NPS to Waive 60-day Pre-Registration for FORAKER/DENALI

[Government_Watch_Dog]

As a result of efforts by AAC board members Charlie Sassara and Steve Davis, Denali National Park has agreed to cut the current 60-day pre-registration period to seven days for those climbers who have registered to climb Denali and Foraker since 1995.

According to NPS Associate Alaska Regional Director Ralph Tingey, “All climbers in our database who climbed on either Denali or Mount Foraker will be assumed to have met the 60-day requirement.”

Starting with the 2002 climbing season, climbers who previously have registered must register seven days prior to their departure date and pay a $25 deposit. They will pay the remaining $125 of the $150 mountaineering fee upon their check-in at the Talkeetna Ranger Station, where rangers will update them on current route conditions and cover resource protection policies.

The National Park Service established the 60-day pre-registration requirement in 1995 to provide an opportunity for educating climbers about the harsh arctic conditions on these mountains in an effort to reduce the number of rescues, fatalities and injuries. Climbers are sent information translated into several languages that covers needed equipment and food, altitude-related illnesses and the extreme cold climbers will face on an ascent of these peaks. Upon arrival all expeditions are briefed further about routes conditions and policies governing human waste disposal, trash and fuel removal, marking of caches, and rescue/medical transport.

While the educational materials and pre-registration period were helpful in educating climbers unfamiliar with Alaska Range conditions, Alaska locals and those with previous experience in the area viewed the 60-day rule as unnecessarily cumbersome.

“It was extremely frustrating not being able to put a trip together within a week or two,” said Sassara. “We wouldn’t know about conditions two months in advance, and the 60-day wait could put us on the mountain when conditions were dangerous.”

Sassara, an Anchorage native with extensive experience in Alaska including the first winter ascent of Denali’s West Rib, previously requested a waiver of the 60-day rule to do a technical route on Foraker while near term route conditions and weather were judged to be favorable. He was turned down by the NPS, but then began meeting with Davis, Tingey, South District Ranger Daryl Miller, and Acting Lead Climbing Ranger Roger Robinson - all of whom are AAC members - to develop the compromise.

“This compromise is just another example where the AAC has made a difference for climbers,” said Davis. “Experienced climbers now will have greater access to these superb mountains.”