Page 20 - 1998-99 AMA Winter

Dark Shadows on Denali
By Captain J B Featherstone
The slope was stepped and interspersed with car-sized boulders which meant
that I could not see the front rope. “Mar­ tin’s rope has fallen”, the shout broke the concentration that I needed to haul myself
up the slope at 19, 000 feet with the effects
of hypoxia slowly draining me; the chain of events that followed would take the expedi­
tion from the edge of success to a four day trial of endurance on North America’s highest peak.
Sgt Johnston (L) and Sgt Spooner (R) bask at 18.000 ft on summit day. 18 Jun 1998.
On the 1st of June 1998 a ten strong team, led by myself, were complete in Alaska. Most of the team came from the 1st Battal­ ion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regi­ ment, although it included members of the Parachute Regiment, the APTC and 22 Engineer Regiment. Their aim was to climb Denali, also known as Mt McKinley, and then to descend it by three intercon­ necting white water rivers to the sea. With an altitude of 20, 320 feet, Denali has one of the most extreme climates of any mountain in the world; it lies in the sub-arctic zone and regularly experiences tem peratures down to minus fifty degrees above 17,000 feet. This is exacerbated by severe storms that sweep in from the Bearing Straits and Gulf of Alaska that can be accompanied by winds in excess of one hundred miles per hour. In this environm ent the team were to climb fourteen horizontal miles and over thirteen thousand feet in ascent. Once this was complete they were to fly out by float­ plane on to Chelatna Lake where they would raft and kayak one hundred and ten miles of rivers, including many stretches of rapids, before arriving just short of the coast at Cook Inlet.
The first two weeks of the expedition had gone entirely to plan. The advance party had obtained all the necessary rations and smoothed an easy passage through the final
r .
preparations before the rest of us arrived. This meant that we flew on to the Kahilt- na Glacier on the 3rd of June, the white- knuckle flight by Doug Geeting’s ski planes was still as terrifying the second time round. Over the next week the team hauled loads of up to ninety pounds up the glacier. These were carried by bergan and sled across the heavily crevassed terrain, the exertion of the days only lessened by views of the stupendous peaks that bound­ ed our route like sentinels to both the East and West. The end of a leg signalled the frantic activity of digging pits and build­ ing walls of snow blocks to protect the tents before cooking could begin. Even then the inviting sleeping bags had to be ignored until the evenings training with the group, usually done by Sgt Spooner and Sgt Johnston, had been completed. Only then could one retreat in to downy
LCpI Cora on steep ground at 17,300 ft on summit day - 18 Jun
*
luxury, sometimes to stare out of the tent opening at the views lit by the never fading Alaskan summer light.
It was whilst moving up to 10, 200 feet that a sudden blizzard engulfed the team; the wanded safe route was obliterated from view and the biting wind chilled our sweat­ ing bodies instantly; there was no option, we had to dig in where we stood at 9, 800. For four days from the 6th we were storm bound. Tent life was monotonous, the dull regime was only broken to get dressed in order to dig out snowdrifts around the tent that sometimes reached four foot in height. We all chatted in our nylon worlds, sharing precious books and intimacies that few of us would normally divulge outside of such a situation. It was a great relief when the storm had abated on the 10th, signalled by the warming rays of the morning sun heat­ ing up our cocoons. W ith m inim al delay the whole team set off to make a cache at 10, 900 feet where our next camp would be. The lack of exertion for all of the team, bar five, meant that we reached the site within two hours - we were back on track. Over the next three days we pushed our camp up to 14, 200 feet passing below the end of the West Buttress route and traversing across an abnormally becalmed Windy Corner, so named because of its exposure to the fero­ cious winds that are channelled down the southern side of Denali. As we pushed on against aching muscles late on the 13th the Upper West Rib at last came into view; the effort had been worth it as it arched out away from us, ever-present for the rest of the expedition. Over the next few days I co-ordinated preparations for the sum m it bid. This included discussing the route with the Rangers permanently camped
here, ensuring our tent pits were secure, checking on the team’s acclimatisation and
18 Army .Mountaineer