |
To the north the Alaska range dropped off abruptly and five kilometres down, met the plains that stretched out indefinitely towards the hazy expanses of tundra of the Alaskan north. To the south, the ranges slowly trailed away towards the cloud covered Gulf of Alaska and Pacific Ocean. To the east, the peaks of the Alaska range tapered off in the distance, far below the summit. To the west, the looming mass of Mount Foraker shone pinkish-purple in the early morning alpenglow and the first rays of the rising sun. Time to head down dude. Going down was o.k., although a little slow on the flats of the plateau. I had to stop repeatedly and I was now out of water. I was now heading down the West Buttress route. The sun was rising and at about 3a.m. it was bright again. At about 17,000’, I crossed another party of three coming up from a high camp on the West Buttress. I continued down the upper buttress, past Denali Pass, Washburn’s thumb, and then down the steep snow/ice gully that accesses the upper West Buttress from the upper Kahiltna glacier, and back down to my tent at the 14,400' camp by about 5:00am on the 21st, about 15 hours after leaving on the 20th.
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| Looking north onto the plains over 18,000’ (5km) below, stretching to infinity and towards the northern tundra. |
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| The summit of Mt. Foraker in the early morning alpenglow. |
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