MACEDONIAN DENALI EXPEDITION
2012
Denali, the North American giant is a
challenge to many climbers, skiers and mountaineers from all over the world. They
say Denali is one of the most difficult mountains, maybe hardest one from all
seven summits just because there is no logistics in the most cruel nature
conditions.
The mountain is beautiful, the route was
not so seriously demanding compared to our previous experience and ascents,
still the specific Alascan cruel weather conditions with unpredictable
forecast, make this mountain so difficult to reach. The white beauty is magical
but gave us some hard time to deal with it.
Here are some extracts of my personal diary during the Denali climb.
08.06.2012
I remember that middle aged Russian woman
with no crampons, no harness, no rope, dressed in light down clothing, saying:
It’s nothing complicated, just take it easy and you’ll be on the summit. We met her on 3rd of June on the
way from Camp 3 to Camp 4. We heard that
2nd of June was a successful summit day with several good days in a
raw, when many people summited.
Yesterday (7th of June) it was
sunny at C-4. We climbed up to 5100m almost 17000ft for the second time so far.
The weather changed quickly. New snow and cold wind blew into our noses. I
could smell frozen blood taste inside my
nose.
The snow is heavy and not stable. We see
avalanches everywhere around us. The
crevasses are opening and seem scary.
Every day we see crazy local mountain
athletes doing amazingly courageous things around. They ski down the steep
hills around c-4 on 14000-15000ft altitude. They are jumping over the crevasses
pulling down avalanches themselves. But still, even they are far from the summit.
It is amazing what a different approach
level these people have compared to the mountaineering schools and clubs we see
in our region around Macedonia. It is really a great opportunity to learn if
you stick around those people who will gladly share their experiences.
…..
Real cruel beauty of the Alaskan giant –
McKinley.
The eternal white nights are something new
for us, affecting our sleep. We recall the movie “Insomnia” with Al Pacino. Still, no
sleep or no dissent meal is not crucial in this situation. What is crucial for
the body are a lot of fluids, for the head – good acclimatization and crucial
for final success on this place is some luck and good weather.
Whatever happens this will be remembered as
a first Denali team from the new era and the history of Republic of Macedonia,
and definitely first Macedonian female attempt on Denali. This project was supported by the Federation
of Mountain Sports of Macedonia and sponsored by the US Embassy of RM,
municipality of Karposh. We are grateful to everyone who believes in us and
supports us in different way. We believe
we’ll have other chances and projects to make you proud of.
This is one of the exceptional mountains
with no logistic support during the climb. Everyone carries a lot of gear,
food, gas, tents etc for minimum of 20 days on the glacier. It is organized in
big heavy rucksack of around 25kg plus a sledge with another 30-50 kg which you
pull again on your back. It was pretty
exhausting carrying such a load until 1400ft.
Still, we felt strong going up the hill up
to 5100m. We passed the technical section where you climb on fixed ropes, so we
made sure that the route difficulty was not a problem for us. We have climbed
higher and more difficult stuff before, but not with so much wind I guess…
It’s snowing again. People are leaving and
giving out all of their food, on the other hand you have stubborn ones who are
willing to wait more but have nothing left. We help and cooperate when we can
by sharing food and water. Still we have
to be careful what we give out when we might need to wait 4-5 days more.
Today is the 8th and our
deadline to leave is the 15th of June. So far Ile is the most optimistic one
believing that after this heavy snow spiced up with avalanches, we’d wait for 2
days more when finally the sun will greet us and follow us all the way to the
summit. We are thinking for the option
to even try to summit from here. We’ve been up over 5000m two times now so we
are well acclimatized to try it in one push.
That is technically possible if you are very strong and fast, but it
will be long and tiring day with more than 20h walk up and down.
We’ll see.
So far everyone is waiting, so we’ll wait as well.
The avalanches are becoming more and more
serious. Sometimes we don’t see them because of clouded low visibility, so we
just hear the powerful noise they make coming closer and closer to our camp.
This is our 10th day on the
mountain. We start to feel the lack of hygiene and limited commodity, which is
normal and as always we are getting used to it.
11.06.2012
13 days in snow. I distinguished that there
are two main groups of people coming to this mountain. The first one are mostly local, crazy ice
climbers, skiers and other athletes who are climbing this mountain from all
different sides and difficult routes no matter of the conditions.
The second group are the “Seven summit-ers”
who need this mountain as the highest one of North American continent.
There are also the guided groups, whose
clients are mountain lovers from all around the world. The difference is that they are lead by the
guides who are well experienced and they know every detail of the mountain.
The sun is nice down here in the camp, but
when it shines it really burns you, then, when it’s gone those burns can easily
turn into frostbites. It looks like a good day today, but everybody waits for
the avalanches to pass because of the heat after so much snow. We are thinking
to of going up but the rangers say better tomorrow for smaller winds and less
risk.
12.06.2012
Another day and night in snow storm. The
tent is completely buried under fresh snow. The forecast was not reliable again. 14 days
in the mountain and 9th day above 4300m. Some people did go up
yesterday and we could just imagine how this wind looks up there on 5200m.
Still, no summit for anyone. Our days are counted. Today latest tomorrow is our
last chance to go up!
At noon or more precisely 12:30 we manage
to go out of the tent. Everything is buried down under the snow. Even more
exciting the avalanche came down to the camp. Really scary. Several guys got
hurt.
It seems like the forecast is correct but
late for a week or so. This was the biggest storm so far which was maybe
expected last week. We have about 1m new snow for the last 30 hours.
I think now we’ll wait for good and stable
weather just to get down to the Base Camp. In Talkeetna we might think of
changing our flights and try again after a couple of days and renewed food
reserves. Or just leave with normal
schedule and try again next year.
It’s really strange weather with so much
snow in June and no bright window. I was amazed by the Gods of the mountain,
still I respect their decision. There are people here trying to reach summit
4-5 years continuously and never had the luck. We’ll see. There is still a
little hope. Tomorrow’s another day. In
maximum 4 days from now, when we have our time limit coming, we must make the
decision of going down or up.
…..
We wake up another morning after the
coldest night so far, with -11C temperature inside the tent.
Many people from the high camp, finally
descended back to C-4. That was the end
of the trip for most of the climbers on the mountain. Moving down was also
dangerous because of avalanches, so everybody waited for a stable part of the
day and as many possible tracks from other people to mark the trail before they
start going down.
We finally had to move down as well. We
departed in the late afternoon on the 13th and we walked until next
morning.
The mountain was more beautiful than
ever. All those sceneries we missed on the way up, we could notice on
the way down. The powerful glacier with all the crevasses and seracs on its
texture, all the snow peaks around and the long steep hills before C-3. The
lower part of the glacier in early morning pinky mood seemed so peaceful. We
thought the mountain maybe opened up just when we came down. The sky seemed to
be so still and blue, while the wind and the clouds seemed more and more
quiet. We felt happy for going down, all
safe and well. We were sure we had made
the right decision.
After a total of 16 days in the mountain
and 11 above 4300m we came back down to civilization. Richer with the
experienced and challenged to try it again, we are going home fulfilled with
fresh Alaskan impressions.
This experience will be very usefully implemented in our next projects
and will definitely leave unforgettable memories for each one of us.
We are grateful to the US Embassy Macedonia
and municipality of Karposh for making it all happen. The healthy products and food supplement from Calivita and Makfit kept us well all the way.
The report and daily news are made half in
English and half in Macedonian language. For more complete story read both
versions.
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