Route: Denali (AK)

Would be cool to have a more complete historical listing of the speed records on this Peak, since it is one of the 7 summits

This is a super cursory list just from internet searches, but also point out that the rules for an FKT that " At least 50% of time must be running and/or hiking, vs. other sports." is problematic for this kind of route, because it means that Killian's 2014 record and Ed Warren's 2013 record don't count as "FKT's" since they skiied most of it.

Killian Jornet - Ascent 9:45 Round trip -11:45 - 2014 (Went up & down Rescue Gully, Used skis on both ascent & descent)

Ed Warren - Ascent 12:30? Round trip - 16:46 - 2013  (https://www.vnews.com/Archives/2013/06/denali-jp-vn-061613 - used skis)

Chad Kellog - Ascent -14:22 Round trip - 23:55 - 2003 https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/13826-chad-kellogg-denali-speed…

Alex Lowe - Ascent 18:30? 1995 (Maybe didn't summit? https://www.outsideonline.com/1831826/mutant-and-boy-scout-battle-20000…)

Anatoly Boukareev - 10:30 Airstrip to summit Round trip - Under 24hrs - 1990 - https://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/denali-speed-record-t48506.html

Galen Rowell & Ned Gillette - One day? - 1978

I decided it might be worth a trip report since I made significant progress towards a new women’s FKT this year and I am not active on social media.  Airstrip to the top unsupported in 16h17min, but DNF’d at 17 on the way down for a variety of reasons. I'm not sure that other attempts have made it that far?  But I live under a rock and am happy to be corrected on that. Let’s go ladies!  We can do this! One of us is gonna get ‘er done.  It’s only a matter of time.  Perhaps the information below can be of benefit to the community.

The attempt started on May 19, with a 19-day mostly normal, non-summitting regular expedition.  My goal was to feel stronger every day I was on the route and to enjoy the mountain and all the people I know and would meet along the way. I’ve been up here four of the last six years and this was the most snow (and some of the most consistent bad weather) I’ve seen.  Skiing the Washburn Cutoff out of 11 was an unexpected delight, and motivated a triple-carry to 14.  The Lower Orient also skied like a dream.  I had skied the Rescue Gully three times in 2019 but I was still most anxious about this part of the route.  It was in excellent condition on 5/29, when we cached to 17, and I suppose I’ve improved my skiing since then.  I planned to spend 3 nights acclimatizing at 17, and potentially making a run to the top, but instead we got stuck in a storm and barely left the tent for 4.5 days.  My partner and I decided to escape to 14 at the first opportunity rather than to stay and summit, since we have both been there, and I had other priorities.  The ski down to the airstrip on 6/6 was shockingly easy with the fresh snow and sled brakes- didn’t even eat shit down the Washburn Cutoff, with a sled, on race skis & boots.

I started from the appointed place at 4:40-ish on June 10.  This year it was at the up-glacier edge of the NPS LZ but I had asked the rangers the day before if they didn’t mind me gallivanting around in there.  The first 6 hours were everything I wanted from this effort.  I had walked this same path many times before, mostly on snowshoes, heavily burdened by pack, sled, and the weight of responsibility.  But now I was alone, on skis, feeling stronger than I ever have, skinning along quickly, doing the thing I love most in my favorite place in the world.

I stopped real quick at 11 to make water- I started with 1.5L of Gatorade in a Coxa Carry WR1 worn backwards, next-to-skin, with the hose coming up through my buff, and two 1.5L Nalgenes of boiling Gatorade, each wrapped in Reflectix, and my 8000m puffy.  The plan was to refill the reservoir with snow and hot Gatorade.  The best you can do is turning 1L of boiling water into 2.2L of barely above freezing water if the snow is 0*C.  Yes, the math was done.  But the water isn’t boiling, and the snow is colder than that, and I was getting more like1L hot water plus .5L snow reservoir refills.  Oh, and for nutrition I used my own gels which are a 2:1 ratio of maltodextrin to fructose at 80g CHO/hr.  I had gone up to as much as 120g CHO/hr in training, but those were thick and gross, and would be even thicker and grosser at low temps.  I split my gels- half went in my various pockets, and half got boiled at base camp and wrapped up in the 8000m parka, and would be moved to pockets at 17k.  I was able to maintain that level of fueling until things got rugged in the Rescue Gully.

I switched to crampons for Squirrel-13.5.  It felt a little silly on the Polo Field, but everywhere else in that section would have been insecure skinning, I’m not a huge fan of ski crampons, and I wanted to minimize transitions.  Made it to 14k right at 6 hours- ahead of plan and feeling fantastic.  Followed the fixed lines skinner, then broke right and transitioned to booting around 15,600’.  The trail breaking was heinous. Snow was mid-thigh in places requiring a three-step process of thigh/knee through wind deposited snow, kick, then step.  Sometimes nice French stepping on hard neve. Things got better in the last 500’ or so, but overall it was brutal.  I used way more energy here than I had hoped for, and I let it knock me off my fueling and hydration game, all of which I would pay for later.

Long-ish stop at 17 to make water, and get all dressed up.  The wind was forecasted to drop from 20mph to 10mph or lower by afternoon, but looking up towards Denali Pass it didn’t seem like that was happening.  I would wear my 8000m parka, synthetic knickers, and hard shell pants for the rest of the day.  I had opted for boot gloves, rather than my full overboots, to use with my PG Blacks which would turn out to be not quite enough for this colder than expected day.  I also had Lenz heated socks, but the batteries did not stand up to the extreme cold.  I think I may do a little electronics project that would allow me to carry them on a warmer part of my body but still power the socks.  Or pick a warmer day. Or both.

The Autobahn had been broken out by at least 2 parties ahead of me but still had a decent amount of unconsolidated snow.  The terrain was much more scoured and walkable from Denali Pass to Pig Hill, but there would still be plenty of places with drifted in or unconsolidated snow.  I was having a hard time getting back on my hydration and fueling plan.  In training I could tolerate my homebrew gels for up to 10 hours, but the cold and altitude made them quite unpalatable.  Perhaps using hard candies would have been more palatable way for me to get at least some carbs up high.  By Pig Hill I was super cold and pretty wrecked.  The trail had been broken but it was still unconsolidated snow and difficult travel.  Even being my 4th time climbing Pig Hill, it still punches way above it’s 600’ vert.  I am resigned to the fact that it will forever be bigger, harder, and more miserable than I expect.  Every. Single. Time.  The summit ridge will always mysteriously be longer than a quarter mile.  I was getting quite cold and tired.  I went to where I know the top to be but couldn’t find the benchmark.  Every other time it had been sticking about a foot out of the snow, but it was nowhere to be found.  Big snow year?  Gotta re-engrave it with a different name? Who knows.  The effort, temperature, and altitude had me addled enough that I started to doubt that I knew where the top was, so I wandered around for a bit and then got it together and started my descent.  This would be the second time I’ve carried skis to the top, and then walked down.  The terrain is mellow, but snow conditions are always utter crap up there.  It was getting late and it was so cold that I knew if I hurt myself skiing on tired legs that it could be really high consequence.  So once again I walked, embarrassingly slow.  Like, I really didn’t want to be another fatality down the Autobahn, so really, really slow.

Around Zebra Rocks, and again at 17 I was informed there had been an avalanche fatality in the Rescue Gully (RIP) and the NPS was asking people to not travel in that terrain.  But I’ll be real- had that not been a factor I still would have DNF’d at 17.  I was just so wrecked and I had friends who graciously shared their tent, sleeping bags, and snacks with me. Thanks Hannah & Ari!

The next day it still felt weird and disrespectful to ski the Rescue Gully so I descended via 16 Ridge and the fixed lines, but honestly that was so fun- once again being able to prance along solo, at my own pace on arguably the most beautiful section of the route was accomplishing my A goal for this trip. My heart was full of joy and appreciation- for the terrain, for the movement, for the people, and the unique way this mountain mashes all of that together into an incredible experience time and time again.  I had so many fantastic chit-chats with friends, acquaintances, old co-workers, and strangers on the way down, and I love how Denali feels like home. The skiing was super fun and the lower Kahiltna was perhaps even more filled in than it had been 24 days ago, making it feel deceptively safe.  As I transitioned to skin up Heartbreak Hill I radioed my climbing partner, Riley, and he started packing up camp.  I felt like I was racing every Otter into the airstrip.  When I made it, Riley had my booties and 2L of Big K cherry cola ready which I quickly grabbed and changed into as we met our salvation from 24 days in the inorganic lands. That’s a premium support crew right there.

So that’s that. I said I was only going to try once but I’ll probably try again. Conditions were very much less than ideal, I made some strategic errors, and I just love being up there anyway. I can put up a gear list if anyone cares. I am not trying to claim anything (and can’t since my inReach died around the Zebra Rocks) but here are my tracks for some credibility:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/19556393642

share.garmin.com/QU4QM