jfeiro
11-20-2011, 12:23 PM
At 20,320 feet, Mt. McKinley can be harsh and unforgiving any time of year. In winter it can be downright brutal: Long hours of darkness, subzero temperatures, hurricane-force winds.
After 22 days alone on McKinley last winter, Grand Marais adventurer Lonnie Dupre doubted he would return. But now he says he will.
“A little time passes and you forget the hardships,” he said, laughing.
Dupre, 50, will return to Alaska next month for a second attempt to become the first solo climber to summit North America’s highest mountain during January.
“Now that I’ve been up the route in winter I got a lot of questions answered,” he said. “The chances of success are always much better on the second go-around. Of course, everything is weather-dependent.”
Last winter’s ascent ended after a storm pinned Dupre down in high camp at 17,200 feet for several days. After last winter’s experiences with bad weather, he decided to be flown onto McKinley (also known as Denali) at least two weeks earlier this year.
“Even though it’s darker, I believe the weather is more stable at that time,” he said.
Not much light
If all goes as planned, Dupre will be dropped at 7,200 feet on Dec. 21 — the shortest day of the year.
“It’s going to be cold,” said climbing guide Vern Tejas. “But the dark is what is really overwhelming. I’m thinking he’ll have about four, maybe five usable twilight hours then. The rest of the time he’ll be working in the dark. To me that is the biggest challenge. That is why I pushed my climb out to the middle of February.”
Tejas has reached McKinley’s summit 50 times — including the first successful solo winter climb in February-March 1988. Japanese climber Naomi Uemura had reached the summit solo on Feb. 12, 1984. But he vanished on the descent.
Uemura is one of six climbers who have died on the nine winter expeditions that reached McKinley’s summit. A three-member Russian team put two climbers on the summit in January 1998 — the only time climbers have summitted in January.
“I think he is playing a finer game,” Tejas said of Dupre. “He’s definitely trying to bite down on the hardest time of the year to do it. It’s been done midwinter by a team of Russians, but no one has been ballsy enough to challenge it in that time frame. It’s going to be tough.”
“If you have climbed it in the summertime and seen 40 below, you can imagine where it is going to go in the wintertime,” he said.
Temperatures could drop to 80 below at 20,000 feet, Tejas said. Windchills could easily be 100 below or lower.
Add to that the dangers of crevasses, cliffs, rock falls, avalanches and altitude. The thin air at 17,000 feet holds only about half the oxygen that is available at sea level.
To prepare physically for the trip, Dupre has run daily and put in a lot of miles carrying a 50-pound pack. He’s on his way to Colorado to snowshoe up and down 13,000- and 14,000-foot peaks for two and a half weeks.
“That will get me acclimatized just prior to the mountain,” he said.
He’ll travel to Talkeetna, Alaska, on Dec. 14 and continue to train and prepare his equipment until he is flown to McKinley’s base camp.
In addition to an earlier start, Dupre has fine-tuned his food and equipment, reducing his load from 150 to 110 pounds. He’ll cache food and supplies in snow caves he’ll build as he ascends the mountain.
Shortcut planned
Dupre also has planned a shortcut on the final climb from high camp to Denali’s 20,320-foot summit.
The regular route above 17,200 feet starts with a traverse to the left. After reaching Denali Pass at 18,200 feet, the route turns right to follow a ridgeline up to a relatively flat area before the final summit ridge.
Dupre plans to cut the Denali Pass corner, using two ice axes to climb a steeper slope above high camp directly to the ridge.
“It is much safer going up a steeper slope double ice-axing, I believe, and is going to cut off about two hours of travel time, which is critical when you only have six hours of daylight,” he said.
Dupre figures it will take him 12 hours to go from high camp to summit and back. He plans on ascending largely in the dark, saving daylight to negotiate the descent of the ridges and the traverse down from Denali Pass.
“Ideally I would like to summit on full moon, which is Jan. 9, but that is going to be if the weather conditions are ideal, and of course that probably won’t happen,” he said.
“I wish him all the luck in the world,” Tejas said. “I’ve met him; I think he is a man of integrity and great skill. He’s a smart guy; he doesn’t have a death wish. I would like to see him do it. It would be fabulous to see if man can push that hard in those kinds of conditions.”
Tags: outdoors (http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/tag/tag/outdoors/)ll
After 22 days alone on McKinley last winter, Grand Marais adventurer Lonnie Dupre doubted he would return. But now he says he will.
“A little time passes and you forget the hardships,” he said, laughing.
Dupre, 50, will return to Alaska next month for a second attempt to become the first solo climber to summit North America’s highest mountain during January.
“Now that I’ve been up the route in winter I got a lot of questions answered,” he said. “The chances of success are always much better on the second go-around. Of course, everything is weather-dependent.”
Last winter’s ascent ended after a storm pinned Dupre down in high camp at 17,200 feet for several days. After last winter’s experiences with bad weather, he decided to be flown onto McKinley (also known as Denali) at least two weeks earlier this year.
“Even though it’s darker, I believe the weather is more stable at that time,” he said.
Not much light
If all goes as planned, Dupre will be dropped at 7,200 feet on Dec. 21 — the shortest day of the year.
“It’s going to be cold,” said climbing guide Vern Tejas. “But the dark is what is really overwhelming. I’m thinking he’ll have about four, maybe five usable twilight hours then. The rest of the time he’ll be working in the dark. To me that is the biggest challenge. That is why I pushed my climb out to the middle of February.”
Tejas has reached McKinley’s summit 50 times — including the first successful solo winter climb in February-March 1988. Japanese climber Naomi Uemura had reached the summit solo on Feb. 12, 1984. But he vanished on the descent.
Uemura is one of six climbers who have died on the nine winter expeditions that reached McKinley’s summit. A three-member Russian team put two climbers on the summit in January 1998 — the only time climbers have summitted in January.
“I think he is playing a finer game,” Tejas said of Dupre. “He’s definitely trying to bite down on the hardest time of the year to do it. It’s been done midwinter by a team of Russians, but no one has been ballsy enough to challenge it in that time frame. It’s going to be tough.”
“If you have climbed it in the summertime and seen 40 below, you can imagine where it is going to go in the wintertime,” he said.
Temperatures could drop to 80 below at 20,000 feet, Tejas said. Windchills could easily be 100 below or lower.
Add to that the dangers of crevasses, cliffs, rock falls, avalanches and altitude. The thin air at 17,000 feet holds only about half the oxygen that is available at sea level.
To prepare physically for the trip, Dupre has run daily and put in a lot of miles carrying a 50-pound pack. He’s on his way to Colorado to snowshoe up and down 13,000- and 14,000-foot peaks for two and a half weeks.
“That will get me acclimatized just prior to the mountain,” he said.
He’ll travel to Talkeetna, Alaska, on Dec. 14 and continue to train and prepare his equipment until he is flown to McKinley’s base camp.
In addition to an earlier start, Dupre has fine-tuned his food and equipment, reducing his load from 150 to 110 pounds. He’ll cache food and supplies in snow caves he’ll build as he ascends the mountain.
Shortcut planned
Dupre also has planned a shortcut on the final climb from high camp to Denali’s 20,320-foot summit.
The regular route above 17,200 feet starts with a traverse to the left. After reaching Denali Pass at 18,200 feet, the route turns right to follow a ridgeline up to a relatively flat area before the final summit ridge.
Dupre plans to cut the Denali Pass corner, using two ice axes to climb a steeper slope above high camp directly to the ridge.
“It is much safer going up a steeper slope double ice-axing, I believe, and is going to cut off about two hours of travel time, which is critical when you only have six hours of daylight,” he said.
Dupre figures it will take him 12 hours to go from high camp to summit and back. He plans on ascending largely in the dark, saving daylight to negotiate the descent of the ridges and the traverse down from Denali Pass.
“Ideally I would like to summit on full moon, which is Jan. 9, but that is going to be if the weather conditions are ideal, and of course that probably won’t happen,” he said.
“I wish him all the luck in the world,” Tejas said. “I’ve met him; I think he is a man of integrity and great skill. He’s a smart guy; he doesn’t have a death wish. I would like to see him do it. It would be fabulous to see if man can push that hard in those kinds of conditions.”
Tags: outdoors (http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/tag/tag/outdoors/)ll