Beta Night: Denali

The Denali Girls: Jenn Carter, Carolyn Graham, Meredith Trainor, & Leigh Ann WolfeNovember 10th, 2015

Setting out to climb DenaliAll great climbing stories start the same way…

Setting out to climb DenaliSelecting a route

Who to climb with?

Identifying the window

Committing to the training

Accumulating the gear

Buying the plane ticket

Arriving at the airport in Anchorage!At 7,800’ camp, day 2!

Selecting a Route: Denali’s West Buttress

Building a Denali TeamWe were picky!

We sought partners with a diversity of strengths

We worked to make sure each member of our team was engaged, committed, felt heard, and felt cared for

We took representing all-women’s climbing teams very seriously

We said we wanted to “come back friends”

We didn’t give up on one another

We came back friends

(And we all summited!)

(Look how clean we were!)

Right before flying onto the glacier, May 13th

Denali Girl Advice: Building a Denali TeamDon’ts:

Go with just anyone. Denali is like a Cascades climb but much, much longer, so if you think it is frustrating finding out someone can be annoying over a weekend climb, imagine how that could backfire over twenty-five days!

Do’s:

Climb with people whose strengths are your weaknesses (and vice versa)

Give each participant a role which speaks to their strengths, and respect their leadership in their role

Come up with a cool name or interesting angle on your climb if you’re seeking funding or any other kind of support. We climbed Denali 45 years after the first all-woman team summited, and we were the only all-woman team (that we’re aware of) on the West Buttress route this year!

What’s a ‘Denali Girl’?The Denali Planning tick list:

Denali National Park & Preserve Climbing Permit

Every climbing party needs a name - and there are a lot of dorky ones out there!

Orientation with NPS Climbing Ranger - get your Clean Mountain Can!

Fly on (and off) date with Talkeetna-based flight service (we used Talkeetna Air Taxi, or TAT)

Commercial airline flight to Anchorage

Get your butt in gear (training!), and get the gear (and kiss your free time and disposable income good-bye!)

The original CMC: Bucket, screw top, haul strap, decompostable bags: your feces go here.

Denali Girl Advice: Planning and LogisticsDon’ts:

Shortchange yourselves on the planning end: you are going to work really, really hard to get to Denali, and you are going to spend a ton of money and time making it happen. Most guide services would say you only need 21 days to climb Denali - a lot of groups that only planned for 21 days last year turned around at 14 camp disappointed. Give yourselves 4 weeks and go back to work early, if you have to, but don’t short-change yourselves!

Do’s:Get your permits in early, so that you can fly onto the glacier on a date of your choosing - we put ours in

on January 9th

Schedule your flight onto the glacier for the beginning of the day, to avoid staying overnight in Basecamp. Plan on being in Talkeetna early the day before to get your weigh-in done.

Fly with TAT(!)

Plan for a conservative time window on the mountain - we gave ourselves 27 possible days, only got 25 of them off the bat, and used all 25 and then missed our flight home!

Biggest Surprise: Food poisoning upon arriving in Talkeetna!!! Good thing we scheduled all those extra days!

Denali Girl Advice: TrainingBig mountain climbing requires big mountain trainingPhysical training:

Develop a good aerobic baseSport specific conditioning High intensity trainingStrength trainingTechnical training: heavy load + extreme weather

clothingWinter technical training

self-rescue, crevasse rescue, snow conditions, glacier travel

Expedition camping: building camp + snow wallsRunning belay, ascender, sled

Denali Girl Advice: TrainingDon’ts: Procrastinate on starting a training program or avoid strength training

Do’s:

Training hikes with increasing weight 1-2x a week

Integrate high intensity interval training into aerobic training

Strength training for upper and lower body, core and back

Train as a team and individually

Train harder than you think the climb will be

Train mental toughness

Hold team accountable for training

Eat well, sleep, & allow good recovery

Biggest Surprise: Limit training with sleds. Figure out a system, test it (and make sure you’re happy with it), test crevasse rescue, and then put it away until packing for the expedition.

Develop a good aerobic base:Start NOW! An aerobic base is critical to laying the foundation for a successful training programAerobic training examples: Running, rowing, hiking, swimming, etc.

Do what works best for you!

Improve aerobic conditioning:Build upon aerobic baseMimic what you’ll be doing on the mountain:

Step-ups, hiking, sled drags, carrying heavy loads, picking up heavy loads...High intensity interval training

Significantly increase aerobic and anaerobic fitnessEfficient training Strength training:

Moving heavy loads day after day requires strengthUpper body, lower body, core, and back

Denali Girl Advice: Training

Train pulling a sled without pulling a sled!

Denali Girls Training:

5 months Denali-specific training (January - May, 2015)

Team training:

Weekly night hikes & long hikes with increasing weight (up to #60+)

Winter camping overnights

Individual training:

Strength training 2-3x per week

Aerobic training:

Running, rowing, hiking, swimming, CrossFit, interval training…

Double days (two workouts a day):

Strength & conditioning

Denali Girl Advice: Training

Technical training: be comfortable with rescue methods and all of your gear

Don’t let a minor injury stop you from training. There’s always a modification you can make that will allow you to keep improving your fitness!

Don’ts: Use your training program as a diet plan or over-train

Do’s:

Eat well & recover wellEat to perform!

You’re training like it’s your job, so you should eat like your job depends on it!

You’re an athlete, eat like oneGet enough protein, limit inflammatory foods, eat lots of veggies and fruitTake time for soft tissue mobility work (one more reason to get a massage)

Sleep: get as much as possible

Add supplementation that will support all of your training & help you recover

Make time for your family & friends

Denali Girl Advice: Training + Nutrition

Denali Girl Advice: Food!

This is too much food.

Denali Girl Advice:FoodDon’ts:

Bring food you know you don’t love! If you don’t ever eat bars, you definitely won’t love them at altitude!

Bring a lot of junk food. When your body is hungry like it will be on the mountain, you’ll want what sustains you - we had good results with cheese, rice, coconut curry (yummm), pasta, and protein (smoked salmon, dried beef, dehydrated chicken, etc).

Bring more food than you think you can ever possibly eat. Know thyself...

Do’s:

Bring lots of flavoring or powders that encourage drinking: ginger teas, regular tea, hot cocoa, Cytomax, powdered coffees, and others all kept us hydrated.

Make your first priority upon getting into camp getting the stove and water started, and then getting something hot, liquid, and calorie-rich into everyone’s hands! It staves off the hangry.

Biggest Surprise: It can be devastatingly hard to eat at altitude. Bring calories you can drink!

Denali Girl Advice: GearGear is one of the most expensive aspects of

the climb - we spent in the vicinity of $5-6K on new or additional or upgraded gear, and that’s with discounts from local gear shops and access to prodeals!

We went with -40 gear almost uniformly because we planned an early season climb - on May 31st we were all wearing our -40 parkas for the climb onto the summit!

We each found different setups that worked for our physique, body temp, body type, and feet. Don’t be afraid to go your own way - you know yourself best.

Photo credit: Kristen Novack Abreu

Denali Girl Advice: GearDon’ts:

Cut corners. Unless you sleep really, really warm, you will want a -40 bag and parka. The same goes for stoves and other technical gear - get the good stuff - you are putting so much energy and money into this climb, you may as well do it right and give yourselves the tools you need to succeed.

Bring “extra” base layers. Your base layers will be DISGUSTING at the end, but I’ll bet you $40 that your extra baselayer doesn’t make it past 11 camp. Weight matters too much by then, and cleanliness...just doesn’t.

Do’s:

Trust your gut about what kinds of layers you will wear, what material you prefer.

Spread out your gear purchasing over time, and start early (we bought our first stove in October) - the more you spread it out, the less it hurts.

Bring a cook tarp or tent! If you follow no other piece of advice, follow this one!

Biggest Surprise: Being cold enough en route to the summit to put on all our warmest layers before we got there (while we were traversing the summit ridge). That’s some serious cold!

Gear we loved, and would bring again:Meredith: LaSportiva Spantik boots, Patagonia R4 base layer with hood, -40 everything, our Megamid cook tent, our foam tent floors, pee bottle and female urinary device, cough drops

Jenn: Cilo Gear Denali Pack, Feathered Friends Down Booties, Koflach Arctis Expe Boots with Denali Intuition Liners, Fairshare Mug with nesting Sea to Summit Mug and folding Sea to Summit Spoon, Old eInk Kindle (no touch screen)

Leigh Ann: Mountain Hardwear Drystein Bibs, LaSportiva Spantik boots, Patagonia R4 base layer (top), Mammut Denali base layer (bottom), Nalgene pee bottle

Carolyn: Afrin and Breathe-Right Nasal Strips (I had a 30+ day cold), Koflach Degre boots with Intuition liners (heat molded at Feathered Friends), Black Diamond Coefficient Pants (base layer), Patagonia Alpine Guide softshell pants, Black Diamond WindWeight Liner gloves (worn almost exclusively)

Gear we didn’t love or need, so much:Meredith: Extra base/mid-layer, gaiters, Arc’Teryx waffle fleece that froze into a yellow octopus and never recovered, baseball hat with built-in drape to cover neck, copious amounts of food, a lot of medication and toiletry items, too many hand and foot warmers

Jenn: lightweight base layer, earplugs froze solid and were never used again, jelly beans, ice screws, poles/ pulks for the sleds

Leigh Ann: Lightweight base layers, toiletries, food, gaiters (didn’t bring, didn’t need)

Carolyn: tent floor foam (wasn’t cold enough to justify the weight); 6x2 packs of hand warmers (gave them all away at 17k camp, never used); too much food

Denali Girl Advice: Sleds and TechnicalDon’ts: Bring more anchor material (pickets, ice screws, runners, etc) than recommended, for protecting the route - chances are they will be in place when you get there. Carry sufficient anchors for standard rescue, as a baseline.

Do’s:

Practice crevasse rescue hanging off the Mountaineers building (North Plaza) with your sled.

Practice passing pickets/fixed gear on a glacier rope.

Discuss how you will descend with the sleds.

Bring plenty of loose biners for clipping into the fixed protection.

Practice ascending and descending fixed lines. Bring an ascender for the non-dominant hand and two personal anchors (one for the ascender and one for moving over fixed gear).

Biggest Surprise: The route is usually well-wanded with abundant fixed protection everywhere you need it (and some places you don’t, but clip it anyway!)

Don’ts: Go overboard on buying stuff for the first aid kit

Do’s:

Carry over the over-the-counter meds for headaches, colds/ viruses, and gastrointestinal yucks. Seems like the most common minor issues are either altitude related (headaches, fatigue, nausea etc.) and the general “crud” viruses (colds, gastrointestinal yucks) that go around 14 Camp.

Go see your doctor or UW travel clinic to get prescription drugs for climb: Acetazolamide (trade name Diamox) start taking 24 hours before landing on the glacier. We all upped the dosage as we went higher.

Biggest Surprise: When you catch a cold virus at 14,000 ft, you won’t get better until you go down, so cold meds and cough drops to relieve the symptoms.

Denali Girl Advice: Medical and First Aid

Denali Girl Advice: Repair KitDon’ts: Go overboard buying stuff for the repair kit. We didn’t need all the hose clamps and wire and stuff for ski repairs as we didn’t have skis.

Do’s:

Learn to clean your stove at home. You will need to clean the stove every few days!

Carry an extra pump in case you melt one.

Carry tent repair (crampons and AMS together ugg)

Biggest Surprise: We knew we would have to clean the stoves, but I was surprised at just how much we had to mess around with the stoves to get them to work efficiently.

Denali Girl Advice: Emergency Response Don’ts: Freak out your non-climber loved ones with all the details of your emergency response.

Do’s:

Get a PLB that can send “OK” signals. We had a basic SPOT.

Coordinate an in-town response team/ phone tree and set clear expectations of exactly what you want to happen in every possible situation.

Let everybody know that a lack of an ‘OK’ signal doesn’t mean anything as signals don’t always get out.

Let everybody know that your party will assist with the rescue of others, and may deploy your emergency beacon if help is needed to rescue others.

Set up your SPOT to post automatically to your blog and facebook.

Biggest Surprise: When we were late flying home from the glacier, our in-town response team had the information needed to piece together what was happening and brief our families and employers on the situation. So cool!

Denali Girl Advice by the Numbers: What it Takes to Reach 20,310’

• 6 months of intensive planning/preparation

• 15.5 hours per week of training (17 week avg)

• 4 weeks away from home/work• $7,000 in gear and travel expenses

($240/day for 29 days)• 25 days on the mountain• 4 consecutive days of good weather

(low wind!) for traditional summit push

Climbing Denali is a LOT of work!

Weighing in our gear at TAT headquarters, Talkeetna, AK

25 days on the Mountain?!• Time for moving heavy loads

up the mountain• Time for proper

acclimatization• Time for waiting out storms• Time for building camps and

snow walls• Time for melting snow for

water/cooking• Everything takes more TIME in

winter conditions7,800’ Camp during the blizzard on our return trip - we were stuck in our tents there for three days

Denali Girl Expedition: 600 lbs of Gear150 lbs per person:

• 56 lbs food for 24 days (2.3 lb/person/day)

• 6 lbs food left at base camp• 16 lbs group climbing and winter

camping gear• 10 lbs fuel (1.25 gallons per person)• 62 lbs (everything else)

➢parka, boots, overboots, snowshoes, crampons, ice axe, poles, harness, carabiners, -40 F sleeping bag, sleeping pads, goggles, gloves, -40 F mittens, etc.

Denali Girl Strategy: Heavy LoadsHeavy Loads:

• Day 1: Single carry from Kahiltna Base Camp to 7800’ camp.

• Minimize effort building camps (ie skip Basecamp, 9500’ camp).

• Cache food+fuel before moving to 11k, 14k and 17k camps.

• Take all sleds to 14K Camp!• Moving Camp: packs are heaviest on

these days. Do all possible prep work the night before.

Sound Acclimatization:• Sleep at 14k camp no earlier than

Night 8• 3-5 days to reach 10k• then 1,000’ ascent/day, rest

every third day• Spend at least 5 nights at 14k camp

before moving to 17k camp

25 Days on the Mountain

Food poisoning!

Headed up and around the Windy Corner - bound for 14 Camp

Descending from caching our gear at 13,500’ - headed downhill, toward Windy Corner

Home, Sweet Megamid. (Sweet nose cover, Mer)

Ascending the fixed lines above 14 Camp (which is in the upper right-hand corner of the image)

Above the fixed lines (16,200’), heading towards Washburn’s Thumb (16,600’)

Traversing the 17 ridge, Foraker (Sultana) in the distance

17 (High) Camp, with Denali Pass above the tents

Summit day - May 31st 2015, “Zebra” Rocks, 18,300’ (but they made at least one of us crave Oreo’s!)

Summit! summit marker!

Leigh Ann arrives on the summit followed by Jenn, and Carolyn, May 31st 8:08pm

Mer’s “Summit” selfie, taken from the top of Pig Hill (20,000+ft elevation), the beginning of the summit ridge.

(taken on descent)

Thanks to our Sponsors

And for product in-kind:

AcknowledgementsOur climb was supported, encouraged, subsidized and otherwise endowed with gear by

many people who are in the room tonight, and some who are not. We remain grateful for the tremendous enthusiasm this club had, and has, for our climb. You guys are awesome!

We made use of beta that was passed down from within this community and from other sources, and we were grateful for all of it. Thanks to the many people who shared their own experiences, to improve ours.

We’d particularly like to thank partners and loved ones that supported us as we geared up for this trip: Big thanks in particular go out to Ed Palushock, Jack Stowe, Mike Ng, Jim Norton, Paul Bongaarts, Bree Loewen, and pups Banjo & Beatrix.

Thank You!

For more info, check out our blog: www.thedenaligirls.com