I attempted to climb Denali this year. My expedition turned back

Timestamp or gtfo

when?
which route?
how many people?
how much did it cost?
how much did you carry and how much was portered in?
what previous mountaineering experience do you have?

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>>1029436
>when?
Started early May, was out for a little less than 3 weeks. Early season. Here's the NPS stats after we left the mountain. Of the 20 people who summitted by that time, over half suffered from frostbite.

>which route?
West Buttress

>how many people?
8 in our team, two ropes of 4.

>how much did it cost?
Around $10k CAD, after US exchange rate.

>how much did you carry and how much was portered in?
Carries were shared equally. Was about 140lbs of stuff per person at the start (everything has to be weighed before loading the airplanes to fly in). Loads got a bit lighter going up, but was still probably about 60lbs going up to high camp.

>what previous mountaineering experience do you have?
My technical experience was limited to a few small climbs around the Canadian rockies, as well as a 12-day mountaineering skills course that I also did in Alaska previously. I have lots of experience winter camping and snowshoeing in the Canadian rockies, which is most of what you need on a route like the West Buttress.

>>1029447
>climbers on mountain
>458
fuck that. i'll stick with my 12-13ers that my partner and i have all to ourselves.

plus i hate being cold. lol.

Neat, post pictures of your gear anon.

>all that weight
My back already hurts.

You must be in an hell of a shape son.

>>1029471
>all that weight
eh, anon was farther from the center of the earth, so it weighed less.

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>>1029471
I don't really have much for gear photos, I'd have to take some. Here's some of our camp, packs and sled bags at the base camp airstrip.

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>>1029471
>>1029479
Here's packs loaded descending from high camp.

That's amazing OP, will you go back to try and summit it in the future?

Also post more pics.

>>1029481
>>1029479
thanks for the photos, breddy cool.

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>>1029576
I haven't sorted through all my photos yet, but I will post some as I go. I'm also putting together a new computer right now / reinstalling windows, so that will delay me a bit.

I may go back again, but I don't have any immediate plans and even if I do it will likely not be in a commercial expedition. This was my first time on such an expedition and the style of climbing and cost are not ideal for me. I would be much happier having one or two decent people to climb with alpine style.

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Base camp airstrip.

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NPS flying supplies to their 14,000ft camp.

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Traveling on the Kahiltna glacier.

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Whiteout conditions. It's fascinating to experience the ground and sky literally all becoming the exact same color.

Is it true that lots of people quit on the first day?

How much physical training did you do?

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>>1030081
Everyone in my group made it through the whole trip, but our guides did tell stories of lots of people quitting quite early, typically within the first few days. It's a pain in the ass for guides since they often have to climb back down with the client, then climb back up again to rejoin the rest of the team. Sometimes they had to do this multiple times on a single trip.

Personally I found the first day extremely hard because we had to move with absolutely all our gear; around 140lb per person as I had said. At the end of the first day, I was seriously questioning whether I was fit enough to actually handle it, but things smoothed out quickly and I didn't have any real trouble for the rest of the trip.

I keep relatively fit normally, but I did about 6 months of training specifically with Denali in mind. My average routine over that time was 6 workouts per week. Each week I would do weights, weights, running, weights, weights, running, rest. My weights workouts were all high intensity to help improve both strength and cardiovascular capacity, and then my runs were just low intensity endurance training. I trained on lots of consecutive days to help condition my body to recover quickly, since you have to do hard consecutive days on the mountain. Overall this worked well for me and I certainly felt strong enough going up to high camp. I have no doubt that I was fit enough to be able to summit, had we the opportunity.

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Just below 11,000ft camp.

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>>1030204
Whoops, that was at 11k. This is just below 11k.

Beautiful pics OP

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Here's Mt. Foraker. It's hard not to take loads of pictures of it because it is massive and right next to Denali.

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This is one of the few pictures I have that does a decent job of expressing the massive scale out there.

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Mt. Foraker from 14,000ft.

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Mt. Hunter from 14,000ft.

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NPS evacuating a climber who collapsed at 14,000ft.

>>1029433
Awesome pictures. Sounds like an amazing experience.

Denali is at the top of the list of mountains I want to climb someday.

Jelly. Ill never make enough cash to do something like this.