Preparation and approach

"This plain stretched to the foot of a connected body of mountains, which, excepting between the west and north-west, were not very remote; and even in that quarter the country might be considered as moderately elevated, bounded by distant stupendous mountains covered with snow, and apparently detached from each other; though possibly they might be connected by land of insufficient height to intercept our horizon."

                        -George Vancouver; Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World, vol. 3,             1798.  The first siting of Denali by Europeans.

Most of the food for David and John

The six team members split into three tent duos. David and I coordinated food selection. We had arranged a "pro deal" for Mtn. House freeze dried food with Renroh Outfitters, Gresham, Oregon. So we planned to use freeze-dried exclusively above 14,000.’ Below we planned to use a mixture of Mtn. House and "noodles and sauce" type dinners. David had evolved some favorite recipes over the years and we used mostly those. I’ve always been a freeze-dry kind of guy, although the stuff typically tastes awful, I liked the convenience. One can get away with that for a weekend or so, but it’s not such a good idea for a lengthy expedition. Kyle had lots of experience with staying out for long periods of time and he shared his wisdom with me, "Forget about nutrition, weight, and convenience, take things you know you will eat when you’re tired, nauseous, and have a splitting headache." It didn’t turn out to be that bad, but it’s good advice. Myself, I can always eat roasted almonds mixed with dried dates. I took 5 lbs of those to Denali with me. I came home with about half of them still in their bags.

We negotiated a "group purchase" deal with a local mountaineering shop and gleefully received a 25% discount on gear purchases. Kyle wanted to buy a new kayak, but we couldn’t see how to fit that on the equipment list. Altogether the team spent close to $10,000 on new gear. Denali requires a significant expenditure of both time and money. My favorite new toy was my sleeping bag. It became a good friend before the trip was over. More about that later.

We packed up our gear and food and weighed it. I was typical with 65 lbs of gear and 55 lbs of food. The other team members I checked with were within 5 lbs of those numbers. As it turns out, we took way too much food. The books we consulted suggested 4,000 to 6,000 cal per day, which should be about two to 2 ½ lbs of food per day. No one on the team ate that much. I think 3500 cal per day of climbing is probably about right, although I tended to not eat much on climbing days, and made up for it on rest days. Perhaps 2500 to 3000 cal per day for rest days (or storm days) is more appropriate, and would have shaved important pounds from the sled and pack. Also, food planning should be different for storm days. One needs far fewer "energy bar" type foods. Foods that require cooking and that taste good are better choices for storm days. Not knowing that, I ended up with a huge surplus of energy bars. Plus, I had more than enough of my staple of almonds and dried dates.

May 23, 2000. Day (-1)

The cheapest flights to Alaska are the "red eye specials." So five of us met at the Portland airport. Everyone got there early. About 8 PM for the 10 PM flight on Tuesday, May 23, 2000. Dove had gone up the day before. He had some special deal on tickets and a friend in Anchorage to stay with.

We sat around the airport food court and joked. I detected no nervousness in the other group members, but I felt a bit apprehensive. A month outdoors, living with a pack of guys. And the next oldest guy was 18 years younger than me, and the youngest about 30 years younger than me. I knew I couldn’t keep up with them, and had told them so. They didn’t seem to think it was much of a problem. I had been slower on Shasta, but not that much slower. Still, I didn’t know how I would perform, and didn’t really trust myself to not try to keep up and end up hurting myself. Yet I was also excited. This was grand adventure of the highest form. The trip of a lifetime. And it was just starting. Beginnings are always filled with potential. Everything is still undetermined and the imagination has lots of material with which to work. We were leaving everything else behind and flying off into an unknown fate, faced with a huge challenge, and threatened with danger. I was excited. We all were.

The running joke of the trip started in the airport. It seems everyone but Kyle had ordered freeze dried food from Mtn House. Kyle was the tallest guy on the team, and his tentmate was Dove, the shortest guy. Someone asked what Kyle was going to eat on the trip since he didn’t buy any freeze dried, someone else said Dove. There were jokes about checking Dove for spotted lines on his body where Kyle had marked out the best cuts of meat. It went on and on like this for the entire trip.

Our flight was on time, and we got no hassles about extra charges for the skis, purging the stoves, etc. Just checked the gear (two bags for each person plus a ski bag for each two people) and waited for the plane. As I said in the beginning, David’s Uncle Jim came out to the airport to see David off. We all met him, he wished us all well. I could tell that he would love to go, but he said those days were over for him. I thought I saw a wistfulness on his face. Old glories being relived in his mind, old memories resurfacing. I think he envied us. Yet, "those days" eventually get over for everybody. Were they going to be over for me after this trip? Would I even be coming back? With all my fingers and toes?