On Climbing Denali (Hardwear Sessions)

By Bridger Root

I have been climbing with my father, Brick Root, and John Culberson for as long as I can remember. My dad and I did all of the 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado before my fourteenth birthday, and then we went on to climb the rest of the Fourteeners in the lower 48. John came along on some of the trickier trips to assist with his vast skills in the area of climbing and mountaineering. He has also dragged me up many climbs in Utah, as well as the Grand Teton, Mt. Baker, and some towers in Washington. So, for my high school graduation present, John Culberson, my father and I climbed Denali as a culmination of our trips together. We had been planning this trip for a number of years but I am not sure that anyone actually expected it to happen. Two days after my graduation we flew into Anchorage with 100 pounds each of food and gear. After a day of sorting, packing and persuading ourselves not to bring some extra little tidbit we all crammed into a tiny orange Cessna 185 and flew into basecamp on the Kahiltna Glacier.

Our first few days were rather simple. There were light flurries of snow every day, but they did not inhibit our plodding up the glacier. Every group we passed that was heading down gave us horrible reports of weeks of bad weather that had kept people at the 14,000 camp for two weeks or at the 17,200 camp for eight days. At the third camp (11,000 ft.) we rested for a day and had the opportunity to watch Chris Davenport and some of his buddies ski everything around.

Once we reached the 14,000 camp the weather suddenly turned beautiful. It was strongly recommended that we spend at least two days at the 14,000 camp to acclimate. The sun was so intense that even though the temperature in the shade was about 0 degrees F, we were able to wander around in just our long underwear. These days were rather rough for us because we were forced to sit in camp and watch hundreds of people climb the headwall onto the 16,200 foot ridge on the way to the next camp. Reports started trickling down that 70 people were summiting every day. On our third day at 14,000 ft., we quickly packed up and headed for the fixed lines that lead to the 16,200 ridge for later in the day it would get brutally hot on the south-facing headwall.

We decided not to take a rest day at 17,200 for the weather seemed like it might be taking a turn for the worse. On summit day, we waited for the sun to hit our tent and partially cover Denali Pass before getting up. Due to this we got mired down in a group of about 40 people trying to traverse the pass at the same time. Soon after the pass, we got ahead of some of the larger groups and slowly worked our way up the ridge from 18,200 to 19,400 ft. We then dropped our packs in the plateau known as the football field for the last push to gain the summit ridge and the summit at 20,320 feet. We summited after 6.5 hours of climbing on our tenth day.

The entire trip took 12 days and it was so warm that my Sub Zero Down Parka was only used for a pillow and never even worn. We flew out the afternoon of the twelfth day after a splendid trip with exceptionally lucky weather.

17-year-old Bridger Root is Mountain Hardwear's youngest athlete. He lives in Steamboat Springs, CO.