Up until 2003, I had been on three Denali trips. I summited on my first attempt but failed on the next two. Marcia, on the other hand had been on four trips with her successful summit on her last one. Obviously, I had to get catch my tally up with her.
Another thing goading me to go bac was a description of Brad Washburn’s last ascent of Denali when he was 47 (my recollection, anyway). He described his looking out from the summit and realizing that it was probably the last time he would experience that view. I felt I needed to make the ascent one more time and get that kind of closure as well.
The weather was the usual mix of good and poor weather but we made good progress up to 14,000 feet. It was there that I began to realize that my motivation wasn’t quite up to the task. We weren’t getting real stable nice weather so it was clear that we’d have to first wait for a weather window to get to the high camp at 17,000 and then probably wait there for another weather window for a summit bid.
There is a dramatic difference in the conditions (weather and altitude) between the 14,000 camp and the 17,000 camp. At the 14,000 camp there can be lots of socializing with other climbers and it can feel festive. At 17,000 living is more desperate and most people hunker in their tents only going out as necessary. The thought of an extended stay at 17,000 was not appealing.
In the end, Craig R, Nancy and I bailed at 14,000 after a climb up to 16,000 on the West Buttress to support Craig M, Jeff and Leonard. We headed down from there to while they headed up to the 17,000 foot camp to wait for weather. Happily for them, they summited a couple of days after we separated from them.
After getting back to Talkeetna, Craig, Nancy & I had an extra day to kill before flying back to Seattle so we did a scenic flight. When flying to/from glacier landing zone, the pilot usually takes the most direct safe route so sightseeing is an after thought. The scenic flight gave us an opportunity to see the mountains from the air in a more leisurely fashion and was well worth it.
In the end, I got whatever “closure” I needed and did catch up with Marcia. We now each have four Denali expeditions with one successful summit attempt.
