Climbing Denali - Day 5

Matthew Stein on Jun 30, 2021 3:19:00 PM

Snow fell from the inside of our tent onto my face to wake me up. Condensation from our breath formed ice crystals on the walls and ceiling of the tent. When the wind shook everything, the ice rained down onto me. It's hard to sleep with ice falling on your face.

Climbing Denali - Day 4

Matthew Stein on Jun 29, 2021 9:45:00 AM

Today we woke at 3am for our move to 11 camp. We broke down our tents, packed up everything and stepped off just before 6.

Breakfast was goatmeal. Oatmeal with some crunchy granola bars mixed in. If I write a camping cookbook, that one's going in it. The texture variation helps make it a little more interesting.

Climbing Denali - Day 3

Matthew Stein on Jun 27, 2021 10:52:44 PM

At 3:45am the guides delivered hot water to our tents. It was quite cold before the sun was up but I was warm enough in my sleeping bag. I was starting to learn the dance of getting dressed slowly as I worked my way out of the sleeping bag so I didn't get too cold. Pre-warming items inside my bag before putting them on worked very well. 

Climbing Denali - Day 2

Matthew Stein on Jun 25, 2021 6:38:21 PM

Today was the biggest move day.
All our stuff added up to 75 lb packs and 60 lb sleds. We had 5.6 miles to go, single carrying up to 7800 ft camp. This is what I trained for. 
 
2-Sleep Mike told us he was going to set his alarm for 4, so I woke up at 4am too. That was a mistake. I got out of my tent and sauntered over to the guides tent to see what was going on. They were surprised to see me up. They got up earlier than us to start melting snow and heating water for hot drinks and breakfast. Mike said he would wake us in about an hour, so I went back to bed. 
 

Climbing Denali - Day 1

Matthew Stein on Jun 24, 2021 4:15:00 PM

"You don't climb up Denali, you camp up it" - 2-Sleep Mike.

What does that mean? This mountain is not climbed quickly. We had to take our time, working up from camp to camp. Shuttling gear, food and fuel to higher camps while giving our bodies time to acclimatize. Furthermore, camping on a glacier, especially in Alaska is no easy task. Snow camping has some great advantages. There are no bugs to swat. Everywhere is a fridge, so you can bring better food. You also have to stay warm, learn to sleep on snow and get comfortable using the bathroom in windy blizzard conditions. Learning to not just survive, but thrive in the Alaskan backcountry was the most important lesson we learned. 

This is not a post on "How to climb Denali." While I was climbing, I journaled each day. I wrote about the experience, what we did each day, what we ate each day and how it felt to be isolated and focused solely on one goal. Many hours were spent in our tents, waiting for the weather to clear or resting from a big move. I also took a lot of photos. A lot. 

Our group had 6 climbers and 3 guides. We chose Alaska Mountaineering School as our guide service and I have to say I was super impressed. "2-Sleep Mike" Mike Gardner was our lead guide, along with Clark Henarie and Peggy Fluvin. All three of them are legit bad-asses. The other folks on my trip included Dave "Rhude Dog" Rhude (my tentmate,) Canada Mike, Brad "Doctor Strange" Cobb, Brian "California" Giangardella, and Sam Sidiqi. 

Here's the tale of us climbing "The Great One."