Denali Millennium Traverse

The First Traverse of the Alaska Range in the new Millennium

The summit ridge of Denali drops of steeply on both sides for thousands of feet. Better climbers than I have died here. I clip into running protection and begin the last 300 ft. of ascent at 22:00 on this Solstice day of the new Millennium. This is a place where one can look down on passing aircraft and view almost 125 thousand square miles of Alaska. We have climbed into the rarefied air and the jet stream can drop at anytime and cause winds of 100 m.p.h. There is about 40% of the Oxygen available at sea level so one functions at half the mental capacity. A -20 F with a 25 m.p.h. breeze the windchill is -45 F.

We do not even take our packs off at the summit, just hug each other, take a few photos and prepare to descend out of the Death Zone. Michele, a rope mate from California turns to me and says: This is what I dreamed about when I was in my wheel chair.

Astonishingly after three weeks of climbing together I learn at the summit that she had been in motorcycle accident that killed her fiance and during her year confinement to a wheelchair this was her dream, to summit Denali. The adventure was just starting for our team for we were doing a traverse of the Alaska Range over Denali. Beginning on June 2nd, we had started on the SE fork of the Kahiltna Glacier and spent almost three weeks staging 120 lbs. of gear each up to Denali Pass at 18200 .

Essentially we had climbed the mountain twice making camps at 7800, 9800, 11000, 14200 and 18100 and doing two carries to each camp. We were climbing the West Buttress Route pioneered by Bradford Washburn in 1951. The most difficult section for me was between 16200 and 17200 where we made one carry with packs so heavy we needed help getting them on. It was here at 16500 that former Seward resident Mike Vanderbeek fell to his death trying to rescue a climber. Like three other Seward residents (Mike Tetreau, Jim Pfeiffenberger, John Moline) who are attempting to climb Denali, I pause on the ridge where Mike fell for a moment of silence. Mike and I had both grown up in Salt Lake City, skied Alta, attended the U of Utah and climbed in Little Cottonwood Canyon. A climbing scholarship program in his honor has been established in Talkeetna.

Most of the 1000 climbers that attempt Denali each year use the West Buttress route and cache supplies at several camps for the return. Our traverse team would be unique in that we would be the first of the new Millennium, and the only team so far this year, to traverse Denali. Instead of arriving at Denali Pass with just survival gear headed for the summit, we had made two carries of 50 lbs. each and camped at Denali Pass. On the Solstice we were one of the three highest camps in North America (there were also teams on the Cassin and South Buttress Routes). Now we had to descend and traverse out to Wonder Lake on the north side of the Alaska Range about 26 miles carrying 90 lb. packs. The adventure began right on top as Alan started losing his sight. Alan is a world class climber who had climbed Everest twice in one week during May 1998, once to within 300 ft. of the summit without oxygen. After tying his Australian flag to his ice ax for a photo of what is his fifth summit of the highest point on seven continents his vision starts to fail. HACE or High Altitude Cerebral Edema can affect anyone at these heights, even world class climbers. There is no doubt in my mind that the action of our three Alaska Denali Guides saved his life. THIS CLIMB IS DEDICATED TO ONE OF THOSE GUIDES, MATT PORTER 1977-2001.

The only cure for HACE is to descend, descend, descend. We started back down the summit ridge and another party was on our protection. Thai Verzone, whom I raced in the '97 Hope to Homer ultra-marathon yelled, 'We have someone who needs to descend immediately, would you let us through.'They willingly obliged. Alan made it down to 19000 and then virtually collapsed. Mike Wood, the head ADG guide and Matt Porter a gifted 23 year old who has been on four traverses, took Alan's gear, short roped him and began a forced march to our camp at 18,100. Only seven of the original twelve climbers (including three guides) had made the summit. Four climbers dropped out because of altitude sickness or other concerns. One was back at high camp because he could not feel his toes for 12 hours. As the last climber in the party I picked up wands we had used to mark our second summit ascent this Solstice day. We were essentially a rescue squad bringing back one of our own team members. Mike, a superb alpinist, who with Matt is right now back on Denali doing a new route on the north summit and completing a triple traverse said: You team members are great, you are rock stars!

This is the section of trail where entire teams have disappeared into the rarefied atmosphere. In July 1967 when I was working on a cabin above the Indian river just west of Talkeetna a team of six men died when the jet stream dropped and all were trapped in 100 m.p.h. winds. A guided team was trapped just a few years ago in the same velocity winds and several lost all their fingers and/or toes. Our camp at 18,100 is three tents surrounded by a wall of snow blocks six feet high. We descend the Harper to where it is a cascade of ice then head for Brown's Tower to camp. Traversing below a Serac, Mike kicks out several crevasses so we can see them and then Ben falls into a hidden one almost to his waist. Our training to keep the rope tight pays off when someone punches through a snow bridge.

We awake the following day at the top of Karstens Ridge. This is the route pioneered by the Sourdough Expedition of 1910 and Hudson Stuck in 1912. These incredible men, often climbing unroped, chiseled step up the ridge with snow shovels and showed the way. We descend in four feet of snow. Even though I am an extreme skier and love powder I would not have gotten on that slope as I considered the avalanche potential too high. Mike said: I have set off climax avalanches here before. We will be right on the crest of the slope. My track will be waist deep. Stay in it.

On the descent Ben commented: I had a guide in front and behind. My only other ropemate had climbed Everest twice.

Life is good. In the 1976-77 I hiked most every drainage on the north side of Denali. Then in 1976 I flew a light twin over Denali. During my career as a smokejumper I got lots of air time over Alaska's mountains. Descending Karsten's Ridge is delightful mix of alpinism and the feeling of flight. The exposure takes our breath away. We love it. This is the wild side of the Range and we encounter no one until 11000 where we find a NOLS team that is cheering us on as they now have a path to the summit.

We spend three more days snowshoeing out the Muldrow and hiking over McGonagall pass then across the wide plain to Wonder Lake. We are roped right to the pass as an Austrian climber plunged into a crevasse last year here almost pulling his ropemate in behind. Crossing the McKinley River demands our attention as a Russian climber drowned here in 1998 when his packed pulled him under. The Denali Traverse has been a journey not only of geography, but of the soul. Jerry S. Dixon