Mt McKinley (Denali) Alaska – Summit Photos at 20,320ft (1/7/2011)
We have been home from our Denali (Alaska) expedition for over 6 weeks now, so we thought we had better upload some summit photos. We are hoping to write a bit of a story about our adventure over the coming months, but in the meantime, below are some photos taken on the summit of Mt McKinley (Denali) at 20,320ft on the 1st July 2011.
We can honestly say that Denali is a very tough and unforgiving mountain. For much of the expedition, the prospects of us actually making the summit looked very grim due to poor weather conditions. It took us 4 days to get on to the glacier to start the expedition, and then we were hit with more bad weather at 14,000ft camp. On an expedition like this, you only have 5-7 bad weather days up your sleeve to make a push for the summit.
After a few days of poor weather at 14,000ft camp, lady luck smiled upon giving us a weather break to move to 17,000ft camp, where we had a day’s rest. The following day presented us with a reasonable summit window, so we went for it. It is fairly unusual on Denali to get a clean run from 14,000ft camp, to 17,000ft camp and then have the right weather and snow conditions for a summit attempt. Many teams wait for days at 17,000ft camp for the right weather and snow conditions for a summit attempt given the instability of the weather at that high altitude. We definitely had some luck on our side.
Standing on the summit of this great mountain was an overwhelming experience. Given that we were constantly facing the prospect of not making it to the summit, we felt both very privileged, as well as perhaps even relieved that we would not have to make a return journey to have another go at this great mountain.
The completion of Denali which was mountain number No.5, now puts us on a collision course with the mighty Mt Everest on our quest to complete the ‘7 Summits’……….stay tuned.
