Denali 2019

142 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) In Vancouver General Hospital, 7th floor, trauma unit.

143 days to Day 1

145 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) Two of us made First Recorded Ascent (FRA) of Spindle Peak via Spindle Couloir. We wanted to climb (and downlcimb) something similar (or harder) to the headwall on the Denali West Buttress, which is ~250 meters high. Spindle Couloir is 580 meters, steeper and without fixed ropes - was ideal: it supports our motto - if training is not twice as hard of the real climb, it is not a training. Lessons : 1) always check ultimate backup 2) sattelite phones can't dial 911 The bad dream Many, many years ago, I saw a weird dream, which ever since had kept arbitrary popping-up in my mind: an unidentified person, who looks very familiar to me, is starting uncontrolled slow slide down a steep ice chute, then quickly accelerates under gravity and disappears out of sight, probably to her death. It is quiet from the beginning to the very end. Like in those black-and-white silent movies. No screams. And then I am still there, on that edge, alone, tr...

146 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) Set up our brand new expedition tent. Practiced climbing and descending fixed lines. Practicing tricky overcoming moat like this will prove very useful tomorrow on Spindle. Same, but with huge exposure and consequences. Since then, we have replaced our Ropemans with Jumars. Our technique has bettered too.

164 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) Preparing for the expedition produced yet another positive impact on my life style: balancing daily diet. Today, Vera causally said, "On the Internet, people say that an expedition diet must be high on carbohydrates". Really?! So I checked - yes, really indeed. It just made sense. Now I see the reason why all food labels show carbs content. Then I opened my spreadsheet and checked carbs content in our already put together Denali food - it was  only 40% of the required amount! Same if not even worse was with my daily diet (I do monitor what I eat). Wow - that casual remark made me to revamp my entire approach to food - Denali's and daily.

206 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) Two of us climbed  Mt. Shasta 4,317m (CA)  via Avalanche Gulch route. It became the 30th, above 4,000 meters peak,  that we climbed together. The climb was to train for the Denali summit day. Distance one way, km Elevation gain Shasta 7.8 2,107 Denali 3.7 931 Lesson : if you can't self-belay on a snow slope, never count on self-arrest, instead protect PHOTO: Avalanche Gulch is just in the middle The climb The descent On the descent we stopped for lunch break at Misery Hill, and Vera pointed out to the shifted metal band on one of my crampons. I said "ah, it's just cosmetic". I have climbed like that many times. But then I surprised myself taking the crampon off, inspecting it and readjusting anew. I remember clearly at the back of my mind a briefly flashed image of the exit chute of the Red Banks with entire stretch of Avalanche Gulch and also the episode when Joe Sim...

210 days to Day 1 (1st attempt) With group of students, practiced crevasse rescue response and self-arrest.