Denali

[CCS_56_EX]

Thought I’d share a few pictures from my Denali expedition. I set a goal 3 years ago to climb Denali, and finally made it happen.

Denali seen from Talkeetna, ~60 miles away

Loading up on the air taxi

Flying over massive glaciers

Setup at Denali base camp, with Foraker in the background

Looking down the Kahiltna glacier while digging a cache at 10k ft

The morning sun poking around the mountain at camp III

Climbers descending past camp III, after a successful summit

Looking up to the fixed lines from camp IV

View of Foraker from camp IV

A wind blown camp V

The autobahn on the right, from camp V

Ascending the autobahn in cold like I’ve never experienced

The final summit ridge

Plaque on the summit

View from the summit

Looking down on climbers ascending the summit ridge

Descending the spine of the west buttress

Nearing base camp on the Kahiltna around 2am. This was about as dark as it got. Foraker on the right

 

[CCS_56_EX]

Sorry, looks like this thread posted twice.

Edit: the duplicate thread was deleted.

 

[Blkss13]

Wow, great pics and congrats on the Denali expedition!

 

[oldmachguy]

Thank you for posting these amazing pics!

If you don't mind, how old are you, how long have you been mountaineering, how did you get in shape / train for this expedition, and what group was this?

Again, simply amazing stuff.

 

[VegasMichael]

Very cool shots. Always wanted to go to Alaska. One of these days.

 

[SID297]

Amazing shots.

 

[VenomousDSG]

Great photos, looks expensive. lol

 

[NastyGT500]

Congrats on your successful climb! Thanks for posting up those great pics! Very cool!

 

[Need 04 Wine]

Super cool!!!!

 

[CCS_56_EX]

Thank you for posting these amazing pics!

If you don't mind, how old are you, how long have you been mountaineering, how did you get in shape / train for this expedition, and what group was this?

Again, simply amazing stuff.

I’m 37 and have been mountaineering 3 years. I went with Alpine Ascents out of Seattle. Being fit is a lifestyle for me, so I didn’t do anything special to prepare for Denali, other than minimize risks as much as possible to show up to the climb healthy. This was an extremely physically demanding climb though, especially the final 3 days - the single carry move to 17, summit day, and a 15 hour death march from 17 to base camp.

 

[Sonic605hp]

Gorgeous shots! What wes the weather like?

 

[CobraBob]

Congratulations on achieving your goal. What an awesome experience; one you'll never forget. How cold were the temperatures? How much of the climb was climbing rocks and how much was trekking through snow (albeit steep ascents). I know nothing about climbing like this. Again, congratulations!

 

[CCS_56_EX]

Gorgeous shots! What wes the weather like?

We had relatively good weather all the way to 14k ft, and didn’t have to take any weather days. We heard of a few cases of frostbite on the face from other teams going around windy corner. Once we were established at 14k, the weather took a turn for the worse. A low pressure system moved in and dumped several feet of snow each day with temps usually below 0 at night. The system held us at 14k for 9 nights. Several teams felt pressure to move up to 17k, and all came back with frostbite. Temps at 17k during this time were around -25F with 50-70mph winds. It was really hard to watch them descend back to 14k, because they were obviously in trouble. When the storm moved on, the high temperature of our summit day was in the 20s. I summited with a light puffy and medium soft shell gloves, which is relatively warm for Denali.

 

[CCS_56_EX]

Congratulations on achieving your goal. What an awesome experience; one you'll never forget. How cold were the temperatures? How much of the climb was climbing rocks and how much was trekking through snow (albeit steep ascents). I know nothing about climbing like this. Again, congratulations!

98% of the West buttress route is snow/ice, with crevasse danger all the way up. There are some rocks on the spine of the west buttress between 16-17k. I primarily used snow shoes until around 11k, then switched to crampons for the rest of the way.

 

[TooFast98Cobra]

Super cool! My buddy and i have Everest on our bucket lists

 

[Z06]

Damn! Glad I got to see these through pictures as I dont have the balls to do so. I'd freeze my butt off! Thanks for posting.

 

[Helomech74]

Very cool. I've always wanted to climb Denali, just never had the time off to make it happen. The last trek I went on was when I was working in Pakistan and we climbed Noshaq West on the Pakistan side. We didn't make the summit due to weather (we made it 6280m, about 900m shy of the summit). They stopped expeditions into the Hindu Kush for quite sometime, but I believe they opened again. I've always wanted to go back there. The people of that region are amazing.

 

[98 svt]

Holy shit!

 

[HillbillyHotRod]

Wow! Amazing pic. Congrats on the experience. Next up Everest?

 

[PaxtonShelby]

That is amazing stuff. Congrats and thanks for sharing.