Jedi Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 They might be summiting today. Hopefully the weather is good. Jedi Quote
Alpinfox Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 First ascent by Bryan Becker and Rolf Graage in 1983. Kenton Kool tried to bum food from me at 17K feet after he and Ian Parnell did the second ascent in 2002. Fumitaka Ichimura's team did the third ascent in 2005. I don't even know why Mark and Colin are bothering with the DD; That shit's all climbed out. South Face of Denali with Cassin Ridge in the center. I don't know where the DD route is, but it somewhere on that face to the left of the Cassin. Quote
wfinley Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 They might be summiting today. Hopefully the weather is good. Jedi Hey - you're back! How was the trip?? Quote
olyclimber Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 Kenton Kool tried to bum food from me at 17K feet after he and Ian Parnell did the second ascent in 2002. WOW! You've been on THE BIG D??? Did you summit??? Tell me more! Did you leave a neutrino? Hehehe Yeah, why didn't Colin and Mark go for Light Traveler instead? Quote
Kraken Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 The Diamond isn't that diamond looking thing on the right of the Cassin? That's what I thought it was, but I've been wrong before. Quote
wfinley Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 The Denali Diamond is left (west) of the Cassin; it's near the SW face / Roberts variation; basically they go up the rock then hug the right side of that hanging glacier. The American Direct and Czech Direct are right (east) of the Cassin. Quote
Kraken Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 thanks for the clarification Billy. Good luck to the both of them. Quote
akicebum Posted June 19, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 The denali diamond has been climbed 4 times. The last was by Chris Brazeau and Ian Welstad in 60 hours in 2005. They bypassed the two pitches of aid by a M4/5 variation, and spend most of the time climbing in Capilene. The route is between the rib and the cassin. Sweet line. If anyone has any serious interest in Light Traveler or the South Face in gerneral let me know. Quote
plexus Posted June 20, 2007 Posted June 20, 2007 Any word from the land of gianormous mosquitos and flies with insatiable thirsts? Inquiring minds want to know. Quote
Jedi Posted June 20, 2007 Author Posted June 20, 2007 Hey Billy, I wish we had the time to get by and see you after we flew out. After the Cassin, we dropped down to see if any lower day routes (or west ridge of hunter) were in. Snow condition were too poor so we decided to head home to see family. 27 days was long enough. I was looking forward to some fresh salmon! Billy is right about the DD. once past the rock section, you follow the snow up and join the Cassin around 17,700 or so. When we left 7,800' camp, Mark and Collin were planning on heading up the VoD the following day. The weather forcast looked good, for a change. As of 6/18, the success rate on Denali was 43%. One out of 24 on Foraker so far this year. Jedi Quote
wfinley Posted June 20, 2007 Posted June 20, 2007 So did you have enough food? How'd the homemade sleeping bag work out? When are you going to put up pix and a trip report? Quote
Jedi Posted June 20, 2007 Author Posted June 20, 2007 Food.....heheheehe.. yeah we had plenty. The outback oven was sweet! Blueberry muffin cake is great for breakfast. fresh baked browies were stellar for dessert. We slept in the bag at 7800 camp. Then at the base of the Cassin. It was damp at the 14K camp. When we got it out at 16,700, it was mostly frozen so we drapped it over our lower legs and just slept in our clothes. My feet were cold but we were warm enough. I have to figure out how to use I Photo before I can put a slide show together. The valley of death did not make for good photos due to the heavy clouds impeding our view (and vision) a good bit of the time. We had heavy snow above the Jap Couloir so the arete pictures are not all that good. I do have a couple video clips in the 1st or 2nd rock band but I do not have a clue what to do with those. At this point TR 59:20 from shrund to summit which would have been faster if not for having to dig for ice and holds. Evan rode a cornice off the arete. Beautiful route. Jedi Quote
wfinley Posted June 20, 2007 Posted June 20, 2007 Congrats! It is a beautiful route; sounds like you climbed it in style. It was nice meeting you & Evan - I imagine I'll see you up here again! Quote
scottgg Posted June 25, 2007 Posted June 25, 2007 That would be Mark Westman with Colin in AK. Marko was actually busy trying to crush his personal record on the Tooth this past Saturday (almost got it too). Quote
kurthicks Posted June 25, 2007 Posted June 25, 2007 yep. Colin and Mark were just kicking it at 14k when I left. They were busy scrounging food, skiing, and telling all sorts of inappropriate, but hillarious, jokes. The forecast was wrong nearly every day we were at 14k (calling for bad wx, but getting good wx), so no one was really going for big routes until Jedi and Evan went over to the Cassin. the boys were right at home chatting it up with all the ladies that were unfortunate enough to walk by... Quote
Colin Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 Hey Doods, Yep, it went. Weather was great while on route, and then has shut down pretty bad since then. The climbing was really high quality on excellent rock - sometimes quite hard, but never scary. We climbed the rock wall in 21 hours, and then slogged above for a couple hours, super dehydrated, until able to dig out a bivy ledge at around 16,500. We didn't leave our bivy the next day until 2pm, and eventually summited at around 9:45 I believe, making a shrund-to-summit time of I think 45:40. akicebum is correct about the number of ascents. I think it took Ian and Chris 44 hours rather than 60 though? Great you meet you and Evan, John, and thanks for lending us the nice gear. We never would have made it up if Mark had brought his lead-filled mittens on route! Quote
akicebum Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 44 schrund to summit. 60 BC to 14,000. NIce job guys, you flew. I've would love to get back to that face. Congrats. Quote
DirtyHarry Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 Nice Colin. Time to post up some pics from Denali and Robson. Quote
olyclimber Posted June 28, 2007 Posted June 28, 2007 yeah Colin! would love to see some pictures of what life is like on the otherside. Quote
Gary_Yngve Posted June 28, 2007 Posted June 28, 2007 Great you meet you and Evan, John, and thanks for lending us the nice gear. We never would have made it up if Mark had brought his lead-filled mittens on route! Does Mark use those for donkey-punching the sheep? Quote
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