"An Adventure of a Lifetime"

Mt McKinley (Denali) Alaska – Summit Photos at 20,320ft (1/7/2011)

Darren Wise — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:01:43 +0000

We have been home from our Denali (Alaska) expedition for over 6 weeks now, so we thought we had better upload some summit photos. We are hoping to write a bit of a story about our adventure over the coming months, but in the meantime, below are some photos taken on the summit of Mt McKinley (Denali) at 20,320ft on the 1^st July 2011.

We can honestly say that Denali is a very tough and unforgiving mountain. For much of the expedition, the prospects of us actually making the summit looked very grim due to poor weather conditions. It took us 4 days to get on to the glacier to start the expedition, and then we were hit with more bad weather at 14,000ft camp. On an expedition like this, you only have 5-7 bad weather days up your sleeve to make a push for the summit.

After a few days of poor weather at 14,000ft camp, lady luck smiled upon giving us a weather break to move to 17,000ft camp, where we had a day’s rest. The following day presented us with a reasonable summit window, so we went for it. It is fairly unusual on Denali to get a clean run from 14,000ft camp, to 17,000ft camp and then have the right weather and snow conditions for a summit attempt. Many teams wait for days at 17,000ft camp for the right weather and snow conditions for a summit attempt given the instability of the weather at that high altitude. We definitely had some luck on our side.

Standing on the summit of this great mountain was an overwhelming experience. Given that we were constantly facing the prospect of not making it to the summit, we felt both very privileged, as well as perhaps even relieved that we would not have to make a return journey to have another go at this great mountain.

The completion of Denali which was mountain number No.5, now puts us on a collision course with the mighty Mt Everest on our quest to complete the ‘7 Summits’……….stay tuned.

Aiming Higher, One Mountain at a Time

Darren Wise — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:41:15 +0000

A recent article from Central Coast News.

View this document on Scribd

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Darren Wise — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:36:36 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #16 Finally Off the Mountain!

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers: Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Mike Pond called at 11:00am, Pacific Time.

There was a brief — very brief — weather window last night, and everybody was able to get off the mountain. We literally had ten minutes to pack up and everybody made it happen.

The team got off the mountain at about 9pm….just in time to enjoy the Fourth of July in Talkeetna!

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Monday, July 4, 2011

Darren Wise — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:07:04 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #15 Back at Base Camp

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers:Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Chantel called at 4:40pm on July 3rd with this dispatch:

“Hi! This is Team Behind Schedule Again calling from Base Camp on Day 22 of our expedition. Well, we were briefly on schedule but now we’re not because we are socked in with bad weather, base camp style. We’re sitting In our tents enjoying ourselves, but we’d be enjoying ourselves a lot more if we were flying back to Talkeetna and preparing to come home!

We arrived here early Saturday morning on schedule! We summited Thursday and left high camp at 17,200 feet on Friday on schedule. We made it down to 14,000 camp in good time and the kept on going Friday evening and through the night, arriving here in the wee hours of Saturday morning on schedule!

The lower glacier was not easy. The snowpack was really soft so we had to be extra vigilant about crevasses. We were wallowing at times, but everyone did great. We just kept a moderate but steady pace, and we made it here in really good time considering the conditions.

So everybody’s pretty antsy to get off the beautiful Kahiltna, but the weather is the weather, and in contrast to ourselves, this weak, little low-pressure-system doesn’t seem anxious to go anywhere. We hope everyone at home is doing well, and we are looking forward to seeing you soon!”

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Friday, July 1, 2011

Darren Wise — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:04:29 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #14 Success!

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers:Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Chantel called at 11pm on June 30th with this dispatch:

“Hi! This is Team Back on Track and On Schedule!!! We’re calling from High Camp. Mat, Mike, the rest of the team and I summited today! We got back to camp at about 10pm, so it was about a 12-hour day. It was really cold, but we had great views. Everyone did awesome – what a super strong group! Tomorrow we’ll head down to 14,000 feet and get to Base Camp on Saturday, as scheduled! Erik wants to tell his Mom Happy Birthday. And that’s it, goodnight, we’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Thursday, June 30, 2011

Darren Wise — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 02:17:38 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #14 Summit Success!

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Chantel called at 11pm on June 30th with this dispatch:

“Hi! This is Team Back on Track and On Schedule!!! We’re calling from High Camp. Mat, Mike, the rest of the team and I summited today! We left at 10am and got back to camp at about 10pm, so it was a 12-hour day. It was really cold – about -10F ujp high with some wind, but we had blue skies and great views. Everyone did awesome – what a super strong group! Tomorrow we’ll head down to 14,000 feet and get to Base Camp on Saturday, as scheduled! Erik wants to tell his Mom Happy Birthday. And that’s it, goodnight, we’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Darren Wise — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:30:53 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #13 High Camp

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers:Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Chantel called at 10:19 on June 29th with this dispatch:

“Good news with this dispatch. Yesterday we packed up and moved to High Camp finally. We’re all sleeping into today because we got into camp late last night, around 8pm or so. We had to wait for a weather window and it was cold. We were all moving slowly. The forecast is not awesome but its OK. We have a handful of days left on this expedition, and I’m not sure if we’ll get a window but there is still a chance. Right now it feels warm and there’s fresh snow. The low pressure feels like we’re sitting 1,500 feet higher than we actually are. It feels like there’s less oxygen up here. The group wanted to shout out to Denis; we hope you’re well. Talk to you later.”

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Monday, June 27, 2011

Darren Wise — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 08:02:02 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #12 Still at 14

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers:Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Mike Pond called at 5:00 pm on June 27th with this dispatch:

“Hi! This is Mike again, and we are behind schedule if you haven’t heard. The weather has once again decided to keep that trend going. Today looked a little promising but high winds picked up and the team got shut down again. It looks like it’s going to be brutal tomorrow, too. We saw an avalanche on the Autobahn yesterday as well. Right now we’re establishing an official turn around time – maybe it will be later this week but we’re still keeping our fingers crossed. We still might have a chance at the summit. Talk to you later.”

[Khai and Leslie are going down with another guided team today].
Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Sunday, June 26, 2011

Darren Wise — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:01:13 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #10 – Weather Day

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers:Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Chantel called Saturday, June 25th at 5:48pm with the following brief message:

“Hey everyone. This is Chantel calling to let you know we’ve been taking a weather day today. Winds have been 25 to 45 miles per hour, and we’ve gotten six inches to a foot of snow. So we just need to wait for some improvement.

We had a nice breakfast of cereal and fruit this morning and then went out and improved our snow walls and built an extension onto a couple of them. All went well, and each of our climbers is doing a great job coping with these challenging conditions.

We don’t have any messages to convey today, but we do have a haiku:

“Snow precedes the winds . . .”

[at this point the quality of the tranmission became very poor, and we could not hear the second and third lines]

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc

Expedition Update – Mt McKinley (Alaska) Sunday, June 26, 2011

Darren Wise — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 06:23:40 +0000

Denali Team 7: June 12 to July 2 Dispatch #10 – Weather Day

Guides:Chantel Astorga, Mike Pond, and Mat Erpelding

Climbers:Leslie Brown (Washington), Darren Wise (Australia), Shane Pophfer (Australia), Khai Nguyen (California), Denis Levin (Australia), Andrew Sargant (Australia), Erik Akerberg (Sweden), Neill Johanson (Australia), and Dale Wagner (Utah).

Chantel called Saturday, June 25th at 5:48pm with the following brief message:

We don’t have any messages to convey today, but we do have a haiku:

“Snow precedes the winds . . .”

[at this point the quality of the tranmission became very poor, and we could not hear the second and third lines]

Expedition update courtesy of: American Alpine Institute www.aai.cc