Lonnie Dupre and his expedition manager, Tom Surprenant at the Polar Climb Party, a send-off event for Dupre’s attempt at a solo climb of Mount Denali in January 2011.
Lonnie Dupre is a snowbird of sorts—anywhere there is snow, he will go.
Dupre’s latest adventure will take him to Denali, AKA Mount McKinley, where he will attempt to become the first person to complete a solo ascent of Denali in the month of January.
Dupre has spent 25 years traveling more than 15,000 miles throughout the high Arctic and Polar Regions by dog team, skis and kayaks. He has won numerous awards for his achievements and been featured in such magazines as National Geographic, Readers
Digest, Sports Illustrated,
Outside Magazine
and many newspapers and TV news shows and documentaries.
But Denali will present special challenges, and Dupre will need all of the skills he has amassed throughout his illustrious career.
At 20,320 feet, Denali is North America’s highest mountain. Because of its high latitude (being close to the Arctic) it feels more like a 23,000-foot peak.
According to Dupre, he will pull a six-foot sled and carry a backpack, a combined weight of about 150 pounds, on his climb.
“I’ll be attached to the sled via a 14-foot lightweight ladder and waist harness. The ladder will help span crevasses should I slip into one. I will also be using extra-long skis for bridging crevasses,” Dupre said.
Grand Marais resident Tom Surprenant will serve as Dupre’s expedition manager. Tom, Lonnie and Buck Benson climbed Denali last June, scaling the West Buttress route in 13 days. Surprenant will stay in a rented cottage in the village of Talkeetna.
“I used that expedition to assess whether it would be possible with my plus-twenty years of polar expedition experience— with some modification of climbing gear—to successfully climb the mountain in Januar y.”
Dupre hopes for good weather but isn’t counting on it. Winds often exceed 100 miles per hour and temperatures plummet below -50F. There also isn’t much light, with an average of six hours of sunlight per day.
When the moon is full, however, Dupre will travel with the aid of his headlamp.
Because of the rigor of carrying his own supplies and fighting off the effects of cold weather, Dupre will have to eat at least 6,000 calories per day. Most of the food will be uncooked, “with the exception of soups and drinks,” said Dupre.
To find his way back down the mountain, Dupre will use a Hansel and Gretel trick: (no, not breadcrumbs) he will use some 300 bamboo wands as markers to mark dangerous crevasse crossings and to mark his camps.
Only nine expeditions totaling 16 people have reached the summit of Denali in the winter. Of those select few, six have died coming down the mountain. And of those nine expeditions, only four were solo, but none were attempted in January, the darkest and coldest month of the year.
Camps will consist of snow caves. “Even modern expedition tents can’t hold up to Denali’s winter winds,” Dupre said. The snow caves are also warmer than a tent.
To train for this trip Dupre has hiked long distances carrying a 60-pound pack, run long-distance, pulled tires, cross-country skied, worked out with kettle bells, biked, and honed his climbing skills in Washington and Colorado.
To help him get acclimatized to altitude, Dupre has used a hyperbaric chamber. The chamber simulates high altitude by allowing less oxygen to be used by its inhabitants than is available at sea level.
The public will be able to follow Dupre through his daily blog entries, photographs and audio posts that will be submitted to the expedition website at www.lonniedupre.com and to the social media.
Dupre hopes this trip will help bring “attention to Alaska’s vanishing glaciers.” And he promises “something big at the summit that will be documented there.”
Once the trip is over Dupre will have a film made and an audio documentary produced for radio as well as still images that will be used for publications.
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