On January 4, Lonnie Dupre spent part of his day building a snow cave at 14,200 feet. Dupre has used this camp several days as he hauled supplies in stages up the mountain. Dupre will make his last camp at 17,200 feet and then wait for good weather to attempt his summit of Mount Denali; at 20,320 feet, Denali is the highest peak in North America.
Due to heavy fog on January 2, it took him two hours to find the food cache he had ditched at 10,000 feet, but when he did find it, Lonnie Dupre hiked back to his camp at 11,200 feet to enjoy his first dinner in five days—mashed potatoes with a little duck fat hot chocolate. Not exactly 5-star restaurant food, but restaurants are few and far between in this part of Alaska, and on Mount Denali, North America’s highest mountain at 20,320 feet.
Dupre started January 2 at 3 a.m., and noted in his audiotape that daylight arrived on Denali at about 10 a.m. As he hauled half of his 160 pounds of gear that day, Dupre said that it was sleeting and said rather wryly, “Welcome to climate change.”
Three weeks into his fourth attempt to scale North America’s highest mountain peak, Dupre has run into some unusual weather.
“With temperatures well above average for this time of year, Lonnie struggled to keep dry with freezing rain and snow,” wrote Stevie Anna Plummer, the contact person at his Talkeetna, Alaska headquarters. “For the first time in history, a robin was spotted just days ago in Bethel, Alaska, in the dead of winter,” added Plummer.
According to the National Weather Service, November 2014 was the warmest on record for Bethel, Alaska.
Recording climate change— shrinking glaciers and warming weather on Mount Denali—are reasons Dupre cites as he once again attempts to become the first person to solo climb Denali’s summit in January.
By January 3 Lonnie had moved his gear to 13,600 feet. Plummer reported that Dupre spent the day hauling 160 pounds of gear around the crevasses of Windy Corner up to 13.6k. Plummer said he arrived there at around 5 p.m. Alaskan time. On January 4, he hiked to 14,200 feet and built a “deluxe snow cave.” He will use that location for several days as he moves gear to 15,000 feet then 16,000 feet and on to his last camp at 17,200 feet.
Dupre used January 5 as a rest day, organizing gear and making plans for his push to the summit.
On January 7, Dupre announced that he had brought his gear to 16,000 feet where he buried a cache of supplies before returning to camp at 14,200 feet to catch a much-needed rest. Plummer said Dupre would use that day to study weather patterns and decide when to make his big push to establish base camp at 17,200 feet. That will be the last camp Dupre will make.
From there, if the weather holds, Dupre will make a big push for the summit. It will be a day many hope happens soon so he can get off the mountain and return safely home. Twice Dupre has been stuck in snow caves at 17,200 feet for a week while waiting for 100 mph winds and 60 below zero temperatures to settle down. Both times he only had strength enough to head down the mountain.
At age 53, Dupre said he is feeling “pretty fit and not feeling many aches or pains for my age, anyway.” A good sign. Now it’s up to the weather to hold so he can reach his elusive goal.
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