Over the past 19 days I had the pleasure of guiding a group of climbers to the summit of the highest mountain in North America, Denali (aka McKinley). The climbers braved the extreme cold of a high peak so close to the arctic circle as well as the extreme heat from the sun's reflection off the snow.
The team hauled sleds up the glacier to 14,200' and then clipped into the fixed lines to ascend to high camp at 17,200', the staging area for the summit bid. We enjoyed relatively good weather through our carrying and caching supplies up the mountain and moving our camp.
By the time we were in position to summit the good weather had lasted an eerily long time. We knew it could not hold forever. Weather reports predicted a prolonged storm on its way. Fearing the closing of our weather window we made our summit bid the day after arriving at high camp. The weather was terrific and we enjoyed pleasant temps with little wind on the summit.
The drama was not over. We made our descent to 14,200' and rested for a day before hiking to base camp through the night. We were running ahead of a ghost storm that could materialize any moment and pin us down. we spent one night at base camp before the incredible pilots at Talkeetna Air Taxi snuck us out of the mountains through a tiny gap in the weather and landed us to steaks and beer in Talkeetna.
Congratulations Alp 4: Team Blueberry on our summit of Denali!
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