A quick Denali update (more coming soon!)

Just wanted to post a quick blog entry summarizing my Denali expedition. All of my Denali blog entries were accidentally deleted and so I have to rewrite all 30 of them from scratch...not a very appealing prospect.

Anyway, as you know if you've been following my Twitter, I did not summit Denali this July. I was on a Mountain Trip expedition and we spent five days at High Camp waiting for the weather to get better so that we could summit. All we needed was 15 hours. We didn't get it. (The biggest issues were wind and snow.) Then we went down to 14k camp (the second highest camp) and I joined another Mountain Trip team that still had 10 days on the mountain. We managed to put in a high cache at 16,200ft in a white out storm that ended up dumping over a meter of new snow on the Headwall (a very steep, 2000ft ascent between the 14k and 17k camps) but then waited another six days for the avalanche risk on that wall to decrease. It never did.

Me at 14k camp after over three weeks on the mountain, with Mt. Hunter behind.

Part of mountain climbing is dealing with weather and the effects it can have on your itinerary and on your entire expedition. Denali was definitely a learning experience in this respect. All things considered, though, I am actually incredibly excited by the prospect of returning to this great mountain next June and July. I had a fantastic experience this past month that I spent on the mountain, and I would strongly recommend Mountain Trip to anyone who is interested in climbing Denali or any other North American peak.

Up next is Kosciosko--the hill in Australia that some people consider to be one of the Seven Summits--and Carstensz Pyramid, in the remote and exotic jungles of  Iryan Jaya--the other mountain that people consider to be Oceania's Seventh Summit. I start this journey on August 1st. Until then, you can look forward to reading a more detailed account of my Denali journey and checking out more beautiful pictures from the mountain. 

Descent to Plaza de Mulas Base Camp (February 25th)

The weather only got worse. After a terrifying night of 80+mph winds (our tent got totally shredded), we packed up our stuff quickly in the morning and began to climb down to Plaza de Mulas Base Camp. The weather had not improved at all and visibility was still low. The only thing better about today was that we were getting more and more oxygen as we descended. (It’s amazing how much of a difference 1000ft can make.) Also, going down—after 12 days of climbing up—is not easy on the toes. I think many of us will lose several toenails by the end of this expedition… We made it down to Base Camp after 4-5 hours. Everyone was exhausted yet ecstatic. An amazing dinner (and cold beers!) awaited us. I called my parents for the first time on the entire expedition and told them I summited. They were very proud! I am so happy!

Midway down the descent from the summit. I'm in red second from the front.

SUMMIT DAY! (February 24th)

What a day! I summited Aconcagua (6,962m above sea level) with 8 of my teammates and 3 guides at 3:10pm on February 24^th, 2012. This was the 12^th day of the expedition, and a couple days ahead of schedule. Thank goodness for lead guide Jacob’s plan to push up early because as soon as we reached the summit, the weather started getting really bad. We are all safe at High Camp again now with no injuries or sicknesses. Here is a recap of the Summit Day itinerary:

We woke up at 5am (the guides woke up at 3am to boil down snow for drinking water) and left just after 6am. The sun doesn’t rise until after 7am, so it was very cold starting out in the darkness (approximately -20 degrees Fahrenheit). I slept in my clothes to make departing the warmth of my sleeping bag easier. We put on our crampons (some of my teammates were putting them on for the first time!) and started up towards the summit. After about an hour and a half, the sun began to rise and it started to get warmer. Up until that point, I had to kick my boots into the snow with every step in order to maintain feeling in my toes. One of the things I’ve learned about mountain climbing is that you only get frostbite or things like that if you don’t pay attention. My coach in New Zealand, Lydia Bradey, once gave me a lecture on frostbite that went something like this: “If your toes or fingers get cold, I’ll tell you to wriggle them. You do NOT stop wriggling them. If you complain they get cold and you aren’t wriggling them, you’re just asking to get frostbite. Cason, you don’t understand, you do NOT get frostbite. Getting frostbite means you failed.” So I used a lot of energy to keep my appendages nice and warm (my great gear—the Scarpa Inverno boots and Black Diamond Guide Gloves—didn’t hurt either…). By midday, we reached the Gran Acquiero, which is a long, exposed (read: steep) traverse that can get really dangerous in high wind conditions. Luckily, our conditions were turning out to be perfect…barely any wind, few clouds, bright sun, so that wasn’t an issue. The traverse was when most of the team really began to feel the altitude. Our pace slowed a little and people began to breathe very heavily. We finally reached the end of the traverse, a place called “the cave” because of the large overhang that shelters the location. We took a long break there and Jacob told us we were only 2 hours from the summit. Then began the hardest part of the day: the Canaletta. We were only 2 hours from the summit—so close—yet so far as well. The Canaletta is a very steep section that is relatively short but, at over 6,800m, becomes extraordinarily difficult. This is when I began thinking of my family and of my coach Lydia and how proud they would be of me when I summited. I began to cry as we took our last break, only 10 minutes from the top. It was truly only just sinking in that I was actually going to summit Aconcagua. The final push was easy (since we were all operating on adrenaline then) and suddenly we stepped up and onto the top of the Americas, 6,962m high. Three crosses mark the summit—dedications to climbers who have passed away attempting this “Stone Sentinel.” We spent about 20-30 minutes celebrating and taking pictures before beginning our descent. Now, when you climb a mountain, you’re only halfway done when you reach the top. If I didn’t understand it before, I certainly learned this lesson on Aconcagua. The weather had gotten much, much worse while we were on top, and going down took supreme effort from each one of us. Due to very low visibility, we climbed down very close to one another so that no one would get lost. After an hour of tense climbing on steep terrain, we finally made it back to “the cave.” We rested there before continuing down to High Camp. As we descended (at this point, we had been climbing for over 12 hours), we began to struggle from both the conditions and from dehydration, since we each only had 2 liters for the whole day. Thankfully, we all made it safely back to High Camp and immediately began resting. Tomorrow is our last real day of the expedition! I can’t believe how quickly it has all gone…

Our expedition reaches the summit! 6,962m above sea level. What an amazing feeling...

Move to High Camp! (February 23rd)

So our lead guide Jacob came up from Base Camp late yesterday with good news and bad news. The bad news is that a massive storm with very high winds (NOT good) was coming in starting the 25^th (in two days) and lasting for five days after that. The good news is that we have options. He gave us two options: first, to wait out the storm at Camp II and try to summit after. This would mean that at least one of our group would probably miss her flight. The second option—which he recommended—was that we expedite our itinerary, move up to High Camp then summit the next day, on the 24^th. The group decided on the latter option unanimously. We are all very excited to be moving up and to summit, but we are also kind of nervous because this means we will not have as much time to acclimatize. We are up at High Camp now and already one of our teammates has to go down in the morning and a couple more are not feeling 100%. I myself am paranoid about getting altitude headaches. None yet, so hopefully I’ll be ok. 9 of the 12 of us that started are pushing up to the summit at 5am tomorrow.

The going starts to get tougher... 

Rest Day at Camp II (February 22nd)

We’re really getting into a rythmn now. We moved up to Camp I, carried half our gear up to Camp II, then moved up to Camp II with the rest of our gear yesterday. Now we’re taking a rest day here because one of our teammates—a great Aussie guy named Chris—had to go down to Base Camp last night. He had serious facial edema (swelling) and his blood-oxygen levels were very low, meaning he was not acclimatizing to the altitude. We are very sad to see him go down. We have now lost 2 of our group of 12. Hopefully no one else will get injured or sick! On an entirely different note, the view from Camp II is unreal. It’s at times like this where I feel the majesty of nature and the extraordinary beauty of our earth. I can’t wait to upload pics.

The group taking a break mid-mountain. I'm in blue second from right.