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Club Member Summited Denali!
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Who is this Geoff guy and when is he going to start leading Chemeketan climbs? 😉

In all seriousness, congratulations, Geoff!  Super stoked to hear about your chill Denali summit and interesting to hear your stories about it.

Theresa

By really great weather I mean we had < 5hrs of "bad weather".


It was clear, sunny, with < 15mph wind almost the entire time we were on the mountain.


As for underwhelmed I think it was a few things.

1. The route was very well established similar to what you see on DC in the late season. Stepped out, fixed lines/pro everywhere, tons of people that IMO had no business being on the mountain. (Learning to walk in crampons at 14,000', no glacier travel experience, etc)


2. The group wasn't nearly as experienced or fast as I was expecting. I had only extensively climbed with 1/3 them before so was going in a little blind. With that, we moved quite inefficiently, took more rest days, and in general made more conservative decisions as a group. By the end of the trip I was going a little stir crazy twiddling my thumbs instead of actively doing something.

  • For reference, most groups spend 2 days at 17k camp. We spent 6.
  • Our biggest day was ~3,500' gain over ~5 miles(Without sleds) at an average speed of ~0.4 mph


3. I'm not the biggest fan of camping/backpacking in general. To put it differently, I'm much more interested in Alpinism(fast & light) than I am in Mountaineering(slow & heavy). For example, I'd much rather C2C Rainier than spend 5 days climbing it. With that, this trip could have conservatively been done in 10 days given the weather we had vs the 21 it took us.


-----


Not suffering enough is probably pretty accurate. I was expecting something that would challenge me and force me grow as a climber. Instead it felt a bit like an amusement park where there was little actual skill/suffering to make it to the summit.


I've faced harder conditions and more engaging climbing on the South side of Hood...


It was a great trip just left a lot on the table for me.


It did however give me quite the appetite for some Alaskan Mountains.


These are on my short list now:

Moose's Tooth - Ham & Eggs

Mt. Hunter - Bacon & Eggs


I'm probably a season or two out before I can confidently lead WI4 in an alpine setting but I'll get there. At least I have some new goals :)

Thanks for posting this Geoff!

First off, Congrats on making the summit and being part of the average 50% of climbers that make it!

Question for you...You made references to great weather.  Did you really have great weather the entire trip?  Sounds like you got REALLY lucky.  Also, your comments below sounds like you were somewhat underwhelmed by the route.  Think that is strictly because it wasn't technical or could the great weather have influenced this?  Maybe you didn't get to suffer enough. ;) 

Thanks,
Mike

Apologies the the delayed response, I didn't have permission to post :)


I wasn't very good about taking pictures this trip but here is my TR from facebook: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0mefF6d4FKD7dSFkLugUeVYpywWwNNHgrsvxPsCcbkNy5uZ9S


and of course the obligatory summit picture:


Overall the West Buttress was more of a slog than a "climb" in my eyes. Technically it was a minor step up from DC on Rainier only due to having to deal with the fixed ropes going up the headwall above 14k. (~50-60* ice, similar to the Kautz only you're jugging up a fixed line)


If I were to do it again I'd opt for the Upper West Rib to avoid some of the congestion and make the climbing a little more interesting without adding any additional overhead/length.


Anyway, now I'm itching to go back to the Alaska Range. So much granite and ice just begging to be climbed.


Adventures for another day.

From the lawn of Horsethief campground to the slopes of Denali. Such rapid improvement 😜

Congrats Geoff!!! (if you’re on here)

Shonee 


Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 8:25 PM -0700 from climbers@chemeketans.org <climbers@chemeketans.org>:
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Just wanted to share that new club member Geoff Maggi (pod 3) just summited Denali almost an hour ago and is on his way back to high camp! This was a private climb with three friends, not a guided trip. He’s been on the mountain going on three weeks. Congratulations to Geoff and here’s to a safe, uneventful descent!

That’s damn awesome!!!! 👍👍👍

Congratulations! How cool! :)

Gratefully,
“Frosty” Gill
he/him/his
503-551-2625

Actually just two weeks on the mountain.


https://share.garmin.com/geoffmaggi

OMGosh, incredible!

s

Just wanted to share that new club member Geoff Maggi (pod 3) just summited Denali almost an hour ago and is on his way back to high camp! This was a private climb with three friends, not a guided trip. He’s been on the mountain going on three weeks. Congratulations to Geoff and here’s to a safe, uneventful descent!

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