Page 38 - 2015 AMA Autumn

Alaska had been on my horizon all winter, an agreement between my partner Roeland and me that we would share an adventure further afield on a big mountain in the spring. It had been on my horizon but just slightly out of sight, for Exercise Alpine Arc 2015 had dominated all of my time, first in organising the project and then in leading it. Roeland proposed the Cassin Ridge, a famous 2 500m Grade V route on Denali in Alaska. (Denali at 6194m is the highest peak in North America.) The route is also in the famous book “50 classic climbs of North America” and has been an aspiration goal of mine for many years. He agreed to plan our adventures in Alaska entirely, allowing me the freedom to just say yes.
So I said yes in 2014, several months before the start of what proved to be a very busy winter and at the time I firmly meant it.
In April, after prolonged report writing closing down Exercise Alpine Arc, combined with a vague feeling that I just needed some time sat under a tree (reading a book and listening to the wind blow softly through the branches above me), I was not prepared for the physical and mental rigour demanded by a big trip to a cold snowy mountain. The timing, for me, proved terrible.
Nevertheless Roeland and I travelled to Alaska with the hope of getting the weather and conditions which would allow us a shot at the famous South Ridge of Denali; the Cassin route. That first week of acclimatising, dragging sleds across many kilometres of glacier, battling through wind and snow, digging in camps, building snow-block walls, shovelling out the tent, peeing into a bottle above my sleeping bag, emptying said pee-bottles, shitting into plastic bags in cans and sleeping constrained within my sleeping bag in a frost lined tent... and I just wasn’t ready for it. I wasn’t in the right state of mind to have to put the effort in, and considerable effort was required; is always required just to survive out on the glacier, let alone climb a 2500m technical climb to the summit of a 6194m mountain. I felt guilty at having said yes to Roeland, to a project that I clearly wasn’t in the right state of mind for. I certainly wasn’t the best climbing partner for him at the start and I was acutely aware that I had let him down.
The first week passed and we’d made good progress, established a camp at 14,000ft and checked out the fixed lines above before a couple of bad weather days set in. Bringing 90kph winds and several feet of new snow and bringing some welcome tent-bound rest. I spent the morning of my birthday wrapped in the cosy warmth of my sleeping bag listening to the wind howling outside
the tent as Roeland gallantly did the first round of snow shovelling. Preventing us being entirely entombed in the growing snowdrift. Later I managed to rouse myself and take my turn... :)
After a few days settled in at 14 000ft, reading books, chatting and eating, whiling away the bad weather (and not hauling a heavy sled uphill on my bruised hips) I began to feel more content and happier to be there. Then finally we gained a break in the weather and the stunning scenery and sheer grandeur of the place began to take a hold... and I started to feel more motivated and better about being there and our chances of success on the mountain. Roeland never stopped believing that we could do it, and also that we could climb the route fast, in a single push. His faith and thorough planning helped me start to believe as well...
The satellite weather forecast that Roeland had arranged told us that we had four good days of weather coming up and then another, bigger storm which would probably mean the end of
Timing is
everything:
Hard and fast on the Cassin.
36 ARMY MOUNTAINEER