Don’t want to steal Tom’s (SQ9FVE) thunder, but I was also planning to do the first Denali SOTA activation this year. I did not advertise it ahead of time because I was not planning to utilize any sort of HF equipment, which in retrospect was the right decision.
I have enough experience on Alaskan peaks to know that setting up my mast and end fed random wire antenna on Denali was not going to be feasible except in absolutely perfect conditions, which I did not want to be constrained to. Instead, I brought solely my handheld plus a Nagoya whip, with the intent to contact friends and family in Anchorage or Fairbanks on 2m.
The handheld was also useful for receiving daily weather reports from Denali basecamp and communicating with the lead rope member while skiing during whiteouts.
I started on May 15th with a team of 4, multiple days ahead of Tom and his party. Between cold weather and storms, the extra days’ advantage was dwindling, as we spent almost a week at 11,000’ in our tents.
At 14,000’ one of our teammates started to develop HAPE. He was diagnosed on one of the stormiest days on the mountain, and we had to guide him and carry all of his gear down and off the mountain. We returned to 14,000’ days later, exhausted, and at this point I was fairly sure Tom’s party had progressed past us.
Without a cache placed above 14,000’, we did a single carry of all our gear to 17k’. We were one of only 5 tents at 17k at this point, though many more were staged at 14k waiting for the right weather window. We spent 4 days at 17,000’ where it was brutally cold but we were at least acclimatizing. On Tuesday, June 2nd, we pushed for the summit, with marginal conditions. It was about -30C with 36km/hr winds, but manageable due to full sun. I summitted in every clothing layered I owned, 6 layers on my torso alone.
I had learned on the way up the mountain that the radio was really not suited for extreme cold. I kept it in my breast pocket, plugged into a battery bank, and sheltered from the wind by my parka, and it would still repeatedly die and have to be re-warmed. Luckily, I had a great crew of chasers in Anchorage who worked with me and helped make the SOTA successful.
There were 5 deaths while we were on the mountain, and many more injuries. My team was involved in assisting the Korean party on June 1st that almost certainly would have had a fatal incident without intervention. Luckily, my team had zero injuries and only stove-related equipment issues, which were solvable. Overall we spent 21 days on Denali, 19 going up and 2 to ski down.
Huge shoutout to the Anchorage hams who made the SOTA possible. Also a lot of respect to Tom and his team, the first to SOTA Aconcagua. Tom approached me at 17 camp and was very friendly, I hope he continues to activate the other 5 of the 7 summits. I am going to stay put here in Alaska and work on activating the other 18,000 or so un-activated peaks… haha
I am planning to write a blog over the next few weeks, maybe I’ll add it as an addendum to this post when complete for those looking for more information about Denali. For a cool video of us on the summit, we were caught on camera by a K2 Aviation fly-by: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1356186043027296
73,
Bobby / AL5KA
