Alaska Range Trip Report -Chapter 1

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KZKlimber

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Alaska Range Trip Report -Chapters 1-5

My previous thread gave a link to the pictures. Here is the first installment of my trip report. Hope it makes for good reading.

Chapter 1 – “Wheels Up”

The sound of an Alaska Railroad freight train nudges me from a light sleep. The fact that is about as bright as a cloudy day at noon forces a glance at the clock - 4 AM. Well, the plan to stay up late to help adjust to the 4 hour time difference was foiled by a couple of ice axe ales with dinner at the West Rib Pub. The 9% alcohol content, effects of the long trip to Talkeetna, and time difference were too much to overcome last night as I fell asleep without effort at 7 PM. Lying awake unable to sleep will become an all to familiar scenario in the coming days.

At the foot of the bed lay a pack and duffel containing about 70 pounds of clothing and gear, carefully chosen to achieve the right balance of weight vs need. The gear list provided by the Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS) provided the recipe for the layers of clothing, camp equipment, personal care items, and mountaineering gear assembled over the past several months. I was surprised to actually have some leftover void space in my 5000 cu in pack.

After savoring my last hot shower and brewed coffee for a while, it was time to head over to AMS to get started. As I arrived, 2 other students were in the process of “exploding” their packs, emptying the contents onto blue tarps laying on the ground. Coffee, muffins, and juice were set out and we were encouraged to “hydrate-hydrate- hydrate”. Brief introductions were made and the day’s schedule was laid out on a white board in the large gear room at the rear of the AMS building. One student had ridden his bike to Talkeetna from Bellingham Washington as part of a fundrasining effort for the American Diabetes Association. He was to complete the AMS course with us as a prerequisite to a guided Denali summit expedition with Alpine Ascents International (AAI) the following week. Another student was registered to run in the Anchorage marathon 2 days following our return. The remainder of the class consisted of folks with varying experience in skiing, rock climbing, bouldering, and hiking. I was the only ice climber in the group, and needless to say, the only Adirondack 46-R. After listening to the stories about biking and marathon running, I was glad I had trained hard as well, carrying 40 lbs of water up a high peak each weekend since April along with keeping up my usual weight lifting and aerobic routine at the gym.

After introductions it was time for gear check. Each of the 3 instructors handled a different part of the gear checklist and went through each item. After looking at the 4 shirts and 2 pairs of polypro tights I had laid out, the instructor said, “These are good – pick 2 shirts and 1 pair of tights, leave the rest”. When it came to personal items she held up my small travel sized deodorant and said “You won’t be needing this”. “It wasn’t for my benefit” was my reply as I moved it to the “reject” pile. Following gear check I had whittled the pile on the tarp down by a few items, not much compared to some of my classmates whose “reject” piles were approaching the size of their “keep” piles. After renting or purchasing a few additional necessities (avalanche transceiver, nose guard for glacier glasses, etc) my pack weighed in at 32 lbs. This did not include “group gear” like stoves, tents, food, and fuel which would be divided up on the glacier.

This leads me to another vital piece of gear – the “CMC”. The CMC or Clean Mountain Container has been introduced by the National Park Service (NPS) for all mountaineering groups in the Alaska Range. The problem of human waste has become such a health issue on Denali that the Park Service has taken “Leave No Trace” one step further. Each person is issued their own personal CMC. It is similar to a bear canister, with a screw top. We were instructed to “Urinate in the snow – but everything else goes in the CMC”. I was handed the small canister with its round foam “toilet seat” ring and my name personalized in duct tape and gave it a suspicious look. I’m all in favor of good wilderness ethics and decided right away it was a good idea.

After a brief but delicious lunch at AMS (I felt the good food was a good omen of things to come) we went over to the AMS indoor climbing gym and were taught how to harness up (something I’ve done hundreds of times) and how to attach our ascenders and foot loop to the rope while dangling after a crevasse fall. We then had to climb up the rope to the top of the gym as we would in a real crevasse, although real crevasses lack the crash pads we were afforded to break any falls. AMS teaches a one leg prussik using the opposite leg from your ascender hand. The foot loop is clipped to the existing prussik knot that connects between your harness and the rope allowing the rope to slide freely until a fall cinches the knot. I found it to be quicker and smoother than the 2 leg “Texas prussik” technique I am accustomed to. It was also my first time using an ascender. I felt good as I quickly worked my way up the line, gaining a compliment from my instructor.

After ascender practice it was off to the Ranger Station a few short blocks away to pay our $10 park admission fee ( the NPS realized that climbers being flown directly onto the glaciers bypassed the park entrance toll booths and remedied the situation). Posted in the ranger station are the current season statistics for Denali and Foraker. I noticed that almost 1300 climbers will be attempting Denali this year and of those who have completed their climbs, 50% summited. Foraker was even more sobering with a 20% summit rate. Only 4 climbers had made it up Foraker.

This brings me back to another story from AMS earlier that morning. As we were performing our gear checks, the AMS owner came out and told us that a group was returning from Denali shortly, they had been pinned down in high camp (17,200 ft) for a week by constant storms and “the weather beat them up pretty bad”. To make things worse, when the weather broke and they could finally escape, a snow bridge across a cevasse had collapsed, forcing them the climb back up to the 13,000 ft camp for another night. He asked that we not question them about reaching the summit when they returned, suggesting we ask open ended questions like “How did the trip go?” and let them decide how much they wanted to share. When they did come in, there was a look of weary relief on their faces as they unpacked their gear. None of us spoke a word to them, but the rest of the AMS staff gave them warm greetings.

Finally the time came to suit up and fly out. We changed into our mountain clothes and plastic double boots and loaded our gear into the AMS van. Every item, including ourselves was weighed and recorded to provide to the air Service ‘Talkeetna Air Taxi” (TAT). The gear was driven but we walked the short distance to the airport, gaining stares from the cruise line tourists who descend upon Talkeetna each afternoon.

After unloading the vans using small carts at the airport we awaited our flights. Up until this point it was unsure where exactly we would be going. AMS had wanted to use the remote Eldridge Glacier for the course instead of the more congested Kahiltna or Ruth Glaciers. However, concerns about weather and conditions were not resolved until just prior to our departure when we were notified that TAT agreed that the conditions were safe to land and take off from the Eldridge. A total of 3 planes would be used to get us onto the mountain. The planes soon arrived, dispatched their “flightseeing” passengers and we helped the pilots load gear. We squeezed 3 of us in the small back seat of a 1957 DeHavilland Beaver - a classic Alaskan bush plane. I questioned the wisdom of flying on a plane that was older that I was. But everything appeared up to date and well maintained.

We donned headsets with radios so we could communicate over the loud engines and were soon taking off. The area around Talkeetna is arctic tundra with many rivers braided through the landscape. I was surprised at the number of small cabins with no obvious roads or paths to reach them. I found out from the pilot you either come up the river in a boat, or get the Alaska Railroad to just stop and let you off near your cabin. Even then it looked like a 1-2 mile walk after that, although most people drive quad-runners.
 
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Alaska Range Trip Report - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – “Skis Down”

Shortly after takeoff the mountains came into view. It was a rare clear day and the initial view of the size and height of the Alaska Range gave me chills. Denali is enormous and dwarfs the surrounding terrain. As we flew closer to the surrounding mountains their size came into better perspective. First the valleys were green and lush leading upwards to rocky and then snowy slopes. Soon the green valleys were replaced by glaciers as the entire terrain became increasingly white. The pilot maneuvered through mountain passes that seemed barely wide enough to accommodate our plane. The engine strained in higher pitches as we climbed. He pumped a handle between the 2 front seats, explaining that he was lowering his skis for our glacier landing. Finally, we banked into a large glacial valley and slowly descended. The plane set down in the smoothest landing I have ever experienced. I could not tell when we actually touched down. We coasted uphill and then the pilot turned the plane in the downhill direction for his takeoff. The pilot gave the landing credit to the soft snow when I complimented him.

We quickly off loaded our gear, stopping briefly to stare at our home for the next 6 days. We were standing on a huge flat white glacier surrounded by rocky peaks. The map later revealed that the glacier was over a mile wide at the point where we landed.

The instructors were already probing the perimeter of our camp for crevasses. Using 9 foot avalanche probes they checked the entire perimeter at about 1 foot intervals and then made a “crosshair” traverse of the camp. The perimeter was wanded with small bamboo stakes and we were instructed not to stray outside of this perimeter unroped.

Next came our lesson in creating a level surface for tent placement. We were put into tent teams and began “work hardening” the snow by packing it down with our boots. We then shoveled out a flat tent platform with the help of an instructor on skis. The skis not only push around the snow but act as a level to reveal irregularities in the snow surface. We were instructed to face our tents away from the wind with about a 15 degree offset to prevent snowdrifts from forming in directly in front of the door. After setting up the tents we got to work on our kitchen, we dug out a deep pit with seats around the edges and a “counter space” for stoves. We erected a “megamid” over the top to keep the weather out. The kitchen became the social hub and entertainment center of each cook group.

By now it was about 6 PM and the guides informed us they would prepare dinner tonight, but each cook group would be responsible for their own meals during the remainder of the trip. Each group had been issued a set of food bags containing numerous unmarked plastic bags of various dried foods, cheeses, butter, and sweets. During our first meal (corkscrew pasta with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes in a tasty broth) the guides went over the various food options and how to prepare them.

Next we discussed sleeping comfortably. The instructors stressed the importance of taking off your used socks and putting them near your upper body in the sleeping bag to keep them warm and dry. We were told to keep a pair of socks just for sleeping, although I was more comfortable sleeping barefoot and did so throughout the trip. At about 7:30 PM we were told to be up by 6AM so we could be out of camp by 8 AM.

I stayed up for a bit longer trying to drink more water and “void” my bladder one more time before turning in. This was a bad strategy. About 1 hour after turning in I needed to go again and promptly filled my 14 oz “pee bottle” meaning I had to get up, get dressed and dump it in the camp latrine, a small area with a “privacy” snow wall in the downhill corner of the camp. I filled the bottle 2 more times that night. Between bathroom breaks and the fact that it never really got dark, I wound up with about 2 hours of quality sleep.
 
Wow excellent trip report and awesome pictures...would like to hear more about the Alaska Mountaneering School, and do some mountaneering myself one day, will have to start limiting the post hike pig outs soon...
 
Chapter 3 - What Crevasse?

The instructors asked everyone to be up by 6AM to get an early start on the day. I took my “morning shower” using personal wipes and wiggled into my clothes and out of the bag at about 5, since sleep was no longer a possibility. I had been warm and comfortable all night, but I think the lack of darkness kept me from sleeping. I decided the time had come to take the CMC for a test drive. It was surprisingly comfortable and the view of the glacier was spectacular and “moving”.

We had agreed to take turns cooking each day, so I figured I would go first as long as I was up. I was soon joined by another early riser and we got the stoves started and began melting snow. I dug into the food bags and came up with some bagels which I toasted in a pan with lots of butter. They were surprisingly good and I was complimented for my cooking.

After breakfast we divided into rope teams and learned how to tie into the rope using a butterfly hitch. We rehearsed belaying our ropemates and arresting falls. We roped up and set out for a small ridgeline above the camp that seemed very close, deceived by the lack of perspective. Only upon looking back at base camp could you gain a sense of how far away it was. We practiced kick stepping up hill, plunge stepping down hill, and self arrest with our mountain axes. The instructors decided we had learned enough that it was safe to climb a nearby 8000 ft peak.

As we proceeded to the top of the ridge line, the rope line stopped. Word traveled down the line that one of the students had broken through the snow and fallen into a crevasse. I quickly belayed my instructor as he probed his way to the lip of the crevasse to determine that the fallen climber was fine and was waiting for the word that it was safe for him to climb out. Another student had arrested the fall and was holding it while the instructor on that rope team built a snow anchor using a dead man picket. The other 2 instructors stayed on the downhill side of the crevasse making sure the fallen climber was OK and doing everything he was taught to do. As soon as the anchor was finished he climbed himself out of the crevasse just as we had trained in the climbing gym the day before. All of our day 1 training had worked! Needless to say, we abandoned the climb for that day and returned to camp around dinnertime.

After dinner the instructors decided we would be better off getting an earlier start while the snow was still firm from the night’s freeze. We got the order to be up by 3 AM and try to improve on this morning’s slow start of 2.5 hours to get out of camp.

I tried to drink water sooner, but still had to get up during the night to empty the bottle. My tentmate was having similar problems so we alternated getting up and dumping both bottles (now there’s a buddy system). After another fitful night’s rest, I had no problem wiggling out of the bag before 3AM. It had rained during the night.
 
Chapter 4 - First (and only) Summit

We all roped up and were leaving camp shortly after 5AM, totally enveloped in a cloud. A light mist soaked our outer layers. We returned to the ridgeline and put on crampons for a lesson in “French Technique”. Following this, we once again headed for the nearby summit. We gingerly crossed the crevasse and turned left to begin the ascent. The clouds cleared and the view of the valley on the other side of the ridgeline was visible for the first time. We were looking down into a 1500 ft chasm that dropped to the Buckskin Glacier below us. Our path came within about 20 yds uphill of the precipice, and I felt very exposed at first. Our instructor placed a running belay with a snow picket and I began to feel more comfortable. Others in the class admitted to feeling uncomfortable being so close to that edge. We sat on the summit and took in the views. The best view was west towards a series of impressive granite spires called “The Moose’s Tooth”. With some of the peaks in the sunlight and others shadowed by cloud cover; it looked a lot like a classic Ansel Adams shot of Yosemite.

After leaving the summit, we returned to the same crevasse for self rescue training. First we learned how to build a snow anchor by burying pickets, skis, snowshoes, packs, or even a pocket butane lighter. Yes, a well built snow anchor using butane lighter can support an entire rope team, although I would have to be pretty desperate to resort to using one. We were each to be lowered into the crevasse by an instructor and had to ditch our packs (which were lanyarded to the rope), connect our ascenders and foot prussiks, and climb our way out dragging our packs behind us. The crevasse was very narrow and only about 25 ft deep. It felt quiet and confined, like a closet full of pillows. I had to turn away from the wall to be able to wiggle out of my pack. Standing on the bottom of this crevasse both shoulders were squeezed by the walls it was so narrow. I snapped a few pictures and then set up my rig and started scaling out. The rope was dug into the lip at the top, but by kicking my toes into the wall I was able to stand and pull up on the rope and slide my ascender up high enough to pull myself out.

By now the sun was out and the outerwear gave way to sunscreen, wide brim hats, bandanas over the head, zinc oxide, and any other method to provide protection from what the instructors called “The Death Star”.

We returned to camp and the glacier felt almost tropical. We stripped down to base layer and had gloves, hats, jackets, and sleeping bags strung in every available spot to air out and dry in the sun. Melted snow and rain had accumulated on the cook tent fly and we eagerly scooped it into our water bottles, the less snow we needed to melt. I made it a point to start hydrating early. After dinner, we had a knot tying clinic in which we learned a Muenter hitch, autoblock, and mule hitch that are needed to tie off the rope for a crevasse rescue.

The instructors wanted to get another early start since we would be moving camp the next day. I crawled into my sleeping bag at about 7PM totally exhausted from lack of sleep the previous 2 nights. I put a bandana over my eyes to block out the light and managed to get 5 good hours of sleep.
 
Chapter 5 "High Camp"

Following breakfast we broke down the tents, packed our packs and sleds, and roped up for a trip up the glacier to a higher camp. I was excited to be climbing again. I was on the first rope team with my tentmate, who runs marathons. Needless to say, the instructor kept a blistering pace and we were way ahead of the other rope teams. Hauling a sled uphill while wearing a full pack was harder than I imagined it would be. I was glad when we stopped for a rest after about 45 minutes since I needed some water, but was disappointed when the instructor announced, this was going to be our new camp site. I soon found out we had run out of glacier to climb. We were in a small saddle which ended in an 1800 ft drop to the Buckskin Glacier.

Everyone else caught up and we began building Camp 2. Things were a bit cozier since there was less room here. We greatly improved our latrine, digging out a footbed so the CMC was at toilet seat height. We even added a holder for toilet paper and hand sanitizer. The snow was not as deep here and we actually dug down to glacier ice. It was not unlike a snow covered frozen lake. We learned how to build a snow wall around the camp to block the wind. The wall needed to be about the height of the tents with the same distance between the wall and tent. The instructors explained this made the wall high enough to be an effective wind block, left enough room to get to the tent to brush off any snow, and was close enough so a snow drift would not form between the wall and the tent. One person sawed blocks of snow with a snow saw, another lifted the block free with a shovel, and everyone else made a bucket brigade to pass the block down and place it. It made for a great team building exercise.

Once camp was set we started our crevasse rescue lesson. In this scenario, the fallen climber is unable to climb out of the crevasse due to injury and must be hauled out by 2 ropemates. This entailed all of the skills we had learned so far – arresting the fall, building and backing up a snow anchor, and tying off the rope to the anchor. We practiced several times each with a cold wind and snow blowing the entire time.

One of the guides probed a path out to a rocky outlook at the edge of the precipice. From this vantage point we could see Mt Foraker in the distance and the shoulder of Denali, both were obscured by clouds.
 
I just keep posting as I write it up. Probably take 2-3 more posts. It is helping me deal with the "letdown" after finishing this fantastic trip I had planned for a long time.
 
I'm holding a lighter up high. More more! :D
This is truly one of the most enjoyable trip reports I've read. The pictures are fantastic and I can't wait to read the next chapter.

I've been to Talkeetna (the West Rib Pub rules!) and I've been eyeing the AMS courses ever since. This thread might push me into making that dream a reality. I have questions but I'll wait until after the final chapter. I don't want any delays to this wonderful novelette. :)
 
Talkeetna, Alaska - a quaint drinking village with a climbing problem.
 
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