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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 1, 2016 - 04:35pm PT
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Ascents List, Update:
1st Ascent: Bryan Becker and Rolf Graage. 1983
2nd Ascent: Ian Parnell and Kenton Kool. 2002
3rd Ascent: Katsutaka Yokoyama and Fumitaka Ichimura. 2005
4th Ascent: Chris Brazeau and Ian Welsted. 2005
5th Ascent: Colin Haley and Mark Westman. 2007
6th Ascent: Kazuaki Amano, Ryo Masumoto, and Takaai Nagato. 2010
7th Ascent: Chantel Astorga and Jewell Lund. 2015
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 1, 2016 - 04:40pm PT
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1st Ascent: Bryan Becker and Rolf Graage. 1983: 17 days.
Bryan Becker
FROM MAY 24 TO JUNE 10 Rolf Graage and I put up a new route on the south face of Mount McKinley. It lies to the right of the Roberts-McCartney route (A.A.J., 1981, page 3). When we set out, the rangers thought we had no chance and indicated that if completed, the line would be one of the most difficult routes ever done on McKinley. The start of our route is well to the left of the Cassin route and just to the right of the Roberts.
Our route consisted of 37½ pitches, mostly of steep and some overhanging mixed climbing, a variety of ice as well as pure rock pitches, including an A3 rope-length out over a 25-foot roof. We were able to manage these difficulties using an old 9mm rope, originally intended as a haul line (Rolf had forgotten the other rope), two ice screws I had bought in Talkeetna (I forgot those), and luckily, a healthy supply of pegs and nuts.
Of the 17 days we spent on the route, we were able to climb only on nine. On the other eight we were pinned down in our fourth and fifth bivouacs near the top of the rock wall by raging winds and spin-drift avalanches. It was during these storms that Rolf’s feet were severely frostbitten. Having only one rope and a limited rack, we found retreat impractical at that point and so we pushed on, hoping that we would soon reach easier ground. We encountered instead the most difficult climbing on the route, the last two-and-a-half pitches to the top of the lower rock wall taking us two days to complete.
Low-angled ice-fields led us from there to the upper Cassin Ridge and then in three days to the summit. Though the climbing on this section was much easier, the winds we encountered were brutal. In fact, we were forced to spend our last bivouac entrenched near the summit, being unable to walk or crawl into the wind down the West Buttress route. The next morning I went the last 15 minutes to the summit alone, Rolf being too exhausted and nearly despondent from his frostbitten feet to move out of his bivouac sack. I have never been colder and was in tears upon reaching North America’s highest point.
Other events of note during the climb include Rolf’s taking a 65-foot leader fall, Rolf’s almost dying of hypothermia and his being blown off our sixth bivouac ledge in the bivouac tent after I had gone out to put on crampons and pack. In the last case, Rolf had untied himself from the rope to reorganize when the tent was blown off the platform. Though dangling over the edge inside the tent, he was spared a 3000-foot ride to the glacier below by a single, thin strand of cord attaching one comer of the tent to the rope. Both of us nearly drowned on two separate occasions in spin-drift. Having taken only ten days of food, we were short of food and fuel for the last week we were on the route.
We descended the West Buttress. Rolf was flown to Anchorage, where he lost one toe. Though the quality of the climbing was superb, Denali gave us a thrashing I shall never forget.
Summary of Statistics:
Area: Alaska Range.
New Route: Mount McKinley, 6105 meters, 20,320 feet, via the Southwest Face to the right (east) of the Roberts-McCartney Route, May 24 to June 10, 1983 (Bryan Becker, Rolf Graage).
American Alpine Journal 1984.
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 1, 2016 - 04:41pm PT
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Thanks thebravecowboy
The man himself!
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 1, 2016 - 08:09pm PT
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2nd Ascent: Ian Parnell and Kenton Kool. 2002: 5 days.
Mt. McKinley, Denali Diamond, second ascent. Kenton Cool and I arrived in the Alaska Range at the beginning of May, hoping to steal a march on other potential suitors to a new line on Foraker. After failing to climb the standard West Butt route for acclimatization, with Kenton turned back by dizzy spells around 20,000' and myself not even able to get out of the tent at 17,000', we returned for a peep at Foraker. After a day and night spent staring at the face, I’d about convinced myself that my optimistic guess at “only” three or four hours beneath the myriad death seracs overhanging the lower third of the route was an acceptable risk for the prize. Luckily, Kenton was still thinking straight and vetoed the plan, an example of our partnership kicking in to make sensible decisions.
As a fine consolation we managed the second ascent of the Denali Diamond in five days. It surprised us that this route, first climbed in 1983, hadn’t seen a repeat, but perhaps the epic 17 days spent on the first ascent and talk of a 25' A3 roof had put people off. Unbeknown to us, as soon as we left base camp the forecast changed—typical. Having opted for a lightweight approach with one-season bags and a one-person tent to share, and plans to snooze in the afternoon sun, we were shocked to encounter snow for the final four days and no sun at all. Other events of interest were the tent poles breaking beyond repair, a dropped axe just before the crux pitches, and a malfunctioning stove. Our solace was that at least we opted out of our original single-push plan.
The climbing itself was superb, with sustained mixed climbing, several pitches of vertical ice, and a trio of crux pitches that gave me my best day’s climbing yet in the mountains. The first of these proved the hardest—a cracked wall with overhanging sections that bypassed the aid roof. I was able to dry tool this with one rest point and a tension point. All free, it would rate Grade VIII, 8 in Scotland. The personal crux for me, however, occurred the following day when I had one of my worst days in the mountains. Plodding on the upper reaches of the Cassin Ridge, I eventually burst into tears on 40° snow after almost passing out twice. Again the partnership kicked in, and Kenton pulled me through with words of support and a momentous session of single-handed trail-breaking.
We topped the Cassin, ticked the summit, and descended a combination of the Orient Express and West Rib, all in zero visibility. We were surprised to find our arrival at the 14k camp, at 11:30 p.m., met by a welcoming party of climbers and rangers (supposedly the alert was out for us due to the conditions). The support and hospitality offered by our fellow climbers was a heart-warming highlight of the trip.
Ian Parnell, United Kingdom
American Alpine Journal 2003.
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dikhed
climber
State of fugue and disbelief
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I love DeNealie Diamond
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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F the summit - that is some nice rock right there.
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2016 - 02:10am PT
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2nd Ascent: Ian Parnell and Kenton Kool. 2002: 5 days.
Ian Parnell
OK, Avery has done a good job on 'nudging' me, so here is Kenton at the vertical tent site from the second night? during our second ascent. I'd attempted the crux pitch that evening, and we were both beginning to get a bit cold from the spindrift flurries coming down. Unable to pitch the tent horizontally - we improvised.
I've many fond memories from this great route, which I'll post up later. One of the strongest was having summited we dropped down 'directly' into the 14k camp switching from the orient express to the Japanese? couloir. Which looked like we were staggering out of control. These couloirs also had a reputation as accident blackspots, and we had told everyone we had planned to be back 2 or 3 days before. As a result there was a little welcoming party waiting for us - I remember there being Russians there as well as the Rangers - notably John Evans waiting with a brew. All a bit emotional at the time.
Thanks to Ian Parnell
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2016 - 05:11am PT
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2nd Ascent: Ian Parnell and Kenton Kool. 2002: 5 days.
Ian Parnell
So a few more memories. The tent we took was a prototype designed for Sherpa Babu Chiri to camp on the top of Everest. Kenton is a tall 6ft and I'm a short 6ft, I'm sure it fitted Babu very nicely for us we could only sleep by poking both our legs out the door. It was light though. The attached pic is from our first night when the weather was still pleasant.
The big thing for Kenton and myself was the 'mythology' surrounding the first ascent - it sounded like THE definition of a badass epic and we were really keen to push ourselves that season. We warmed up with a new route on the mini moonflower, then repeated the Moonflower (a tiny amount of aid) to just above the technical stuff and then did Denali Diamond. But just to keep us in our place Stephen Koch and Marko Prezelj also did a new route on the mini moonflower, made the first free ascent of the Moonflower and then did an all new line parallel with the Diamond. They did each of these just after each of our efforts - we accused them of copying us ;-)
Thanks to Ian Parnell
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2016 - 05:31am PT
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3rd Ascent: Katsutaka Yokoyama and Fumitaka Ichimura. 2005: 5 days.
We flew to the Kahiltna Glacier base camp on May 5. After waiting out a week of intermittent bad weather, we traveled up the Northeast Fork Kahiltna Glacier, weaving our way among the many ice-falls and hanging glaciers to reach Denali s 2,500m southwest face. We started climbing the Denali Diamond (Becker-Graage, 1983) on May 19. On day three, the crux pitches appeared, with continuous 90° sections. At the uppermost part, there was no ice in the corner, so we used dry-tooling technique. We took the left-hand line of the chimney, climbed by the first ascent party. I supposed it was also the line of the second ascent, reported at M7 with two point of aid. I also used two rest points, but regret using the protection for rest and believe a completely free ascent possible. On day five we reached the summit of Denali (6,194m), following the upper Cassin Ridge. We went down to base camp via the West Buttress.
Katsutaka Yokoyama, Shinshu University Alpine Club, Japan
American Alpine Journal 2006
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 2, 2016 - 04:09pm PT
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4th Ascent: Chris Brazeau and Ian Welsted. 2005: 44 hours bergschrund to summit.
A Diamond in the Rough: Denali's Southwest Face, by Ian Welsted
In 1983, Bryan Becker and his client (!?!) established Denali Diamond (Alaska 6, 5.9 A3), the second route on the face. It took an obvious weakness through steep granite, passing a diamond-shaped block 2500 feet up the route. A 25-foot A3 roof provided the crux, at approximately 16,000 feet on the last technical pitch. From there, 4000 feet of slogging up the upper snow slopes led to the summit ridge. A new route was born — and the legend grew, as this route doesn’t seem to have been noticed widely, either (AAJ 1984, p. 84). Nearly 20 years passed with no action on the face. Stephen Koch and Marko Pretzel considered attempting the second ascent of Denali Diamond in 2001, but climbed between it and the Cassin to create Light Traveler (Alaska Grade 6, M7 WI6) in 43 hours. Finally, the Diamond s aw its second ascent when Kenton Cool and Ian Parnell spent five days on it in 2002. They unlocked the secret to an M7+ version following cracks to the left of the roof. Being British, they bivied in heavy spindrift and persevered to nearly free the crux, with a hang and a tension traverse. Just before flying out of Talkeetna, Chris Brazeau met Jumbo Yokoyama and Fumitaka Ichimura, who raved about thousands of feet of continuous mixed ground. Their stoke after completing the third ascent in seven days seemed to have Chris salivating.
Having Chris in camp provided interest in something a little more demanding: We would try for the FFA of the Diamond in a speedy, single-push style. We left the landing strip at 11 p.m. on June 13. Skiing in the “Valley of Death” in the twilight, we peered up at Raphael Slawinski and Valeriy Babanov’s new route, Infinity Direct (Alaska 5, M4/5). This made me reflect on how inspiring climbing in the big mountains can be. Earlier, those two had left the landing strip seemingly without hope of success as the weather had been brutal. I figured no one had been active. They — quite like Johnny Varco and Sue Nott, who summited Denali in 70-mph winds — did not let the notorious Alaskan weather stand in their way, and sent in light and fast style. Andrej Stremfelj, the godfather of Himalayan alpine style, had spoken with us of attempting the Cassin without a tent. Combined, these impressions allayed my fears of heading up the southwest face with one rope and no bivy gear. The people who head to such places inspire one to question one’s own limitations. With these thoughts in my head, we raced towards the looming face.
We crossed the ’schrund eagerly at 10 a.m. Route-finding was exceedingly simple, as to our right was an immense granite wall, home to Light Traveler. We walked up snow slopes, practicing pied à plat, skipping from ledge to ledge as more rock appeared. With dense fog surrounding us, a path of-least-resistance philosophy sped us along. For three long simulclimbing pitches, we looked for a flattish spot where we could stop and hydrate. Chris figured we were close to topping out; with no altimeter, who could tell? We both said, “I’ll just look a little further,” when swapping leads, but nothing appeared other than great moderate mixed climbing. How anyone could stop to pitch a tent on such terrain was a mystery to me until I saw Cool’s and Parnell’s photos of their vertically aligned pup tent in Gripped (Dec. /Jan. 2006). Glad I’m not British and super hard-core.
We reached a flat spot after a stellar body-width ice runnel plastered against the soaring right wall. Unfortunately, we were in line with the upper section of the route. Rock above protected us from the big one if it came, but continuous heavy spindrift fell on us. All my fears of objective hazards came back to me. My reservation about Denali Diamond was that it is a garbage chute for the 4000-foot upper snow slopes of Denali. A week earlier on the Cassin, we had wallowed in waist-deep new snow. Accustomed to Rockies snowpacks, I could not accept this as safe. Being a different animal, Chris didn’t seem worried. More encouragingly, the clouds cleared momentarily. We were level and right of the Diamond block, and at a juncture on the route. From here we obviously needed to head rightward up a gully system. Rocky and much steeper, the ground ahead dictated changing from simulclimbing with the rope doubled to pitching it out. A 60-metre pitch with an M6/7 crux at the very end had Chris doing what he does best, and me asking for tension on second. Above, we could clearly see what I later heard described by Cool or Parnell as four of the best pitches they have climbed in the alpine. Foremost in my mind, however, were the probable dire consequences of having to lead M7+ at such an elevation. Memories of rapping a similarly committing face with one rope overcame me. Thus, I cast about for an excuse, which came in the form of the spindrift. I talked Chris into a sideways escape. Regret is a terrible thing, but if I could go back in time…
Our sideways retreat was based on my path-of-least resistance idea. From the valley, there appeared to be two possible exits to the technical ground: the crux roof, and another further left. This was not the case. Chris led up the next major gully system but came to a dead end. A more technical traverse with the only loose rock on the entire route, led to another. We were both quite delusional after 22 hours on the face and 33 on the go. Neither of us could make the crucial decision as to how to proceed, so we sat down for a brew. When Chris, who didn’t have insulated pants, couldn’t stand shivering any longer, we took the easy way out and rapped a few metres to the next ramp system left, where we made our way through the last of the rock. At 11 p.m. we topped out below huge seracs 200 metres left of our intended route. All our traversing had taken much time and effort and had merely swapped snow-avalanche hazard for serac hazard. How much better it would have been to go straight up those last four pitches, if only I could have controlled my phantom fears.
I now could repay Chris’s rope-gunning by doing what I do best: burying my head and suffering. Chris had flown onto the mountain a month after me and was lacking acclimatization for altitude. Prezelj and Koch wrote that the upper snow slopes were some of the hardest “climbing” they had done in terms of fatigue. We had now been awake for two days; however, since I had summited twice already, the climb was essentially in the bag as far as I was concerned. Underestimating the upper slopes, my mind played tricks on me. A few times I told Chris that we were nearly at the summit ridge. When I clued in to where we were, I took some of the rack from him to ease his obvious pain. “It’s like yoga — just think about breathing and nothing else,” was the little help I could give him, forgetting that yoga is maybe not a preferred leisure activity in his hometown of Golden, B.C. Our primary error was not stopping to brew up. At 6 a.m. The Kahiltna Horn arrived below our weary legs. The ethical question of whether to traverse the final ridge to the summit a few hundred feet higher didn’t even arise. Numerous naps followed on the way down to the 14,000-foot advance base camp. A highlight on the way came when a ranger asked Chris what we’d done. The response to Chris’s claim of the Diamond was a somewhat dumbfounded, “But, where’s your gear…?”
The zoo at 14,000 feet was a welcome sight, as we had run out of food and were glad of the handouts from departing groups. It was like a bad CBC comedy rerun as rumor spread that “Ian from Canmore” had climbed the Cassin and the Diamond back to back in 10 days. After passing seven hours seeking shelter from the beating sun, answering questions about the routes, and gorging, we headed down, wishing for skis the whole time. Seventy-six hours after leaving the landing strip, we were back and very happy. Any thoughts of further activity were drowned out by the growing slush pools of mid-June. There was one piece of unfinished business, as we had left our skis at the base of the route. Disabled by severe foot pain, I argued that the skis would disappear in a winter. Chris, more environmentally sensitive, wouldn’t hear of leaving them. It was no surprise that the skis were gone when we reached the ’schrund, but at least we had made the effort. The spindrift had done them in; luckily, this hadn’t happened to any of the 12 climbers who made it up the face.
In conclusion: a few thoughts. Jack Roberts recently mentioned that his and Becker’s lines independent of the upper Cassin dictate that their routes have not truly been repeated: What makes these routes on the Southwest face so exhausting and difficult is the willingness to keep to the original route and so keep the commitment factor intact. Breaking the snow for two thousand feet on a remote route is far more difficult mentally and physically than traversing off to the broken trail on the Cassin Ridge. Still, I personally think that one can hardly call the Cassin a broken trail, since a day’s wind erases any tracks, as I witnessed first-hand. On our ascent we had no knowledge of where prior parties had gone, and didn’t really care. Joining the Cassin at about 18,000 feet, we just went the most logical way. Why choose a loaded snow bowl over a windswept ridge, other than for the sake of the record books? In fact, through correspondence with Jack, I think that we just as likely repeated the McCartney/Roberts as the Diamond, or somehow linked the two. High Alaska, by Jonathan Waterman, maps separate paths for the two routes, but memories have faded since the 1980s and no one seems to be able to figure out exactly where the original lines lie. As for our hopes of doing the “first free ascent”, who cares when faced with Alaskan weather? Just so that we could tack on the letters FFA by skipping a tension traverse? What about bailing out of the crux pitches? Was it out of irrational fear, self-limiting thought, or a self-preservation instinct honed in past episodes? Does it somehow invalidate or lessen our climb? Although I do regret missing four great pitches, I also saw my skis disappear over the course of a week and am happy to live another day. Maybe I should blow my own horn some more and claim a new variation and the first single-push ascent. If comparisons were to be made, we only took 44 hours whereas it took Twight 60 on the Czech Direct, so does that mean I should take an elitist attitude towards him? I don’t think that this type of thinking is valid. Rather, maybe I should emulate the truly great climbers of the Rockies whose accomplishments pass in near-obscurity, but then this article wouldn’t have been written. After all, we’re just out there to have fun.
The long and the short of it is that, as Jack Roberts wrote, the Diamond “could be ascended quickly in single push style and is well within the climbing standards of many climbers”. The route ought to be a classic. By pushing one’s limits yet remaining realistic, more climbers should be able to enjoy Denali’s southwest-face routes. The routes established by previous parties are so unclear that worrying about who has been where seems pedantic. Just don’t take a tent; beware the dangers above; use “first-ascent eyes”; and try to align yourselves so that the crux pitches feel the bite of your crampons. Leave the rest to the historians and chat-room skeptics once you’re safely off De-gnarl-i.
Thanks to Ian Welsted
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 3, 2016 - 02:04am PT
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5th Ascent: Colin Haley and Mark Westman. 2007: 45.5 hours bergschrund to summit.
Thanks to Colin Haley
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Bldrjac
Ice climber
Boulder
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Simon McCartney's book about his ascent of the S.W. Face of Denali with Jack Roberts, as well as their ascent of the North Face of Mt. Huntington (and Simon's ascent of The Eiger)is now available! It's called "The Bond"....it's a great read, and fabulous pictures. Right now available via Vertebrate Press in England, or from Amazon starting July 28. The Mountaineers will have the "American" version in March....paperback, no color plates. A great bunch of stories!
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 3, 2016 - 08:36pm PT
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6th Ascent: Kazuaki Amano, Ryo Masumoto, and Takaai Nagato. 2010: Four days. First free ascent of the route's crux pitch at M7+.
All photos: Ryo Masumoto (with his expressed permission)
Thanks to Ryo Masumoto
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2016 - 05:41am PT
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6th Ascent: Kazuaki Amano, Ryo Masumoto, and Takaai Nagato. 2010: Four days. First free ascent of the route's crux pitch at M7+.
All photos: Ryo Masumoto (with his expressed permission)
Thanks to Ryo Masumoto
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2016 - 07:46pm PT
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6th Ascent: Kazuaki Amano, Ryo Masumoto, and Takaai Nagato. 2010: Four days. First free ascent of the route's crux pitch at M7+.
All photos: Ryo Masumoto (with his expressed permission)
Thanks to Ryo Masumoto
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, avery and all...
wow, thanks for all the really neat stuff...
:)
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Avery
climber
New Zealand
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2016 - 08:10pm PT
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Thanks neebee
Ryo Masumoto is a very generous man.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, avery... wow, i too, thank him, as well, :)
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