Denali Recommendations?

[cheeseburglar]

They talk about something similar to this setup in Art Davidson's Minus 148.
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That setup is a bit more substantial than what we saw up there for solo travel. We saw a guy with two long bamboo poles.

[dereks95]

If you do decide to go unguided, I highly recommend hiring a logistics service. They can preplan meals, purchase supplies and drive you to and from Talkeetna. It'll take a lot longer than you think to get all this taken care of on your own - plan on 2 full days in Anchorage. You want to be spending that time on the ice.

Here's the one I used, but there are others. http://www.exposurealaska.com/denali.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[falcon568]

I did Denali last year with Alpine Ascents, highly recommend them as a guide service. Definitely more $$$ than unguided, but the logistics are all taken care of and you have a higher margin of safety with the inclusion of the guides. Unguided trips are more rewarding if you and your group have experience above and beyond what's required for the climb. Going solo or showing up hoping to jump on a rope team is asking for trouble. I'm not even sure what kind of rope team would accept some rando with an unknown experience level

[AndyJB444]

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, I did solo Denali and didn't have too much trouble finding a rope team to jump on to going from 11k back down to base camp... there are lots of friendly people on the west butt., and alot of people sick of their partners who want to chat with someone new

[sdkeil]

I was part of the OMG team that summitted last year on Denali (described in the USAKeller TR). We chose unguided for both the money and the fact we wanted to try to do it on our own. We finalized our team about 8 months ahead of the climb. We targeted a team of about 5-8 and ended up with a team of 7. The West Buttress route is fairly straight forward, so I think if your group has good solid knowledge of safe glacier travel a guide doesn't get you a whole lot. I think what you pay for in a guide is all the logistics. Our team of 7 had regular teleconferences (not everyone was from Colorado) over those 8 months leading to discuss all the logistics. Things we discussed were the itinerary, sled set ups, best time of year to go, gear, food (what and how much), shuttles, air taxi, permit, sat phone, personalized weather forecasts, etc...the list was quite extensive. It was a lot of work, but at the end of the day it was worth it because we knew we planned it all ourselves, plus a lot of lessons were learned along the way.

Some people just aren't into the strategy part and would rather someone plan that for them. I think if the summit is all your interested in and you dont mind paying the extra money, then there is nothing wrong with a guide. Most of the guided groups looked like they had happy clients. We saw a few RMI and Alpine Ascent groups up there. I am sure the other guiding groups were up there, but we didnt interact too often with them.

I would definitely not go solo thinking you are going to jump onto someone's rope team. There is a lot of trust in your climbing team and I sure wouldn't let some random stranger jump on our rope with out knowing more about them. I would assume many other teams would feel the same.

[thespoonybard]

If you do decide to go unguided, I highly recommend hiring a logistics service.

This is a great idea! I had given this some thought as well.

[dereferenced]

I'm not even sure what kind of rope team would accept some rando with an unknown experience level

One other anecdote: last year we did an unguided west buttress trip, three members of our team tried to do a fast trip, we didn’t get a good weather window, so we headed down. The 4th member of our team stayed for another week by himself to summit. He found a couple camping at 14k where the wife was sick and didn’t want to go for the summit, the husband needed a partner, so they teamed up. That guy had climbed two 8000m peaks, a bunch of peaks in Peru, Mt. Cook, etc. On the way down from 14k to the airstrip, my friend travelled with Ralf Dujmovitz and Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who were descending after an attempt on Cassin.

So… your comment made me laugh, it was like: “warning, if you try to join a team on the mountain, you might end up stuck with world class mountaineers”. I’m sure that doesn’t happen every time, your results would be random, but probably not that bad. I don't encourage going to the mountain alone, but people have pulled it off.

[dereferenced]

If you do decide to go unguided, I highly recommend hiring a logistics service. They can preplan meals, purchase supplies and drive you to and from Talkeetna. It'll take a lot longer than you think to get all this taken care of on your own - plan on 2 full days in Anchorage. You want to be spending that time on the ice.

What would you spend a full 2 days doing?

Last year, we flew to Anchorage on a Friday night, had a van pick us up on Saturday morning, they took us to a grocery store to buy some fresh food, then took us to Talkeetna, we were on the glacier by Saturday evening. Any non-perishable food we bought before the trip and packed in our luggage (We might have paid $50 extra in baggage fees because of that)

[shearmodulus]

Yeah, 2 days on the front end in Anchorage is a bit excessive. If you do wind up staying there for a day, make sure you hit Alaska Mountain House. I am still kicking myself for not pulling the trigger on a pair of Olympus Mons they had on sale for $650, but I already had my Spantiks so I didn't buy more boots.

You can get a van shuttle that will drive you Talkeetna, and they'll usually have a stop programmed in for Palmer-Wasilla, and you can pick up groceries there. It takes about 3-4 hours to get to Talkeetna by ground. If you time your arrival right, you can spend less than two hours in Anchorage, and just get picked up right from the airport by the shuttle.

I would recommend Talkeetna Air Taxi for flying in and out of the park. They're one of the more reliable companies from what I understand, and they use retrofitted DHC-8 Otter's, so they can take off on much shorter surfaces and fly in worse weather.

I'm pretty sure that stove fuel is distributed by the Base Camp manager once you get to the lower Kahiltna because the flight services don't let the fuel cans on board the planes.

You'll have to check in at the Talkeetna office where the Denali National Park HQ is located, get your briefing from the rangers, and pick up your Clean Mountain Can(s). There are a few lodging options in Talkeetna, but book early as they fill up fast during the climbing season. We stayed at the Fireweed station, which is about 10 miles outside of Talkeetna, but a really nice place and cool owners.

[skik2000]

TAT will likely run a discount towards the end of this year @ $100/off per climber. You only put up a deposit which is fully refundable if you decide to cancel for whatever reason.

[osguthoj]

PM sent

[hunterwf]

I just wanted to bump this thread back to the top incase there is any interest in Denali. The 2015 season is about a year away and this would be the time to organize and would give everyone a year to train.