By Curtis Jones in climbing — 30 May 2008

Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 26

Summit Day

It was beatuiful this morning when Mike woke us up. The sun was already warming the tent - hours before it did so yesterday. There was already at least 50 people heading up Denali Pass. It is a very nice morning at 17k.

Breakfast was oatmeal, again, and I've decided to skip it. Definitely not my brightest idea yet, given that this is summit day. Oh well. I'm sick of oatmeal.

I slipped on my long underwear without taking my pants off completely and without emerging from my sleeping bag. Now that's impressive.

It's been a couple of hours and a ton of people are on their way up. I can see RMI 3, 4 and Paul and Jamie. We're packing up. Our packs are very light, but the altitude (20,320') is ridiculous. I'm sure that by the end of this trip today, the packs won't feel very light. My toes are cold and after all of the rescues we've been privy to, my mind instantly starts thinking about losing them to frostbite.

Getting up to the Denali Pass is a serious workout. And __ILLEGIBLE__ short break and we're off.

__ILLEGIBLE__ I've never been kicked around by wind so strong and cold. I almost fell over a few times. Its a good thing I had my goggles and face mask. We heard from Olivia that the winds are much calmer at the football field which is just anther 500' above.

True to her word, the football field was scenic, bright and only a little breezy; it sure was a lot better there. We descended into the football field, which means that we have to walk up hill to get out after we summit. I'm sure that'll be fun. Mike just told us that we're ditching our packs here in the football field. We only need to bring our parkas and a bottle of water. Now that's a very nice surprise.

We only have to scramble up Pig Hill and then cross the summit ridge. My toes are still numb. They've been numb for hours now.

We did it! That was harder than it sounded and looked. Pig Hill sucks and the summit ridge went on and up forever. And it got seriously windy. Seven-ish hours after we left the serenity of our 17k camp, we were standing on the summit of Denali and we were only there for a few minutes because it was so cold and windy. My camera refused to operate and my GPS had given up shortly before.

Time to head back down. I guess we have to start by heading back _up_ out of the football field. Bummer.

Back at camp we're all in our sleeping bags mostly just contemplating the day that just was. What a day. Going back down was no picnic, but it thawed my toes, As each team returned, they sort of just flopped down in front of camp and did nothing but enjoy breathing. I took off my crampons, over boots, boots, boot liners, socks and sock liners and found ten very healthy looking toes.

Assuming we all feel good tomorrow morning, we'll pack up camp and head down to a lower camp. And possibly all the way to base camp. Sunday we should be engrossed in alcohol and unhealthy food, in an effort to regain all our lost weight. The weather is supposed to be good tomorrow and we're planning on heading out of here around noon. For the past twenty-six days, and really, for the past quite-a-few months, my goal has been to make it to the top of this mountain. After twenty-three days on this mountain, the moment my foot touched the summit, my goal instantly changed to, "climb back down the mountain, fly back to Talkeetna, take a shower and get some real food." Instantly changed.

For the record, we awoke at 07:30, left camp at 10:30, summitted at 18:00, and returned at 22:00.

I doubt I'll have any problems going to sleep now. Good night.

The day has finally come. The moment of truth. We start gearing up for our summit attempt. That's me.

Everyone is getting ready to go.

A couple hours later, we near the top of the first climb, which puts us on Denali Pass. It's beautiful (but cold) up here.

And we keep on going. One climb after another. Eventually, the wind really starts picking up.

Looking out over the mountains below us.

Taking a break.

Taking a break - with googles, parkas and mits. It's rather chilly out. That's my butt (or lack thereof) prominently displayed in this picture.

We stop for a break in the football field. You can see Pig Hill here. This is the last big climb before we get on the summit ridge. You'd think that would put us right near the top, but, no, it's a long walk across the ridge before you get to the summit. And its here (in the football field) that we ditch our packs and just take along some a liter of water.

A lot of people are summitting today, and there's nothing more fun that having a bunch of rope teams intersect and try to pass each other on an impossibly narrow trail without snagging the various ropes. Going down sure does look like fun though.

The summit, finally ... looking back at the summit ridge. Mt. Foraker is in the background.

The summit marker. 20,320 feet. I believe it was placed there in 1989.

The batteries in my camera freaked out at the -50F temperatures (including windchill), so, this is my only summit pic - that's me bent over, dealing with something - probably my crampons.

A classic summit shot.

We leave the summit fairly quickly because of the winds, go back across the summit ridge, down Pig Hill to the football field, pick up our (fairly light) packs (after a short break) and head back down to camp. Going down is easy - even at 19,000+ feet. The sense of satisfaction is impossible to describe. Its everything we had been working for, for the past several weeks.

Continuing on down, one hill after another. This was easy going.

Heading on down. We're making good time. I'm second from the front.

We're finally back at the top of Denali Pass. All we have to do is scurry on down back to camp. Of course, this ended up taking *forever*. It's always slow going when you have to deal with the running belays and a six-inch wide "trail".

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