Team Dom Denali Attempt Day by Day

[TMax]

WOW!
Fantastically written. Amazing job everyone. TEAMWORK!

 

[Jason Berard]

Really Great Trip Report!!!! Excellent Teamwork! Way to go you all!
Glad you all made it back safely most of all!!

 

[MichaelJ]

Incredible. Amazing. Wow. So glad you all got back safely!

 

[una_dogger]

Awesome! Amazing!
I can't imagine what it must be like to be at nearly 20k in a whiteout!
Great teamwork, indeed!

 

[Cath]

This is better than a mini-series ~
Especially since there is SNOW involved
Man, could have used some of that arctic blast last week here in the East
Hope no one in the crew suffered any lasting cold injuries.

 

[LenDawg]

Wow... I love the series of events. Great job by everyone.

 

[RoySwkr]

If I recall correctly, Frodo & co skipped the 17k camp last time. Any particular reason you used a different plan this time?

 

[Snowflea]

I'll chime in here and answer Roy's question since Mats is probably out doing a hut traverse or something...

It's because no one wanted to do the 20+ hour death march from 14 camp -- it is a very, very long day at high altitude and includes climbing the fixed ropes, traversing the exposed 16 ridge, and ascending/descending Denali Pass...

We had a *wicked awesome* trip!! I can't think of seven nicer people to have attempted this with. Thanks especially to Frodo for putting it all together!!

Great job with the reports, Mats!

Sue
www.runsuerun.blogspot.com (for a bit of my perspective)

PS: Congratulations to Lloyd/Hamtero, who is a father of a son as of early this morning!!

 

[Dave Bear]

Awesome TR, side summaries and excellent pictures everyone! Glad you folks put a team together that kept things in perspective, enjoyed the mountain, each others company and kept everyone safe! Surely a time none of you will ever forget and certainly one that will live long in all of your fan clubs memories!

Lloyd, That's one very awesome way to celebrate a Father's Day! Took a wild June ride in a jeep on a rough trail trying to get my wife's labor started 19 years ago but my son didn't come 'til the 22nd. Congrats on the trip and your son!

 

[leaf]

Ok, I'm all caught up now. Being in a whiteout is like being inside a ping pong ball. When we became completely socked in at camp, you'd walk to the perimeter of the tents, and without anyone in front of you for reference, you literally can't even tell up from down, nevermind right from left. The cloud and the snow is one giant white mass in front of you. I couldn't believe it, and never experienced anything like that before. And I was at 7,200..

 

[Mats Roing]

Back from VT now.....most of you are probably doing projects up north today......

Tuesday June 3rd

Since we didn't return to high camp until 2:30am or so it was quiet in camp until close to lunch time. The advantage of going from 14K is obviously that you don't need to deal with the wind, less air and bitter cold at 17K camp. Not that it's tropical and windfree at 14K either, but it's clearly better life than 17K. You do acclimatize better at 17K though and it's not many people who can pull off a summit bid from 14K. Reinhold Messner and Frodo are the types of people who can pull it off. It increases your summit chance dramatically if you start from 17K. You have less variables to deal with when starting from 17K - less things which can go wrong.

The tired party ddn't start to get moving down until after 3pm, it might have been closer to 4 actually. Our packs were heavy since we double-carried up and and now carrying everything with us down in one go. The wind had calmed down a bit which is good when walking on the balance beams on the narrow ridge going down to the fixed ropes. Jeff, Garett, Sue and Lloyd decided to rope up. Frodo, Arm, Rob and I went ropeless. Visibility wasn't great as usual up here......which might not be a bad thing when you have to concentrate on the steps before you.

The quads had to work hard on the downhill with 70-80 lbs in it. Rob and I rounded Washburns Thumb and were soon down by our 16.4K cache were we burried a rope, shovel and some smaller stuff. We split it between the two of us so the other ones which were behind us didn't have to deal with it. While we dug up the cache and sorted stuff, a climbing party was sitting a little bit further down. It was the sickclimber who was short-roped above 19,000 feet on summit day. He didn't look good now either.

One last steep section before the fixed ropes and we went through a little rocky section in the middle of it and came out below to see Park Rangers Todd and Kristen in action. Kristen saw me and said "Hi Mats!". They explained a dude had fallen from the ridge onto the glacier below. There were three rangers down by fallen climber and three rangers up here. Forgot the name of the third one. We asked if we could help out. First they said "no". Then Todd, the shorter of the rangers, said "you could help me to pull up the rope here". So Todd, Rob and I started to pull the orange rope. We quickly figured out that it was enough with one person pulling the 600 foot rope. They wanted to re-anchor it at the low point of the col. Todd told the tall ranger that he needed to put in four pickets for an anchor. Nose-ring decorated ranger Kristen rapped down to the rescue team below at this point.

Since Rob and I weren't needed any longer we looked up towards the ridge to see if Arm and Frodo was coming down. By now the sick dude and his party had jumped on the fixed ropes. We figured, that party is going down really slow.......so we waited another 20 minutes to let them go down a bit. No fun waiting in the middle of a fixed rope. And maybe the rangers would need us again. It so happened that Frodo and Arm later would help them out as well. Frodo donated two pickets and Arm was also involved on the rope.

Prussiked down the fixed rope slowly with many breaks since the party in fornt of us took many breaks. We were sure Arm and frodo would catch up with us. We met another ranger huffin and puffin going up the fixed rope to help his mates. Another litter sled was left by the rangers on the "balcony" at 15,300 feet. They couldn't use a helicopter due to the weather. Even going down the headwall seems to tak forever. Rob and I frequently looked back to see if anyone else was coming. Finally we came down to the camp at 14K and we dropped our packs by the cache at our old camp. A Ukrainian team had taken possesion of it. "DOM" was still the logo over the kitchen. We explained to them the story behind it. They offered us hot tea and we were psyched since we were dehydrated. They were six hardcore looking Soviet-style dudes and a beautiful 25 year-old woman named Tanya. She spoke the best English so Rob and i talked mostly with her. She even offered us to stay in one of their tents. An offer we actually declined. High time for us to look for campsites for us in case we didn't wan't to continue to the 11K camp. It was 7pm by now and I was guessing people were getting tired coming down since there were no sign of other team members yet. The best we could do was to prep sites and start brewing water.

We found two isites close-by which all needed some work. One could fit two tents and the other one tent. We didn't want to set up camp until we knew we were going to stay there. We started leveling out the floors and got snow to melt outside of camp. Rob ran into a dude from Kazachstan who had summited 11 of the 14 8,000-meter peaks. After a while Arm comes down the slope. By now we had developed a feeling for whom different climbers are from a distance. Frodo is easy to figure since his pack is at least two feet taller than himself. Frodo came down a bit later. Frodo wants to go down to 11K camp tonight, but we can't go until the other four are here and we couldn't see them yet. It was 9pm by now and started to prep camp for the night. I went to level Arm's and Garett's tent platform so Arm could get the stove going. Frodo was working on leveling their tent platform. Rob was carrying stuff from the cache to our sites.

First we saw the rangers ski down the injured climber in a litter sled down the headwall. That takes some skill! Then we saw four dots coming down the ropes and the rest of the headwall. It was after 10pm now and we were psyched to be all down in 14K camp together.

Garett got a mild frostbite area on his left cheek yesterday. Lloyd showed me white blisters on his fingertips.....also mild frostbite.

We ate and hydrated a bit after midnight I think. Jeff was up particularly late prepping his meal before hitting the sleeping bag.
The goal for tomorrow is to get down as far as possible.....maybe all the way to the airstrip.....tomorrow night we might see trees, drink beer and eat pizza

But first we have to haul 100 lbs backpacks to 11.2 camp.....

 

[Mats Roing]

Wednesday June 4th

It was beautiful sunshine today at the 14K camp. Went to get more snow to brew. We were enjoying not to have to use the green buckets. Exchanged contact info with the Ukrainian team and gave them some leftover food. An Alpine Ascent guide went around with a sled of free food, it's pretty common practice to do that at this camp. My frozen organic carrots went with me to the crap crevasse......I just didn't chew them a whole bunch

Some team had actually brought a mini-keg up to 14K camp. I wonder how they kept it from freezing.....

It was after 3pm before getting going again. I was the late dude since couldn't fit all stuff on the pack....finally I just strapped my duffelbag on the outside of the pack.....everyone had really fat packs today...we were looking forward to dump a chunk of it on the sleds 3,000 feet further down

Frodo's team had started a bit earlier and we saw them after Windy Corner on the flats and next time we saw them down at 11K where they had already dug out the cache. It was slow steady going downhill.....not many words spoken.....just hoped the knees would take the abuse.....met a team of 9 Norwegians coming up. Stopped and talked to them shortly.

Big Relief to put the giant duffel on the sled.....hydrated some more before taking off......there are two ways to go downhill with a sled. You can have it behind you with a prussik on the rope to keep it from hitting your heels or you can have it in front of you. Arm was behind me on the rope and and I pulled mine behind and Arm pushed his ahead.......this ended up being conflicting tecniques and we had some issues going down. Once at 7,800 feet where flatter Arm put his sled behind and it was fine.

The dreadfull hill coming up to 11K camp went by in a breeze going down. We caugh up with Frodo's team shortly before the 9,800 camp. Coming down seeing th Kahiltna Glacier from above was amazing. We took many photographs between adjusting the sleds. The skihill down to 7,800 camp was slanting also which made it difficult with the sleds. Met Steve House and companion coming up ski hill. It was Jeff Stone who recognized him. Steve put up the first direct route up the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat among other things. He and Vince Anderson won the Piolet Award in 2006 for that feat:
http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org/News_SteveHouse_RupalFace.htm

Took a break by the 7,800 camp and talked to a guided group camped there. Frodo's rope team had once again taken off. We tried to figure out the shelters we used there on the way up. Difficult to see since they had snowed in a bunch. We were very happy to be heading for the airstrip! Once we get there, no more carrying fat loads up and down the mountain!. The sunset was beautiful and soon came the fog so we couldn't see Frodo's team in front any longer. We kept trucking.......drank the last water........it was warm.....above freezing.....that was strange.....the feeling of thawing snow.....almost forgot how that feels.....

The fog disappeared and we could see the rcok outcrop where we take the left turn back up the last 600 vertical feet to the airstrip/basecamp. We saw four tiny dots linked together down at the low point at 6,600 feet. Oh boy did we enjoy breathing here or what

We saw four Mountain Hardwear tents camped together a little before the col. Maybe that's where Leaf was going to have her HQ during her 6 days on the glacier with Alpine Ascents.

We gained fast on Frodo's rope now since they were going uphill and we were still going down. At the col Jeff put his sled behind him as well. And the last push up the hill began......it felt hard and I recognized every 10 feet gain on my altimeter. occasioanlly we caught glimpses of Frodo's team ahead. It was good to see the airstrip flags showing up on our right.....and we went over a littleridge and 100 feet ahead were the camp! It was after 11pm and we were tired but happy......we found some tent sites and started to set camp. Arm, Garett, Frodo and Sue were blasting music and celebrated all night long. Jeff, Rob and I finished a Jagermeister bottle and Rob started to fry sardines and mushrooms which we put on pita bread......oh boy, was that ever good!

We were hoping for good weather tomorrow so we could get back to Talkeetna.......and some stuff we hadn't experienced for a while.....like beer.....and schampoing the hair......

Stay tuned....

 

[Mats Roing]

Thursday June 5th

Snowing and foggy in the morning when waking up......no rush to break camp since no airplane would fly here in those conditions......Arm and Garett had been partying all night and now started to play songs about sunshine and good weather I went to see them in the morning and Garett had a big Garfield cartoon smile on his face

We kept melting snow for water and breakfast.......and it stopped snowing....and we could see Mt Foraker's 10,000 foot face and the other vertical walls around except for upglacier where fog still abided. Arm's music seemed to have worked.....we see an old man with canes hovering about camp. Seems like he has a guide with him....or maybe his son. I start to get my sleeping bag rolled up just in case.

Frodo returned the white gas containers. Soon the ranger comes and says we should get ready to leave in 30 min. We were first in line. We all put in 5th gear and start to pull our stuff the might 100 feet to the airstrip. First a plane with tourists comes out. They want to have pictures with climbers. I think Frodo became the favorite of one older couple. There was one spot on this plane and Sue got on......one team member off.....looked like they took a detour towards Denali....

Lloyd, Frodo, Jeff and Arm went next.....their pilot was saying "we gonna try to take off although the sticky snow might force us to do another try if we can't take off the first time"....very re-assurning!......and Rob, Garett and I went in the last plane......plane was heading into this mountainwall it looked like and it was surrounded by clouds......we're in the clouds.....suddenly the mountain wall is really close and the pilot make a 90 degree turn and gets through a pass.....and we can see trees in the distance.......a beautiful end morain shows up underneath.....more trees.....beautiful endless pine forests with meadows....and the Talkeetna airstrip shows up and we are on the ground....I ask the pilot how many times he flew.....he says "that was my second time" and smiles....

We gather our stuff by the shed we left our "civilized" bags at and Frodo and a few others takes a shuttle to the ranger station in Talkeetna to give them our report and return the green buckets. Me and some others takes a shuttle to the Swiss Motel where we had booked rooms. When checking in, Frodo et al showed up. We got settled in and decided to hit town at 7......a bit over an hour to take showers and put clean clothes on......schampoed the hair three times Arm went to town before showering in order to catch the gift stores before they closed. The rest of us gathered at 7 and took a short-cut through the woods....Garett knows Talkeetna well.....

Arm was already hanging at the bar at West Rib Bar......the first NBA final was in the 4th quarter and it looked like Celtics were on top. I think our team stood for a pretty high % of their beer sales that day. The majestic Denali burger and nachos with the works tasted awesome! The Hong Kong team came in....we nicknamed them "Team Rackoon" since their faces looked what they did. I went over to talk to them and they all summited same day as we did our summit bid. They had started a few hours earlier it seemed. I offered to buy them a pitcher but they had too much already they said.

Next we went to Fairview Inn and got a round table in the middle. All these bars and restaurant have very interesting photos from bygone days. A visit to the restroom usually takes a while since so much to look at. After a few rounds at Fairview Inn Frodo said there is a bar down the street called "Latitude". We hiked for a while to get there. It was a great place and lots of people. We had a great time here although Sue spiced up my beer with pepper and salt . Once outside of the bar some of the dudes started to do sprints down the road......not sure why......lloyd decided to call it quits at this time.....after midnight....I walked home with him while the others took a second shot at Fairview Inn. After i dropped lloyd off I tried to do the same short-cut as we did earlier.....it was a bit darker now and a few beers later.....must have taken a wrong turn at some point......didn't recognize the road i came upon......followed it for a while.....but dead end.....went back and took another intersection....tried to be systematic about my turns and make it back to the motel.....didn't work either.....text messaged Frodo and Sue....no answer......text messaged Leaf who might be in Talkeetna by now.....she responds....... hear some music through the woods and I find a small trail which goes in that direction. Leaf and I decide to meet at Fairview Inn......I eventually come upon the railroad tracks....I follow them south until I hit downtown Talkeetna......it's now after 2am......was gone in the woods for at least 1 1/2 hours.

I meet Leaf and it's great to see her and we hit the bar which is now hopping. Frodo and co had gone home by now. After a few beers by the bar I walk her back to her hostel. We pass by Talkeetna Air taxi HQ on the way and decide to go and weigh ourselves on their scales.....and we run into these Mountain Trip (one of the four authorized guide services on Denali) guides. Never figured out what they were doing there but we talk to them for a while and someone get the great idea of piggyback racing. We move up to the airstrip and draw lines on the ground. The ladies jump on our backs and we decided to do best of three. It's a draw after the first two races and they won the decisive one. For some reason we go to the Swiss Motel next and wake up Rob and we talk to him for a while. Then we knock on Garett and Arm's door and Garett opens and I ask if he has any Jagermeister. Apparantly he never got to sleep after that. It's after 4am now. Then I walked lLeaf home before returning to the Swiss Motel.....no attempts to short-cuts this time

Friday June 6th

We had our taxi to Anchorage booked at 10:45am.....Rob and I woke up at 10:30.....I guess it's time to start packing! The room looked like a battlefield.....somehow managed to get out of there in 15.....Rob decided to stay.....Leaf came there and helped out also. The Hong Kong people were also going with us as well as the injured Canadian Claude who fell and got rescued from the rangers. Frodo had a long conversation with him but didn't hear any of it since I was in the way back of the van. The female driver drove like she was in the movie Death Race 2000 (Sylvester Stallone et al...1975). I think we made it to Anchorage Airport in an hour or so.....

When I had booked a flight for tonight, Chinoktrail showed up! She just arrived to the airport. She and Arm rented cars and we jumped in and went to Pizza Olympia.....Team Rackoon suddenly shows up on the other side of the street....we wave to each other and smile. Very nice pizza place.....had a great meal in even better company! I was running a little late there since I had to return the solar cell panel (which cracked) across the street. The solar cell dude had a couple of native americans from Utah there and they invited me for pizza with them. Had one slice before I ran back to Olympia Pizza. Great pizza as well.....next stop was for Coldstone Ice cream. Only one of our cars found the place and next time we met at the airport where we said good-bye and Jeff and I took off to Northwest check-in and others elsewhere. Some stayed in Anchorage for a few more days. Didn't have to pay fees for my 66 and 53 lbs bags

Bye to Alaska for this time......I have a feeling some of us will be back.....

Thanks all team members for a wonderful trip!

Frodo for President! That's real leadership there......

Dom's axe and Charles' father's pipe were carried to above 6,000 meters. I think they are both happy we didn't carry them further. However I have a feeling some of us might get higher up somewhere in the next couple of years......the Gasherbrums in Pakistan perhaps......

I'm glad you enjoyed the reading

Mats

 

[drewski]

knife??

what about the knife???

 

[Steve-o]

Great report(s) Mats!
Felt like I was there.

Tell me, did you find the pemi-loop to be somewhat of a joke after your return? Light pack and lots of AIR! ahh......

 

[Mats Roing]

Ok, Drewski......I cleaned the knife and had it in my pocket to give you at the finish line.....just forgot about it....... (borrowed Drewski's knife at Pittsfield Peaks Ultra yesterday to cut bananas and oranges when helping out an an aid station)

The Pemi-lopp a week ago went well except running out of water on Franconia Ridge on the home stretch......nice thick air otherwise

Leaf and I just have to practice piggy back riding more before heading to Alaska again

 

[DougPaul]

Mats--thanks for the reports. They were enjoyable reading. And sounds like all had a good time.

Doug

 

[leaf]

Leaf and I just have to practice piggy back riding more before heading to Alaska again

Yeah! I think with enough practice we can get into the Semi-Finals!

 

[Tim Seaver]

Glad to hear everyone made it back in good spirits. Great storytelling as usual, Mats!

 

[giggy]

yea - this trip looked and sounded like the balls...

welcome home!