Denali Day Eleven – 14 th June

Day Eleven – 14 th June

I woke up and went for breakfast and was totally freezing. Sitting in the ice kitchen I was starting to shiver. So I went to my tent to get my puffy down jacket and put it on. I was warming up after a hot tea and hot chocolate. We had breakfast of cereal. It wasn’t great cos it was also cold.

Tim wasn’t feeling well so he said he was staying behind because he knew he would make mistakes on the ropes cos he was feeling so bad.

We got our stuff ready and I tied into my rope with harness. We were waiting a long time while other people sorted stuff out. I had obvs taken off my puffy jacket as it’s much too big to walk in and we were going straight up a massive hill. My fingers were getting cold so I put my hands in my pockets. I was stamping my feet. Zoltan hadn’t collected his lunch from the ice kitchen (nut bar and bag of nuts and bagel) so he did that. Then he’d forgotten his helmet so had to get that. I was getting colder and colder waiting. Finally we were off. I took my hands out of my pockets, picked up my ice axe and walking pole and off we went. My fingers were frozen though. I’d been waiting a long time with only glove liners on, thinking we would start off sooner. As we walked across the flat bit away from camp my fingers were so frozen I couldn’t move them. I shouted to guide leader Andy that I had to put another pair on. We all stopped but my fingers wouldn’t work. I knew they would be no good on the fixed lines, I couldn’t even put another pair of gloves on and I couldn’t hold my ice axe properly or walking pole. I knew I had to go back. So we all walked the few hundred yards back to camp where I de-roped and the others then moved off again. I sat in the guide tent with guide Mike as he also wasn’t feeling well and feeling the effects of the altitude. He had taken the decision not to go up any more. He warmed my hands up and made me hot tea.

I went into my tent for a while and then the sun came up and we felt warmth again.

Conditions up here are so miserable and difficult. It’s really enduring cold, pain, fatigue and high altitude. But I felt alright apart from having frozen fingers. The little walk back I was crying with the pain in them and with the knowledge now that maybe this was all in jeopardy for me.

I’m happy to have made it this far but I don’t want to give up just yet. I will go for an acclimatisation hike with guide Mike and Tim shortly and see how I feel. I will have a chat with Andy later and maybe look at my glove system. I feel really sad now and a little bit like a failure. I really want to go on but I can’t jeopardise the team. I feel though that if we hadn’t stood around waiting so long then my hands would have been alright. Cos then as soon as you’re on the hill you’re warm going up it. Even sweating. I just wish we’d moved off sooner. But also I have to take responsibility for not having warmer gloves on my hands.

So myself and Tim and guide Mike went halfway up the big hill towards the fixed ropes and all was fine. My hands had warmed up but I was apprehensive about what Andy would say when he came back.

I was happy to go further up but guide Mike said he was ‘on the edge’. I feel so sorry for him because he’s been really great with all of us but is just not feeling well at all. Both guides Eric and Mike have never been up Denali before but have done lots of other climbing. Guide leader Andy has summited 5 times out of 7. This is his eighth trip.

When they returned Andy decided that it is a rest day for everyone else tomorrow as some people were struggling and for me and Tim to go up to the fixed ropes tomorrow morning again about 7am start. This will give me a chance to show that I can get my gloves system right for the early morning cold. Although saying that, with only three of us to get roped up, we won’t be waiting for about an hour in the freezing cold for my hands to get so frozen.

Dinner was chicken and pasta and was delish. I had seconds and hot chocolate and now in my bag at 8.30pm.