Our friend David tells his story from the trip to Alaska

I landed in  after almost 20 hours traveling. Jetlagged and tired I found the hostel for a good nights sleep. But not for long. Early next morning I started searching for the last things, food, gas and snowshoes before I could start my journey to Denali. It took all day and when I got back to the hostel the driver was waiting for me to drive me those 2 and a half hours up to Talketna.

When I arrived to Talketna I had to as everyone who enters the mountain area, participate in a mandatory information session where they informed about Weather, how handling garbage disposal,­

and even how handling human disposal. It scared me a bit. We had to take with a couple of environmental friendly big plastic bags which we were suppose to dispose as easily as throwing it in a glacier crack, as long as it was recyclable and friendly to Nature.

After this session I would finally be on the plane, which was going to take me to my adventure, one hour away awaited the mountain. All my baggage had been weighed and thoroughly sorted and packed. I changed from my shorts and t-shirt to my winter clothes, shell jacket and pants, which would be my outfit for the next coming weeks, thank God it’s comfortable!

I sat down at the window seat of the plane and for the first time it struck me that I was actually soon there, to the place I’ve been working for so hard to get to for almost a year. Everything had gone so fast from the moment I started my journey in Arlanda, Stockholm that I had to take a deep breath to realize that I was here. All the hard work, preparing, hours and hours of hard workouts, and now I was here. Amazing. The flight trip up to the mountain was quite spectacular, beautiful landscape and a great landing on the Kahiltna glacier. I was at the base camp of Denali.

A mountain like this requires an extreme amount of equipment, partly because you need a lot of clothes and equipment to handle the extreme temperatures that appear on Denali, 25 degrees Celsius, but also food and gas to run the camp kitchen for a month. I always want to be well prepared and have extra, just in case.

My weight plus the sledge and my backpack was about 130 kg. A bit heavy but what can you do, I had cut out everything unnecessary. That first night I cuddled into my sleeping bag and had a good nights sleep. I hadn’t slept that well for a long time do to the hectic and long trip. So it felt nice waking up the next morning with new energy.

My climbing buddies and me decided to talk a resting day to acclimatize with the weather and height and therefore we were in no hurry that morning. We took it easy and just walked around for our selves contemplating, preparing. We practiced glacier rescue in the afternoon, just to freshen up the memory and make sure that the we as a team would be able to work together if something would happen. We prepared our sledges so they would be ready for the morning, early morning. We started walking at 4 am in the morning. One of the main reasons is that the glaciers are colder during the night and therefore means lower risk of falling through a glacier crack.

We packed together the camp at started our journey up the mountain. The path was well marked, easy to find. The sun was shining and not especially cold. It was perfect, perfect for us to climb to camp 1. It took us 4 hours of walking uphill with snowshoes until we reached camp 1. We had reached the camp just in time before the bad weather blowed in. It felt good being in camp 1. The day had gone surprisingly well and was looking forward to the days ahead.

When reaching the camp we started immediately with daily routines, putting up the tent, melting snow, making the camp bathroom by shoveling a whole in the snow behind the tent, build a snowwall against the wind. Well, there’s a lot to do before you can crawl into your sleeping bag, not as relaxing as just jumping into bed at home after a day at work. As usual we listened to the weather report on the radio for the upcoming days. It didn’t look good and we feared the worst. We went to bed a bit worried but hey, that´s the way it is on the mountain. It´s almost impossible to predict such fast changing weather.

We slept in the next morning, didn´t even set the alarm clock. I guess we didn´t think it was any idea because of the weather. I woke up the next morning full of energy, zipped up the window tent and to my big surprise the sun was shining, full and bright! After discussing with the others we took the decision to the big climb to camp 2. A quite steep climb, but we felt confident and hurried away with our sledges. But oh, we hurried a little too much in that decision because when we reached 2900m the weather changed drastically. The temperature fell and the wind felt like beatings against the face. We were right in the middle of a fierce whiteout. At this point we were getting really tired, our bodies had been working hard that day and finally reached the conclusion that the best thing to stay put and set up our tents there to wait the storm out. We didn’t really know where we were, just sort of guessing at it. So after looking out a safe spot, we were in fact on a glacier and had to take extra precautions, we found a place to set the camp. Exhausted after setting up the tent in a roaming storm, melting snow and all the other routines we could finally fall asleep.

The alarm went off at 5 am next morning. The weather was still bad, but even though we decided to continue to camp 2. It became to be a very strengious and risky climb up to camp motorcycle hill. The whiteout was still a big problem and for a while there, it got really bad. We were right in the middle of a glacier, with cracks 2-3 meters wide and 20 meters deep. Not the place to fall in...

We couldn´t see the path markings with made it even harder to find our location on the map. We wandered blind in the snowstorm and after a while got of the path and lost ourselves on the glacier. After walking for an hour we realized we had crossed a big glacier crack, without even noticing it. I´m just glad it held for three people.

We reached Motorcycle Hill exhausted but luckily that camp is sheltered from the wind, and on safe grounds. The sun came out at the end of the day, it felt nice setting up the tent and everything felt ok again. Funny how much a little glimpse of sun can to. Everything went easier that evening and we started planning for the next day.

The next morning we started preparing for ”the cache”. Cache is when you climb to next camp and leave equipment and food that you won´t need in the present camp. This is to make the hard climb easier climbing twice but also to acclimatize for the high altitude. This is important so the body can have a chance to function as well as possible in the thin air. We aimed for that day, to carry up as much equipment to Basin Camp. On our way up we would be passing squrillpass, windy corner. Earlier that year, a Frenchman had died there. The thing with windy corner is the extreme winds, I have heard that it´s blown up to 160 km/h. Even though I had feared this place very much and also carried a huge amount of weight up and down camps, the climb through the squrillpass went ok. It was heavy, really heavy climbing up to Basin Camp, and it didn´t help knowing that we were going to do the same climb many times over again to get all the equipment up to camp.

The next morning we focused on the same procedure, carrying more equipment up to next camp but this time with the 30 kg sledge behind. To stand and rest with that heavy sledge dragging and pulling at all angles isn´t especially comfortable and therefore you just sort of push forward and take as little breaks as possible. It took me 5 hours up to basin camp that day. My body felt tired but I was so glad to have finally reached basin camp for the last time. We rested the day after, ate good food and got acclimatized. On that altitude and thin air it is essential to drink a lot of water, way more than you are used to. This is to minimize the risk of getting high altitude sickness. So a big part of the day was spent melting snow. That day I took a walk to this place called ”the edge of the world”. Unfortunately it was cloudy that day, so that edge just had to wait to another time for me to see. But that little walk was just enough exercise I needed that day, for I felt tired after that and my body needed to rest.

Everything so far had gone well, except for the wondering around in the whiteout part, but except that I was surprised how lucky we had been to come this far. I felt confident and strong for the next to come. We were up to the ”head wall” that is an up cline with 600m. The first 350 m are pretty ok but after that is very steep and the mountain shows it´s fearful face who ever tries to climb it. If you join a commercial expedition you are tied into the fixed ropes that have been bolted into the mountain. Now, we were not a commercial expedition and I had decided to climb all the seven summits in alpine style. So therefore, no fixed ropes.  Doing that climb was extremely energy consuming and frustrating at some parts, but over all I just felt excited about it afterwards to have climbed it without the fixed ropes. I wouldn’t call myself an adrenalin junkie. Sure I do dangerous climbs and extreme skiing is one of my many passions, but I always look to my safety and let it come first. Climbing does give the adrenalin rush I’m looking for in life, the kind of adrenaline that comes after doing something tough, a bit dangerous but always thoroughly. There is no space for rushing. I’m competing against the mountain and it’s strong forces, and I know who would win if I’m not precautious.

Our plan was to the climb all the way up to ”high camp”, the last camp before reaching the summit. But after the strenuous climb at headwall we set camp a little earlier at washburn thumb, an hour from high camp.

In the morning we made breakfast, oatmeal porage and then we started our climb. I had almost 30 kg now in my daypack, but it felt okay since we only had one hour to high camp. At home 30 kg wouldn´t be an effort for me but here with the circumstances that bag felt like led and that last part up to high camp was tough climb. I was really tired when we reached camp, layed down in the tent and was relieved that the day was over.

Tomorrow was the day, the day that I´ve dreamed of for a long time. I wasn´t sure if I would make it to this point. I had hoped but not too much when I know a lot of climbers don’t get this far. We had been lucky, with the strength and health of the group, and the weather.

We started our morning at 6 am, quite late for a push for the summit. But it was simply to cold to start in the middle of the night. Even though we started late we had to climb the path in the shade, which made it freezing anyway, -30 degrees. At the end of the path the sun was shining, that gave us something to push extra for. While climbing you realize just how important having the right clothes is. Your live is depending on it. If I would have too thin of gloves I could loose my hands in frostbite. I will never forget the summit of Kilimanjaro last year. I didn’t think it would be that could up there. I was Africa for God’s sake! But I was so wrong, and I summited wearing only a thin pair of summer gloves. The kind that are only for protection and not for warmth. I’m glad I didn’t loose my hands that day and after that I am always really careful with wearing the right type of clothes for activity.

After 2 hours in the cold we came to part what everyone call ”autobahn”. This for because there are so many that fall off to the steep traverse and sadly enough many fall all the way down and die. There had been many this year, so we felt it only right to take a little easier pace up the steep traverse as sharp as a knives blade, with each side looking down towards the bottom of the hill.

With steady feet and a slow pace we finally reached the ridge up to the summit. I had a hard time focusing because of the thin air. I kept looking at my feet and thinking right, left, right, left to help my legs on a bit. The weather was unstable, snow was coming in fast. We skipped our break we had planned and decided to push for the summit instead. I felt amazed, I really didn’t think I would make it. Those 500m meters to the summit went surprisingly fast. I was tired, hungry, cold and nauseous from the thin air. But to be up there with Alaska under my feet was a feeling that I wouldn´t trade for the world. July 23, 15.00 pm I reached North Americas highest point.

Ten days of hard work but the reward of standing on the top made it definitely worth it.

What wasn´t to forget was that we had a long journey down the mountain too. But honestly I don’t remember much of it. I was so high of the feeling from standing on the summit. I am still from just thinking of it and it will stay in my memory forever.