‘The High One’ ; Climbing and Guiding Denali
March, I was looking at a full schedule of ski guiding in the Eastern Sierra into April, with hopes for spring and early summer mountaineering taking off in May and June… but all of this had to be put aside when the call came in mid-March to fill a spot as a guide on Denali. Something I had been training for, (not knowingly, but wishfully training for) but nothing I thought would come this quick.
Come late May, and a team of three of us were boarding an “otter” in Talkeetna to be flown to basecamp of the highest peak in North America. Here it was.
We flew onto the Kahiltna Glacier on May 28 under clear skies. Our team was two guides, myself and Kurt, and one client. Our plan was rather simple, but conservative. Climb the mountain, but be prepared for an almost month long siege. So we budgeted fifteen days of moving, with ten weather days built in… which meant carrying food for up to 24 days on the mountain. If the mountain asked us to wait, we were ready to stretch rations and wait for our shot. As it turned out, the mountain favored us, and we only had to use just one of those weather days.
Day 1–2: Getting moving. With good weather on the landing strip, we didn't waste it. We packed our sleds and began the long haul to camp 1. Even with a 3pm landing, we pushed straight to Camp 1 at 7,800', rolling in around 11pm under that endless Alaskan light. Pulling 40-60lbs in a sled, with an equal amount on our back over 5 miles of glacier terrain… we were worked!
The next morning we took it easy, got a late start, and carried our upper-mountain food and gear to 10,000' to cache it.
Day 3–4: Camp 2. We moved up to 11,000' on day 3. On day 4 we did our first back carry… We dropped down to 10,000', dug up the cache we buried on day 2, and hauled it up to camp. It's slow but crucial work… it's exactly how you build a strong acclimatization base of strength and oxygen on this mountain.
The middle mountain: carry high, sleep low. From there we settled into the rhythm that defines a Denali expedition. We cached at 13,000', moved up to 14,000' camp, then went back down for the cache. At this point we had been moving for 8-days straight, moving camp followed by a cache, then a back carry, then a cache, then a move, then a back carry…. you get it. So, we took a well needed rest day at 14 camp and settled into life on the mountain. Unfortunately, but also kinda fortunately, we had access to starlink here… I’ll never forget talking to my girlfriend that first night after nothing but satellite messenging for 8 days. She was at a concert with our friends, and the thought of life in a crowd overwhelmed me incredibly… I missed her, but I also realized then that the mountain really had me.
After our rest day, we had a nice weather window coming, and we knew it was time to execute. Unlike the summer sun in Alaska, the next days moved quickly…
Day 11: Cache. We took our final cache run and carried food up the fixed lines on Denalis headwall and buried in a shallow, icy pit at 16,000'.
Day 12: Moving to High Camp. 17,000'… we were in striking distance, setting ourselves up for a single push to the top.
Summit bid: With nothing but a 3000’ tall icy hump between us and the rising sun, we awoke to the hustle and bustle of a high camp on a bluebird day. We had a slow morning as we watched others team strike out in the cold shadow of the mountain… but at the perfect time, as the sun struck us, we set out to make our summit bid. We climbed all day in the sun, and even as the wind picked up, we still had the sun to favor us and shed us just a little extra warmth.
And on day 13 at 730PM, we stood on the summit at 20,310'. We got her done!
We spent a whopping 6 minutes on the summit… where an ungloved hand began to hurt in under 10 seconds due to pure cold. And I don’t mean “my hand is cold”… I mean “my hand f*&%ing hurts!”. Ever experience cold like that? Me neither… till then!
Though it seems like a late summit, the mountain favored us. And as we descended, the sun followed us, staying just above the horizon until the very last minute when we walked into camp at 1230AM of day 14. As soon as that sun set, the temperature dropped 30 degrees easily… I truly felt the mountain was guiding us, rather than me guiding. I’ll never be convinced otherwise.
Two days later, on day 15, we were off the mountain (the beer never tasted so good!!).
The logistics tell you how we climbed Denali. They don't tell you what it was like to be there.
Above 12,000' the mountain changes. Sharp, pristine granite starts breaking through the snow and ice. These are clean spires and walls that look like they were carved yesterday... At times the route brought us right up against that rock, and we could reach out and put a hand on the mountain itself… feeling the very essence of “The High One”. After days of snow, glacier, and sled-hauling, touching solid granite felt like meeting the mountain face to face. I’ll never forget it, and I’ll always appreciate it when I see it again.
And then there's the altitude and the latitude together. Standing at 20,000' that far north isn't like any other mountain experience. The air is thinner, the cold is deeper, and the light never quite leaves. I'm young, but I have explored many of mountain ranges at this point… but Denali will always be in a category of its own. I still feel apart of that mountain with me as I write this.
And I can’t wait to go back…
Big thanks to my co-guide Kurt and our client for a strong, steady, well-run trip. We were prepared for a long siege and got a clean ascent instead. On Denali, you take that gift and say thank you.
Congrats Louise for completing your final summit of the Seven Summits! I am honored to have guided you and have been apart of that journey.
Thanks for reading — I’ll see you in the mountains!
Larry
