In June 1996 I joined Fantasy Ridge Alpinism on a guided expedition climbing Denali in Alaska. This was a small team, with five clients and two guides. The guides, Lyle Dean and Jim Nigro, were excellent and I had a successful and very rewarding experience.

For several years I had wanted to climb Denali (Mount McKinley). In preparation I gained high altitude climbing experience climbing in Mexico in 1990 and in Ecuador in 1991-1992.

Finally, in the fall of 1995 I decided the time and circumstances were right to join a guided trip. Using a guide service I could minimize the logistical planning and preparations and instead focus on obtaining equipment and getting training. I could also attempt an alternate route to the standard West Buttress route and learn from an experienced Alaskan mountain guide.

In my research I determined that Fantasy Ridge Alpinism of Telluride, Colorado, was a superior guiding service with a solid record of guiding on Denali. It offered a West Rib expedition and I chose that one to join. As it turned out, the weather conditions forced us to modify our route plans. Fantasy Ridge Alpinism has since transferred its Denali guiding permit to Alpine Ascents International.

Diary

1 June 1996 (Saturday)

I fly from Portland, Oregon, to Anchorage, Alaska, arriving about midnight. I get a room at the Anchorage Holiday Inn and move my gear in.

2 June (Sunday)

Walk around downtown Anchorage and rest in the room.

3 June (Monday)

I meet the four other clients (including Al, Bob, and Julian) and ride with van driver Bob Sloezen to Talkeetna. We stay at the Swiss Alaskan Inn.

Here we meet lead guide Lyle Dean and assistant guide Jim Nigro. Lyle and Jim scrutinize our gear and instruct us to replace or add to our gear.

4 June (Tuesday)

We practice procedures and shop for our last gear modifications.

5 June (Wednesday)

Our team flies into Denali National Park and lands at the Kahiltna Base Camp (7700 feet elevation). The snow is soft and the sun is hot, so we rest and eat a big meal.

In the evening (10-12 PM) we move lower to Camp 1. We ski roped in teams with heavy packs and pull neoprene bags, called “pigs”, carrying additional gear. Camp 1 faces the East Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier at 7300 feet elevation.

6 June (Thursday)

We rest at camp until about 9 PM, eating as much of the heavy food as we can and watching climbers descend the Kahiltna Glacier. The snow firms up and we move camp up near the base of Ski Hill (8000 feet elevation) facing into the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna.

7 June (Friday)

We are tent bound due to heavy snowfall.

8 June (Saturday)

We are tent bound, again, due to continuing heavy snowfall. I am glad I brought a lengthy paperback novel, Doctor Zhivago.

9 June (Sunday)

Lyle decides we have to move up today, regardless of the weather. We start up the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier (The Valley of Death), but more poor weather soon arrives.

Lyle makes the decision to turn back and instead climb Ski Hill on the Kahiltna Glacier. We will not climb the full West Rib. We cache our gear at 9700 feet elevation. Unfortunately, one client decides to leave the expedition.

10 June (Monday)

Jim and Julian escort the leaving client back to the Kahiltna Base Camp while the rest of us move our camp to yesterday’s cache. Jim and Julian rejoin us at camp later and report large avalanches in the Northeast Fork.

11 June (Tuesday)

Today we carry supplies to just below Motorcycle Hill (11000 feet elevation) and cache them. We bury the cache deep enough that the ravens cannot raid our food.

12 June (Wednesday)

We move our camp to yesterday’s cache just below Motorcycle Hill.

13 June (Thursday)

We carry supplies to just beyond Windy Corner (13400 feet elevation) and cache them., then return to camp below Motorcycle Hill. It is a tiring day.

14 June (Friday)

We decide to have a rest day. I Wash underwear in a Ziploc bag and dry them in the air. We watch a storm approach.

15 June (Saturday)

We cache some fuel and food at our campsite, then move our camp in heavy snowfall beyond our previous cache, arriving at 14200 feet elevation on a plateau below the West Buttress.

Many teams are camped here. We are very tired by the time we get our tents up. But our cache is also above Windy Corner and we will retrieve it tomorrow.

16 June (Sunday)

Today we sleep in, then descend and retrieve our cache we left below on the 13th. We select the gear to cache higher, including food and fuel for five days.

17 June (Monday)

We carry the selected gear to just below the West Rib at a bergschrund and level campsite at 16300 feet elevation. We cache the gear near two American Alpine Institute tents. This expedition is apparently making a summit bid from that location. Bob suffers from stomach cramps and Julian has a headache.

18 June (Tuesday)

Today is another rest day. It is windy at our 14200 foot camp and there are big snow plumes off the West Rib.

19 June (Wednesday)

We take a second rest day, waiting for a better weather pattern. I have low spirits due to a forecast of three more days of winds and clouds up high.

20 June (Thursday)

A Low pressure system lingers, but the forecast is for it to break up in a day or two. Lyle decides to move camp up to the 16300 foot bergschrund cache to get into position for the forecast window of better weather. We cache our extra gear, fuel, and food, then move up.

Once our new camp is set up we melt snow and cook in our tents. Julian gets carbon monoxide poisoning from the stove and altitude but eventually recovers in the evening.

21 June (Friday)

We sleep in, then carry gear to 17200 feet to cache. Lyle sets up fixed lines for much of the route.

It is fantastic weather: little or no wind, warm temperature, and clear sky above. The forecast claims two more days of the same!

22 June (Saturday)

Today we move our camp up the fixed lines to our highest campsite in beautiful weather. We anchor and protect our tents as best we can. A storm is forecasted to arrive as early as tomorrow night.

23 June (Sunday)

We start brewing at 3 AM after little sleep. Jim is feeling too poorly to climb. He thinks he may have been over-hydrating on this trip to reduce the risk of altitude sickness.

The rest of us leave camp at 7:30 AM. I have cold feet climbing up the mixed rock and snow band above camp, but my feet warm up on the Orient Express snowslope. We take a very short break high on the Orient Express, then continue on.

We move very slowly up Heartbreak Hill, and I watch the sky nervously. My mind seems a bit foggy. We eventually summit.

The air is calm and the temperature is about -10 F. My mind clears on the descent of the Orient Express and I enjoy the rest of the descent to camp.

We return to our high camp about 7:30 PM. Jim has melted snow while we were gone to replenish our water. We see the forecasted storm approaching, so Lyle decides to move down to 14200 feet. He says our high camp “generates epics”.

Our packs are very heavy since we are moving everything at once. At the bergschrund camp one of the clients is weak and short of breath, so we camp there rather than move lower.

24 June (Monday)

We rest and wait out the storm while the client recovers. A minor avalanche sluffs onto our tent. We are concerned about snow buildup on the Orient Express above our descent route to 14400 feet, making the descent route risky. But by the end of the day we think it may have settled.

25 June (Tuesday)

We descend to the 14200 foot campsite and dig out and distribute the cache we left there on the 20th. Pulling our “pigs” we descend past Windy Corner to our cache at 11000 feet below Motorcycle Hill. Windy Corner is not too bad, but we have blowing snow and low visibility as we descend the 700 feet from there to the top of Motorcycle Hill. Lyle is encouraging us to move faster.

We camp at the bottom of Motorcycle Hill because Lyle thinks conditions will be worse below and we are going too slowly to descend to better conditions at 8000 feet elevation.

26 June (Wednesday)

We make good progress descending through Kahiltna Pass, but then get hung up in low visibility when we lose the wanded route leading lower. We finally find the wanded route and continue down, but lose it again near the top of Ski Hill. Our rope teams get separated in the fog. After regrouping we make camp and hope for better visibility tomorrow.

27 June (Thursday)

The weather clears at and below our camp in the morning so we hurriedly break camp and descend to the landing strip at Kahiltna Base Camp.

Doug Geeting sends two planes while we stuff ourselves with beer and snacks at our Kahiltna Base Camp cache. The planes just take people – the weather is threatening. One plane does return later to retrieve half of our gear.

28 June (Friday)

We wait all day in Talkeetna for our bags, which finally arrived about 9 PM. I get a room at the Roadhouse since the Swiss Alaska is full. I explore shuttle opportunities for the Anchorage Airport tomorrow.

29 June (Saturday)

I catch a 10:30 AM Talkeetna Shuttle Service van and arrive at the airport at 1:30 PM. It is early, but I do not want to risk missing the only shuttle today. Two of the other passengers are Steve Swenson and Alex Lowe. Sadly, Alex died in 1999 on Shishapangma in Tibet.

30 June (Sunday)

I fly to Portland, Oregon, where Linda picks me up. She is startled at how much weight I have lost. Thus ends a great adventure!

Pros and cons of using a guide service

I posted the following response to a query in the USENET forum rec.climbing:

Re: Climbing Denali!
Date:1996/07/12
Forums:rec.climbing 

D. Morrison wrote:
 
> I'm planning on climbing Denali next season, and I'm looking for
> suggestions and comments on subjects including the pros and cons of
> using a guide service, different routes, etc.   I've done a fair amount
> of climbing in the Pacific Northwest, including multiple ascents of many
> of the major glaciated peaks, several of which I've led.

I just returned from climbing Denali via the Upper West Rib.

I joined a Fantasy Ridge Mountain Guide group lead by Lyle Dean and Jim Nigro.
Our plan was to climb the entire West Rib.  But we were tentbound three days
due to heavy snowfall and poor visibility when we were trying to get up
the NE Fork of the Kahiltna (the "Valley of Death").  Lyle eventually
decided we had to start moving up one way or another and decided to take
the West Buttress route to 14200'.  This was a good decision, as a massive
avalanche came down the NE Fork the next day.  Lyle had the experience
to know when to move and when to wait.  We got into position and were able
to summit from 17000' on the West Rib during a window of good weather.
Lyle saw the forecasted poor weather coming and had the experience to know
to drop down to 16200' our summit evening to avoid an "epic" at that high
camp in poor weather.  We waited an extra day at 16200' for the Orient 
Express to settle after the snowfall, then started down for the landing
strip the next day.  It took three days to get to the landing strip due
to poor weather, including a whiteout at Kahiltna Pass where we lost the
wanded route for two hours.  We all got out safely and had a great experience
on the mountain.

During this same time Vern Tejas was leading a Fantasy Ridge group up the
West Buttress.  Vern's group had to wait several days at the 17000' camp
on that route due to high winds up high.  But they were ready and in
position when the weather cooperated and the group was successful. 

The point of this story is that a major advantage of using a good guide
service is the strong, experienced leadership you will hire.  A related
advantage is that you can attempt a more technical route than what you
might otherwise feel qualified for.  Finally, you will spend most of 
a month with a world-class climber and have the opportunity to learn
from him/her.

One disadvantage of using a guide service is that you will have to adjust
to living a month in close quarters with people you don't know and who may
have annoying habits.  Be flexible and tolerant.

Another risk is that one or more of the other clients may be unprepared
for an ambitious route.  Hopefully this will become apparent to them early
in the trip and they will decide to bail before the group commits to the
route.  We had one client decide to go home after five days.  Since Lyle
had decide to take the Buttress route to 14200' we were able to get him
back to the landing strip without incident and without sacrificing our
climb.

Finally, you will may feel the loss of some individual initiative,
independence, and accomplishment if you use a guide service.  I rationalized
this for myself by choosing the West Rib route, rather than the West Buttress
route.  I'm glad I made that choice.

A guide service provides some logistics that you would otherwise need to
provide:  food, tents, group climbing gear, etc.  This may be an advantage or
disadvantage, depending on their choices.  We had fresh food lower on the 
mountain which seemed to be heavier and too slow to cook than it was worth.
Higher on the mountain we had high-quality quick-cooking meals.

It sounds like your Cascade climbing experience is comparable to mine.  I
had previously climbed Potocatepetl and Orizaba in Mexico with the American
Alpine Institute and lead Cotopaxi in Ecuador with friends, so I did have some
high altitude experience.  If you decide to use a guide service I'd recommend
you consider climbing the West Rib with Fantasy Ridge Mountain Guides.