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Mt. McKinley, known by its native name of Denali, is the tallest mountain on the North American continent standing at 20,320ft. Parker will be attempting to complete his second summit of the Seven Summits on Denali in 2015.

My expedition outfitter will post occasional updates to the AMS blog, relayed via satellite phone while we are on the mountain. We are the May 25th team led by Todd Tumolo.

The Approach:

Houston, TX to Talkeetna, AK

May 23, 2015

After 3 years of practice, packing gear for Denali has become quite routine. There is little need to buy new gadgets and toys. The one area in which I get to indulge is in deciding what mountain reading I will be carrying for the trip. Typically I carry a small paperback and journal the trip in the blank pages at the back. In addition to my usual pocket Bible, I decided this year to add Hudson Stuck’s Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled: A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska. Stuck was an Episcopal Archdeacon who traveled the Alaska interior, spreading the Gospel in the early 1900’s. He later went on to lead what would become the first expedition to successfully summit Denali in 1913. I figured this book would be a fitting read while climbing the mountain that he once pioneered. His tales of the open wilderness, dog mushing, mountain climbing, and muscular Christianity should keep me entertained throughout downtime in the tent.

“How my heart burns within me whenever I get view of this great monarch of the North! There it stood, revealed from base to summit in all its stupendous size, all its glistening majesty. I would far rather climb that mountain than own the richest gold-mine in Alaska. Yet how its apparent nearness mocks one; what time and cost and labour are involved even in approaching its base with food and equipment for an attempt to reach its summit! How many schemes I have pondered and dreamed these seven years past for climbing it! Some day time and opportunity and resource may serve, please God, and I may have that one of my heart’s desires; if not, still it is good to have seen it from many different coigns of vantage, from this side and from that; to have felt the awe of its vast swelling bulk, the superb dignity of its firm-seated, broad-based uplift to the skies with a whole continent for a pedestal; to have gazed eagerly and longingly at its serene, untrodden summit, far above the eagle’s flight, above even the most daring airman’s venture, and to have desired and hoped to reach it; to desire and hope to reach it still.”

-Hudson Stuck in 1912, 1 year prior to completing the First Ascent of Denali-

With books decided upon and the rest of the gear packed, I caught a ride to the airport with Makayla for my flight to Anchorage via Seattle. She was sweet enough to give me a pocket journal so I could document the trip without having to tear up the back of my books like usual. Flying out of Houston at 5:30pm put me in Anchorage just past midnight local time. Aside from a brief layover in Seattle, I hadn’t had much sleep, and with a train to board in a few hours, I was left to catch 3 hours of sleep on the airport bench; oldies music blaring in the background.

May 24, 2015

Over at the train station, I met up with teammate, David, whom I also climbed with in 2014. He came bearing gifts of bagels that he had snagged from his hotel breakfast. I gratefully received the peace-offering, as we caught up on old times. We boarded the train to Talkeetna and enjoyed the views along the 3 hr trip into interior Alaska.

In Talkeetna, I settled in to the House of the Seven Trees Hostel. The owner and host, Pat McGhee, is the sweetest women north of Texas. I learned that at the age of 88, she had just gone under heart surgery this past September. None-the-less she still hosts climbers and travelers throughout the summer in her unassuming establishment. David and I grabbed a bite to eat and then met up with the team over at AMS headquarters. My fellow teammates will be David, Pendar, Kenneth, Nicky, and Bob. Our head guide will be Todd Tumolo and our second guide will be Jeremiah Phelps. They have decades of experience between them and have a healthy respect for both safety and the mountain. I’m confident our team is well prepared for potential success. We ate dinner as a team and got to know one another a little bit. Bob was kind enough to pay for our dinner in gratitude for a minor tent compromise. Everyone had a great sense of humor and it seems that we are off to a good start.

May 25, 2015

Happy Memorial Day. The current plan is to wake up and register with the National Park Service at 8:15am. Then move on to some rope team review and crevasse rescue practice. Finish up the morning with safety briefings and then we should be prepared to fly out to the glacier. Flights onto the mountain only run when the cloud cover clears and the planes can land by line of sight. It is not uncommon to be held up in Talkeetna for a few days waiting for the skies to be flyable. If we get held up, I will post again, but if all goes as planned, I will finish these posts upon return in three weeks. In the meantime you will find sparse updates from our guide company at the AMS blog(Watch for posts about the Tumolo expedition). Additionally it looks like the NPS is posting daily weather reports for the first time this year.

Below is a rough itinerary of the climb. Weather can shift these dates as much as 7 days in either direction. Day 1 is May 25, 2015.
Day 1 8:00 am meet at AMS for orientation, gear check, and pack lunches. 4:30 pm fly to Base Camp, 7,200′, distance: 60 miles, elevation gain: 6850′
Day 2 Base Camp: organize, acclimate, review glacier travel and crevasse rescue, take a deep breath and enjoy the view
Day 3 Single to Ski Hill, Camp 1, 7,800′, distance: 5.5 miles, elevation gain: 600′
Day 4 Carry to Kahiltna Pass, 9,700′, distance: 5 miles, elevation gain: 1900′
Day 5 Move to Kahiltna Pass, Camp 2, 9,700′, distance: 5 miles, elevation gain: 1900′, under the right conditions we may move all the way to 11,000′
Day 6 Single to 11,000′, Camp 3, distance: 1.5 miles, elevation gain: 1300′
Day 7 Rest day
Day 8 Carry to 13,500′ around Windy Corner, distance: 1.75 miles, elevation gain: 2500′
Day 9 Move to 14,200′, Camp IV, distance: 2.75 miles, elevation gain: 3200′
Day 10 Back carry 13,500′ cache, distance: 1 mile, elevation gain: 700′
Day 11 Carry to 16,200′ , distance: 1 mile, elevation gain: 2000′.
Day 12 Rest at 14,200′
Day 13 Move to 16,200 feet or 17,200′, Camp V, distance: 1.75 miles, elevation gain: 3000′
Day 14 Rest day or move to 17,200 feet, Camp VI, distance: 1.75 miles, elevation gain: 3000′
Day 15, 16, 17, 18 Summit days, distance: 4 miles, elevation gain: 3120′
Day 19 Return to 14,200 feet or 11,000′, distance: 2.25 miles
Day 20 Return to Base Camp, 7,200′, distance: 11.25 miles, fly back to Talkeetna
Day 21 Weather day