Climbing Denali 2007

Training

Training consisted of a routine working out four to five days a week with durations lasting up to several hours.

Denali requires specialized gear for traversing glaciers and high altitude climbing in subzero temperatures. Clothing basically consists of four layers. The first layer is the base layer which is a material that wicks perspiration away and dries quickly. The second layer is a thermal layer of long underwear made from wool or capilene. It too has the same qualities of the base layer, but with added warmth. Protecting us from wind and other elements is the shell layer made of a Gor-Tex material. This is the work horse of all the layers and worn much of the time. A final layer that is worn on extremely cold days or nights, and especially for summit day is the puffy down layer. We will be wearing a chest and waist harness, either tethered onto each other or attached to fixed rope higher on the mountain. Each of us will have various climbing hardware such as carabiners, tiblocs, and Petzl ascenders to assist our climb. On the lower part of the mountain we will use snowshoes and poles for glacier travel, and crampons with an ice axe when it becomes steeper.

General Info

Located near the Arctic Circle, Denali can experience some extreme weather patterns. Denali is 20,320 feet making it the highest mountain in North America.

SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 2007

On the Mountain...."click to ask questions or get updated info via our satellite phone"

Team Members

Don Adams, USA
Wes Lemberg, USA
Larry Legault, USA
Paul Shippey, USA
Jesus Mena, Spain
Sofia Tvaradze, Russia
Dave Goddard, UK
Bill Colson, UK

Guides

Heidi Kloos, USA
Rob Durnell, USA
Pablo Puruncajas, Ecuador

TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007

May 1, 2007 - UPDATE

Valorie and Wendy are back from their trip to Alaska and it is time to update everyone on the status of Don and Wes' trek up Denali. Valorie and I were fortunate to be able to scout out base camp for the guys. We booked a flightseeing tour out of Talkeetna on Sunday. We went up as "cargo handlers" with three climbers to base camp. This is very rare for the average tourist to do. We were able to land on the Kalhitna Glacier where base camp is located. It is a very beautiful spot about 7,000 to 7,500 feet high. It is surrounded by mountains including Mt. Foraker and Mt. Hunter. It was a very sunny day up there and cold. It was 15 degrees when we were there. The base camp was just being set up on the day we went up (Sunday). There were more park rangers than climbers at base camp on that day. We were lucky to even be able to fly that day. The planes and climbers had been grounded the previous three days because of weather. We also went to the ranger station in Talkeetna and as of Sunday, April 29th, there were 1,035 registered climbers for the 2007 climbing season, 18 on the mountain at that time (including park rangers), and 2 climbers from Italy had already summited the previous week. The summit success rate was 100% as of that day - the Italians were the only ones that have tried to summit so far.

Wes and Don left for Talkeetna on Monday, April 30th. We were able to meet the group of climbers and their guides. It looks like a good group of people. They were to drive to Talkeetna on Monday and see if they could fly out to base camp that same day. They called us at 8:45 pm Monday night and let us know that they had made it to base camp! They had arrived at base camp at 4 pm. They said they saw three bears running along as they were flying in. They also said it was minus 10 degrees that night. They were wearing all of their clothes and were in their sleeping bags and still were cold. Wes mentioned that they were going to do some crevasse safety training on Tuesday morning.

Hopefully we will get more updates from Wes and Don and will be able to fill you in, too! It is so cold up there that the satellite phone froze so we can only get updates when the phone is working! More later!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2007

May 2, 2007 - UPDATE

A very short update today. As of Tuesday, May 1, Don and Wes were still at base camp. They had to spend the day there getting oriented to crevasse safety and sled techniques. They are supposed to move up to the next camp today (Wednesday).

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007

May 3, 2007 - UPDATE

Yesterday (Wednesday) the group climbed from base camp to Base Camp I. The elevation is 7,800 feet. The excitement of the day was that Wes fell into a crevasse up to his waist. Another member of the group fell into a crevasse up to his chest. Both were pulled up and are uninjured. After that the group put on their snowshoes to continue the trek up to Base Camp I. The weather was overcast with light snow flurries. The team may continue on to Camp II today depending on how they all feel. The updates are short as we only have about 40 seconds to talk before the phone cuts out.