Categories

Content Type

Sources

Attempt to be 1st woman to scale McKinley in winter hindered by blizzard

By Beth Bragg, McClatchy Newspapers, Source: MCT News Service

ANCHORAGE, Alaska _ Challenged by scarce daylight, blowing snow and zero visibility, the first woman attempting to scale Mount McKinley in winter is hunkered down at 10,000 feet, where she and her partner have been living in a snow cave since last Sunday.

At least Christine Feret has good company. A French woman who has become an American citizen and makes her home in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of south-central Alaska , Feret is climbing with Artur Testov, a Russian-turned-Alaskan who may have as much winter-time experience as anyone on North America's tallest mountain.

This is Testov's fourth attempt to scale the 20,320-foot mountain in the winter _ a feat that has been accomplished by only 16 people, Testov included. Two of those who have stood atop Denali in the cold, dark winter died on the descent. Another four have died on the way up.

Feret and Testov started their adventure on Feb. 23 with 260 pounds of gear, or enough to get them through a month on the mountain, according to climb coordinator Josef Princiotta of Anchorage.

But blowing snow and whiteout conditions have pinned them down at 10,000 feet_about 2,800 vertical feet above the 7,200-foot Kahiltna Glacier, where Talkeetna Air Taxi dropped them Feb. 23. In recent days, they've had to dip into their fuel supply to stay warm.

"They're still in the same snow cave, and the problem is, you don't move around in a snow cave, so they're having to burn a little gas," said Princiotta, who has been able to speak to Feret every day via satellite phone.

"I don't want to say they'll be short on fuel _ but they'll have less to carry. It'll make them lighter as soon as the day comes along with good weather, and then they'll try to climb rather quickly."

Saturday's report from Feret brought a bit of good news, Princiotta said. The howling wind changed directions so blowing snow is no longer blocking the entrance to the couple's snow cave, meaning there's a flow of air now that hasn't always been there.

"Now they don't have to dig out an air hole," Princiotta said.

The need to ventilate the snow cave consumed much of the couple's time in recent days. According to a Monday phone call from Feret, as reported by Princiotta on a Facebook page chronicling the climb: "Last night the blowing snow sealed us in our snow cave. We had to dig out during the night just to get some air."

Even with the wind blowing in a more favorable direction, it is still blowing hard. Neither Feret nor Testov are venturing far from the trench leading to their shelter, because when they do, they are disoriented by wind, snow and flat light, Princiotta said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

If one thing is working in their favor, it's that they have not seen the worst of the brutal cold McKinley can serve up in the winter. Feret has reported temperatures ranging from minus-20 to minus-25, and one day it was a practically mild minus-5 _ not bad for winter on Denali, where temperatures can plunge to moon-like figures. The classic mountaineering book detailing the first winter ascent of McKinley gets its title from the brutal cold experienced by author Art Davidson and fellow climbers Dave Johnston and Ray Genet in 1967: "Minus 148 Degrees."

Testov is part of an elite group of climbers who have stood atop McKinley in the inhospitable days of winter. In January 1998, he and Vladimir Ananich became the first_and so far, only_climbers to scale McKinley in the dead of winter, meaning late December through January.

In 1997, Testov's attempt to climb McKinley in January with Andrey Isupov ended at about 12,000 feet when Testov fell into a crevasse and had to cut loose a sled loaded with food and fuel to save himself. In January 1999, his attempt to be the first to climb the mountain via the Wickersham Wall in winter ended before he and partner Trigger Twigg even reached their base camp.

In preparation for their climb, Feret and Testov twice scaled Denali via the West Buttress during the 2009 climbing season, Princiotta said. When they aren't climbing mountains, they build and sell furniture from their home near Knik Glacier.

Though they are being sponsored by Phillip Paul Weidner and the Fairview Inn of Talkeetna, Feret and Testov can expect little to no support during their climb. There's no base camp operations and no rangers during the winter on McKinley and little to no chance of a rescue should one be needed.

"All winter climbers are strongly advised not to anticipate a rescue," said Denali National Park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin. "Just as during the peak climbing season, a rescue is never a given.

"We have extremely limited personnel on staff during the winter and no high-altitude helicopter."

Computerized climbing data has been collected by the park service since 1995, McLaughlin said. Since then, there have been 34 attempts at winter ascents, including two this year. In January, a solo attempt by an Italian climber ended at about 7,800 feet on the West Buttress route, McLaughlin said.

__

Winter ascents of Mount McKinley

(03/07/10 00:18:33)

Sixteen people have summited Denali in winter. Six deaths have resulted from these attempts.

Date on Summit: Feb. 28, 1967

Route: West Buttress

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hrs, 7mins

Climbers: Alaskans Art Davidson, Dave Johnston and Ray Genet became the first to set foot on McKinley's summit in winter as defined from winter solstice to spring equinox. One climber on their international eight-man team lost his life in a crevasse fall. The three summitteers were given up for dead when they tucked themselves for six days into a snowcave about the size of a three-man coffin. All three suffered extensive frostbite. Davidson's account, ''Minus 148 Degrees, '' is a mountaineering classic.

Date on Summit: March 7, 1982

Route: Cassin Ridge

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hrs, 52 mins

Climbers: Mike Young and Roger Mear reached the summit while their partner, author Jonathan Waterman, crawled to within a few hundred feet of the top in the first winter ascent of the long and difficult Cassin Ridge.

Date on Summit: March 11, 1983

Route: West Rib

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 11 hrs, 18 mins

Climbers: Charles Sassara, 26, and Robert Frank, 38, were the only ones on a four-man Anchorage team to reach the summit. Frank fell to his death on the descent. None of the party had ever climbed McKinley before. Among Sassara's memories almost 15 years later: ''What's special about the winter is the sky _ you get the stars. They rotate around the summit the whole time, '' Sassara said.

Date on Summit: Feb. 12, 1984

Route: West Buttress

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 8 hrs, 24 mins

Climbers: Naomi Uemura, an experienced adventurer and Japanese national hero, reached the top on his 43rd birthday, the first to solo Denali in winter. His diet consisted of raw caribou and seal fat. Although he died on the way down _ likely slipping off the West Buttress ridge between 17,000 and 16,000 feet _ Denali National Park's mountaineering rangers credit him with an ascent. His body remains somewhere on the mountain.

Date on Summit: March 7,1988

Route: West Buttress

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hrs, 52 mins

Climbers: Vern Tejas, 35, of Anchorage, a veteran McKinley guide, topped out after a month of being alone on the peak. He returned safely to a hero's welcome and exuberant celebrations in Anchorage_and credit for making the first successful solo ascent.

Date on Summit: Feb. 20, 1989

Route: West Buttress

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 9 hrs, 16 mins

Climbers: Austrians Helmut Steinmassl, 29; Helmut Mittermayr, 20, and Laserer Walder, 27, were one of two teams climbing the peak simultaneously and the only one to succeed. Days after they summitted, three Japanese climbers got nabbed by a storm at 18,200-foot Denali Pass and were blown off the pass to their deaths. Their bodies, ''flash-frozen, '' according to a Denali ranger, were recovered months later.

Date on Summit: March 11, 1989

Route: West Rib

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 11 hrs, 18 mins

Climbers: Dave Staeheli, 33, of Anchorage was, like Tejas, a professional mountain guide. As a series of violent storms blew over Denali, Staeheli hunkered low and waited. He made the top and returned.

Date on Summit: Jan. 16, 1998

Route: West Buttress

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 5 hrs, 41 mins

Climbers: Russians Artur Testov, 32, and Vladimir Ananich, 40, become the first to stand on the top of McKinley in ''the dead of winter.'' (Their partner, Alexandr Nikiforov, 29, remained in a snowcave at 14,200 feet.) They are also the first to videotape a winter ascent of Denali. A first try at a mid-winter climb in 1997 by Testov and another man failed around 12,000 feet.

Date on Summit: March 8, 1998

Route: West Buttress

Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hours, 58 minutes

Climber: Masatoshi Kuriaki, the self-dubbed "Japanese Caribou," became the first man from his country to make a solo summit in the winter _ and return safely. In 2007, Kuriaki became the first person to make a solo summit of 17,400-foot Mount Foraker in the winter.

___

(c) 2010, Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, Alaska).

Visit the Anchorage Daily News online at http://www.adn.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.