"Because it's there."

Odd as it may sound , I started clmbing some forty + years ago ( in Wales) . I am now arthritic as hell , and would be a liability on any expedition. At the head of the thread you said you had been climbing for 10 years. The frightening thing is I have climbed ranges from Snowdonia and the Grampians , used the Brecons as a 'mild' cross country run, 'played' on most ranges in Europe, and climbed repeatedly in the Himal , yet you know far more about the technical side to climbing than I ever did or ever wiill

Sadly, I was , very much , a 'make a fist and if it fits carry on' type.
I may have to use Mallory as my excuse.

I think you have a better attitude than I ever did, with my concern for doing it "right" instead of just "getting up the fucking thing." Sounds like you have far greater experience, in any case.

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Jesus H Christ, look at those fucking crevasses. Holy shit.
 
The new hut on Snowbird Glacier. The metal siding and roofing isn't on yet, but the insulation and weather proofing fine for this winter. It's a 4 hour trek to the hut. There is no fee.

9_04_10_Work_Party_063_web_size.jpg



From the adn.com:

"It's free -- but it ain't easy.

Some 4,820 feet above sea level, on the northern edge of Snowbird Glacier, sits the new Snowbird Hut, acquired by the Alaska Section of the American Alpine Club in 2005 and rebuilt over the last two years.

"It'll be the best hut in Alaska," proclaimed backcountry guide Joe Stock of Anchorage. "There are nice thick walls full of insulation. It's perched up on a ridge where the view is incredible."

Want to spend a night?

Just show up; it's free. Admission is the sweat equity of the roughly four-hour hike.

"Back there," said Cindi Squire of the American Alpine Club, "you can't see people. It's an accomplishment to get there, and it's such a cool location that just begs to be explored."

Adds fellow club member Cory Hinds:

"It's just far enough out there, you don't get the beer-drinking weekend crowd."

While the hut's metal roof and sides won't be completed until next summer, the hut -- which comfortably sleeps six and can squeeze in twice that many -- is open now.

The view includes the glacier and a prominent nunatak.

CLIMB AND SKI

Accessible from Archangel Valley in Hatcher Pass, the hut is a year-round destination for backcountry skiers, climbers, and hikers.

Why go?

• Exceptional backcountry, telemark and alpine skiing

• As part of the classic Alaska hut-to-hut trek called the Bomber Traverse, which includes the Mint and Bomber huts

• Rock climbing on nearby Higher Spire and Lower Spire

• Multi-pitch rock routes on granite up the Because It's There Wall and the Independence Buttress

"It's one of those places you'd like to go out there and live," said Squire, who's acquired the title of Hut Mistress from the club for her summer-long work on the hut. "It just keeps getting nicer and nicer."

ROCKY FOUNDATION

Five years ago, the Alaska Section of the American Alpine Club bought the 30-year-old hut.

Long a haven for hikers, climbers and backcountry skiers in an area renown for unpredictable weather, one side of the original structure was collapsing from heavy snowfall.

"The deck is unfinished and rickety," noted the club's website, "and the entire structure shifts and groans when the occupants walk about inside."

Granite boulders weigh down the nine gabions measuring 1 cubic yard apiece that serve as the foundation for the vertical supports.

"Each one of those is 3,700 pounds," Squire said. "All we did for three days during the last work party was chuck rocks in wire mesh boxes."

All together, the gabions hold a dump truck full of material weighing more than 16 tons. Last Frontier Air Ventures in Sutton helicoptered building materials to the site.

"I've been in on every work party," Squire said. "It's amazing what we've got done in the first four or five months.

Avid hiker Michael Thompson, 58, of Rim Architects of Anchorage volunteered his time designing the new structure.

"The existing hut was a prefab unit that . . . didn't make the greatest efficiency of the use of space," he said.

"We were able to incorporate views all the way around the panorama of the new site as well as looking up the glacier. The site is beautiful; it's Alaskana at its best."

In addition to the finishing work next summer, $14,000 of the $40,000 budget remains to be raised. Wednesday's fund-raiser at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, an 8 p.m. showing of "Beauty and the Beast" featuring bouldering stars Angie Payne and Jason Kehl, will help.

A nicer hut could make the trip even more appealing.

"You're looking out on this fantastic glacier right below you," Hinds said. "And the new hut has even got a better view.""
 
The new hut on Snowbird Glacier. The metal siding and roofing isn't on yet, but the insulation and weather proofing fine for this winter. It's a 4 hour trek to the hut. There is no fee.

9_04_10_Work_Party_063_web_size.jpg



From the adn.com:

"It's free -- but it ain't easy.

Some 4,820 feet above sea level, on the northern edge of Snowbird Glacier, sits the new Snowbird Hut, acquired by the Alaska Section of the American Alpine Club in 2005 and rebuilt over the last two years.

"It'll be the best hut in Alaska," proclaimed backcountry guide Joe Stock of Anchorage. "There are nice thick walls full of insulation. It's perched up on a ridge where the view is incredible."

Want to spend a night?

Just show up; it's free. Admission is the sweat equity of the roughly four-hour hike.

"Back there," said Cindi Squire of the American Alpine Club, "you can't see people. It's an accomplishment to get there, and it's such a cool location that just begs to be explored."

Adds fellow club member Cory Hinds:

"It's just far enough out there, you don't get the beer-drinking weekend crowd."

While the hut's metal roof and sides won't be completed until next summer, the hut -- which comfortably sleeps six and can squeeze in twice that many -- is open now.

The view includes the glacier and a prominent nunatak.

CLIMB AND SKI

Accessible from Archangel Valley in Hatcher Pass, the hut is a year-round destination for backcountry skiers, climbers, and hikers.

Why go?

• Exceptional backcountry, telemark and alpine skiing

• As part of the classic Alaska hut-to-hut trek called the Bomber Traverse, which includes the Mint and Bomber huts

• Rock climbing on nearby Higher Spire and Lower Spire

• Multi-pitch rock routes on granite up the Because It's There Wall and the Independence Buttress

"It's one of those places you'd like to go out there and live," said Squire, who's acquired the title of Hut Mistress from the club for her summer-long work on the hut. "It just keeps getting nicer and nicer."

ROCKY FOUNDATION

Five years ago, the Alaska Section of the American Alpine Club bought the 30-year-old hut.

Long a haven for hikers, climbers and backcountry skiers in an area renown for unpredictable weather, one side of the original structure was collapsing from heavy snowfall.

"The deck is unfinished and rickety," noted the club's website, "and the entire structure shifts and groans when the occupants walk about inside."

Granite boulders weigh down the nine gabions measuring 1 cubic yard apiece that serve as the foundation for the vertical supports.

"Each one of those is 3,700 pounds," Squire said. "All we did for three days during the last work party was chuck rocks in wire mesh boxes."

All together, the gabions hold a dump truck full of material weighing more than 16 tons. Last Frontier Air Ventures in Sutton helicoptered building materials to the site.

"I've been in on every work party," Squire said. "It's amazing what we've got done in the first four or five months.

Avid hiker Michael Thompson, 58, of Rim Architects of Anchorage volunteered his time designing the new structure.

"The existing hut was a prefab unit that . . . didn't make the greatest efficiency of the use of space," he said.

"We were able to incorporate views all the way around the panorama of the new site as well as looking up the glacier. The site is beautiful; it's Alaskana at its best."

In addition to the finishing work next summer, $14,000 of the $40,000 budget remains to be raised. Wednesday's fund-raiser at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, an 8 p.m. showing of "Beauty and the Beast" featuring bouldering stars Angie Payne and Jason Kehl, will help.

A nicer hut could make the trip even more appealing.

"You're looking out on this fantastic glacier right below you," Hinds said. "And the new hut has even got a better view.""
God, that looks amazing. I'm going to have to spend at least a night or two there before I die.
Excellent. Fucking sea pigeons!

Ahahaha! "Throw me the idol and I'll throw you the whip!"
 
54 climbers summited Denali on Father's Day

Did someone bring beer?

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From the adn:

"Light wind and clouds that cleared briefly in the afternoon greeted Mount McKinley climbers on June 20. The sun was up by 3:33 a.m., leaving nearly 22 hours of daylight.

Fifty-four climbers seized the opportunity to reach the summit that Father's Day, according to the 2010 Mountaineering Summary issued this week by Denali National Park.

Dozens of peaks within easy reach of Anchorage residents wouldn't see nearly as many climbers that day. In fact, a few small Alaska villages don't have that many year-round residents.

"That's a sizeable number, it really is," said Coley Gentzel, acting lead mountaineering ranger at Denali National Park. "It tends to be a factor of weather more than anything else."

Altogether, 670 of the 1,223 climbers who attempted Mount McKinley this year reached the summit -- or 55 percent. That's slightly above normal. Since 1970, the most successful year for climbers was 1977 with 79 percent. The least successful year was 1971, with 29 percent.

Typically, slightly more than half the climbers summit. Over the past decade, the success rate has dipped below 50 percent once while topping out at 59 percent three times.

The overwhelming majority (1,136) of this year's climbers used the popular West Buttress route. Cassin Ridge was the second most popular route, with 24 climbers attempting it.

"I think there may have been a dropoff in what you might call the adventurous spirit," Gentzel said. "More and more people are trending towards the path of least resistance, with not a lot of new backcountry objectives."

Four climbers died, which is about the average, and 13 search-and- rescue efforts were launched during the season, which largely runs from April through early July.

U.S. climbers dominated -- with Americans outnumbering Brits, the No. 2 nation, by more than 10-to-one.

And Alaskans dominated the American crowd of climbers, with 146. Washington was second with 90 climbers and Colorado, with 83, was third.

But perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the Alaska Range climbing season didn't occur on McKinley, the tallest peak in North America at 20,320 feet.

"The largest new route of the season was climbed on Mount Foraker," said Maureen McLaughlin of the National Park Service.

Colin Haley of Seattle, one of 15 climber ambassadors for the outerwear company Patagonia, and partner Bjorn-Eivind Artun ascended a previously unclimbed route up the southeast side of 17,400-foot Mount Foraker, one of the biggest unclimbed faces remaining in the central Alaska Range. The duo was one of six winners of the 2010 Mugs Stump Award that goes to climbers attempting some of the world's most striking climbing objectives in a fast, light and clean style.

The difficult route included 10,400 feet of elevation gain up Foraker's southeast face June 13-15 after a wet week in base camp.

Altogether, the duo spent 37 days in the Alaska Range, reaching the summit of McKinley three times. On one of those ascents, up the Cassin Ridge, they nearly broke the 15-hour speed record set in 1991 by the late Mugs Stump. "

Also,

New Route Up Foraker
 
A letter to the editor in the ADN.com

Allow Denali to be wild

The National Park Service's assumption that their climbing program has made Denali safer is made in a vacuum. Everest is much safer now likely due to having more experienced climbers rather than government regulation. Everest is cleaner now as well without such help. This is true of most big mountains in the world.

The NPS Denali climbing program is too large to support itself and should be cut back to one employee to 300 visitors. The program adds little value and detracts from the pure mountain experience. We hate hearing the NPS resupply helicopter hovering overhead. Let's use common sense and not raise climbing fees. Reduce bloated government and allow Denali to be wild.

To the summit.

-- Vern Tejas

Talkeetna
 
From the ADN.com:

A Minnesota man known for his polar adventures got an extra day Wednesday to think about -- and fatten up for -- his quest to become the first person to make a solo ascent of Mount McKinley in the dead of winter.

A storm delayed Lonnie Dupre's plans to leave Talkeetna for the mountain. He said in a telephone interview that he'd use the time to shovel in more calories to fuel his body for a trek that is likely to last three or four weeks.

If the delay also fueled his anxiety over the high-risk climb, he wasn't letting on.

"It's good to have a little bit of nervousness going into it, because you always have that going into a project that's on the edge," Dupre, 49, said. "But once you get there and kind of get in tune with your environment, then you begin relaxing.

"... I'm not even thinking about the summit, actually. I'm just thinking about getting out there and doing some winter camping and moving my little legs in the right direction."

Dupre hopes to go where few men and no women have gone before: To the top of 20,320-foot McKinley in the winter.

To make things more interesting, he plans to go alone and in January -- something that only a few others have tried, none of them successfully.

Of the 16 people who have stood atop McKinley between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, only four made the trip alone, and the body of the first -- Japan's Naomi Uemura, who died on his descent -- remains somewhere on the mountain.

Only one team has reached the summit in January, when 5 1/2 hours is it for daylight -- Russians Artur Testov and Vladimir Ananich on Jan. 16, 1998. On March 8 of that same year, Japan's Masatoshi Kuriaki reached the summit to become the fourth man to make a solo winter ascent.

No one has successfully climbed North America's tallest peak in the winter since then, though there have been several attempts.

"We always seem to have anywhere from one to four or five people each winter," said Missy Smothers of the Denali Park Service. "It's exciting, but we always hold our breath."

And for good reason.

There are no rangers and no base camp operations on McKinley during the winter, when whiteouts, howling winds and deep snow make travel more treacherous than usual. Of the 16 who have summited in the winter, two died on their way down. Another four died on their way up, including a member of the expedition that put Dave Johnston, Art Davidson and Ray Genet on the summit in March 1967, marking the first winter ascent of the mountain.

Dupre, who lives in Grand Maraise, Minn., knew about some of Denali's winter history when he decided this summer, shortly after his first McKinley climb, to make a solo winter attempt.

"Actually, Naomi Uemura was an inspiration to me years ago because he was first a polar explorer," Dupre said. "I knew about his death on Mount McKinley back in 1989, and it's always been on mind -- Naomi and that mountain -- since 1989."

Dupre worked as a commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay from 1983-86, a period during which he spent the winter of 1985 by himself in the Brooks Range.

"That started everything rolling," he said. "I've been running around the Arctic and polar regions now for 25 years."

Dupre's resume is an impressive one. In 2006, he and Eric Larsen of Grand Marais traveled 600 miles from Canada to the North Pole, pulling and paddling canoes over shifting sea ice. In 2001 he and John Hoelscher of Australia became the first people to circumnavigate Greenland, dogsledding and kayaking the 6,517 miles in three stages. In the winter of 1991-92, he and Malcolm Vance of Shishmaref mushed 3,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Churchill, Manitoba. And in 1989, he was a member of the Bering Bridge Expedition that mushed and skied 1,000 miles along the Siberian and Alaska coasts.

"I love winter," Dupre said.

He knows how to travel, camp and survive in temperatures that plummet well below zero.

But he isn't a mountain climber.

"I did a little training prior to June and then came to Denali," Dupre said. "We had some basics of mountaineering, and we just decided to be cautious and take our time and we were successful. We made it to the summit in 13 days.

"... As I was traveling up the mountain, I started thinking maybe I should make an attempt to do Denali in the winter."

Along the way, Dupre met Vern Tejas, who in March 1988 became the first person to make a successful solo winter ascent of McKinley. Uemura made it to the top of Denali on his solo trip in February 1984, but because he died on his way down, his is not considered a "successful" ascent.

"I visited with Vern quite a bit on Denali last spring," Dupre said. "I picked his brain a little about snow caves and about the route."

Back in Minnesota after his climb, Dupre started planning a return trip to McKinley. He contacted Tejas and Testov, who may be Denali's most experienced winter climber, having made four attempts and succeeding once. Last March, Testov and partner Christine Feret spent 12 days trapped in a snow cave at 10,000 feet before turning back.

"We threw a bunch of information back and forth, and I think I've got a good game plan," Dupre said.

Dupre said he chose to climb in January not so much because he could make history with the first solo ascent in the dead of winter, but because he thinks he might get better weather than if he waited until February or March, when there is more daylight.

"I've done a lot of travel in the winter and the dark part doesn't bother me," he said. "When I did a little research, I learned there's a little less precipitation in January, which means less snow, which means better visibility."

He'll pull a sled packed with 175 pounds of gear and supplies up the popular West Buttress route. He said he has enough food and fuel to last 38 days, though he's hopeful he won't be on the mountain that long.

"My first goal is the 7,800 (foot) mark, which is before you start climbing up the glacier," Dupre said.

After that, his plan includes stops at 9,700 feet, 11,200 feet, 13,500 feet, 14,200 feet, 17,200 feet, "and then the summit," he said.
 
From the ADN.com:

A Minnesota man known for his polar adventures got an extra day Wednesday to think about -- and fatten up for -- his quest to become the first person to make a solo ascent of Mount McKinley in the dead of winter.


Along the way, Dupre met Vern Tejas, who in March 1988 became the first person to make a successful solo winter ascent of McKinley.



Wait...am I missing something?
 
It certainly is.



Na, he just wants another chance to freeze his balls off. And put his name in a record book.

Yeah, but can we just claim to be the first person to do something that was already done? From that link, Vern Tejas has already made a solo winter ascent; how can this other guy claim to be trying to make the first solo winter ascent?
 
Yeah, but can we just claim to be the first person to do something that was already done? From that link, Vern Tejas has already made a solo winter ascent; how can this other guy claim to be trying to make the first solo winter ascent?

first solo winter ascent in January..........:eyeroll:

A record book thing.

Kinda like: The record for longest consecutive terms of governor of New York by a left-handed millionaire?
 
first solo winter ascent in January..........:eyeroll:

A record book thing.

Kinda like: The record for longest consecutive terms of governor of New York by a left-handed millionaire?

Ah, we're narrowing down to that sort of bullshit are we? Maybe I'll make the first solo ascent by way of the West Butt on May 29th in an odd-numbered year.
 
Ah, we're narrowing down to that sort of bullshit are we? Maybe I'll make the first solo ascent by way of the West Butt on May 29th in an odd-numbered year.

I'll buy ya a beer if you do it the old fashion way........start from the bottom.....
 
The year is 1955.

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Warren Harding, Jerry Gallwas, Royal Robbins and Don Wilson
 
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