Woke up a number of times during the night with headaches but eventually rose at 7.30am with the sound of everyone else moving around packing for a summit bid. Weather is perfect – warm, clear skies with only a little spindrift being blown off the summit indicating manageable winds. Went for a big ‘dump’ which is always an immensely satisfying action when faced with a big day ahead. The lack of personal space didn’t matter, the ‘toilet’ (a plastic bag in the snow) is a metre from the guides tent and in full view of everyone else, no room for modesty up here.
We set off at 9am for the summit, two rope teams, our ‘Team Bollocks’ consisting of Dave (G), Andy, Ben and me. The now wanded rote up the upper Harper passed without incident and in about 1 hour we had reached Denali Pass and had a break to refuel. Continue up a short steep section around Archedeacon’s Tower offering good snow conditions and a short 20m route of 45 deg snow/ice. At the top of the section the guys suddenly seemed to increase the pace leaving me gasping for breath. We stopped to layer up, suddenly the temperatures had dropped to around -20 and the wind had noticeably picked up leaving my gloved hands numb with cold. Full summit mitts, face mask, goggles & hat plus Jim’s Down Jacket were needed. The ground now eased enabling good altitude gain without getting too steep. We came to the football fields and actually began descending, a bit depressing to give back height you had already gained but I felt good as did everyone else on the rope team and we had a long wait for the other guys at the base of the aptly named Pig Hill. We waited around 30 mins before the other team came into sight. We then moved up Pig Hill together, the ground getting steeper with slopes of 40 -45 degs making it a true Pig of a Hill. Having left our packs at the bottom though we went strongly up the hill to gain the short summit ridge and get great views of the Alaskan range. The ridge was corniced and exposed but only a short section to the top. I believe we were the first summiteers of the day and we spent half an hour on top taking in the views which were superb. To the South was the huge Denali S. Face, to the North, a 100m drop down to the Football Fields.
The team moved back down in good order and returned to camp at 6pm, approx 10 hour round trip but everyone seemed in good order.
We set off at 9am for the summit, two rope teams, our ‘Team Bollocks’ consisting of Dave (G), Andy, Ben and me. The now wanded rote up the upper Harper passed without incident and in about 1 hour we had reached Denali Pass and had a break to refuel. Continue up a short steep section around Archedeacon’s Tower offering good snow conditions and a short 20m route of 45 deg snow/ice. At the top of the section the guys suddenly seemed to increase the pace leaving me gasping for breath. We stopped to layer up, suddenly the temperatures had dropped to around -20 and the wind had noticeably picked up leaving my gloved hands numb with cold. Full summit mitts, face mask, goggles & hat plus Jim’s Down Jacket were needed. The ground now eased enabling good altitude gain without getting too steep. We came to the football fields and actually began descending, a bit depressing to give back height you had already gained but I felt good as did everyone else on the rope team and we had a long wait for the other guys at the base of the aptly named Pig Hill. We waited around 30 mins before the other team came into sight. We then moved up Pig Hill together, the ground getting steeper with slopes of 40 -45 degs making it a true Pig of a Hill. Having left our packs at the bottom though we went strongly up the hill to gain the short summit ridge and get great views of the Alaskan range. The ridge was corniced and exposed but only a short section to the top. I believe we were the first summiteers of the day and we spent half an hour on top taking in the views which were superb. To the South was the huge Denali S. Face, to the North, a 100m drop down to the Football Fields.
The team moved back down in good order and returned to camp at 6pm, approx 10 hour round trip but everyone seemed in good order.
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