On Thursday, January 5, Lonnie Dupre set out to establish a camp at 17,200 feet on Mount Denali. If successful, he will be within one day of being able to reach the 20,320-foot summit of Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America. So far he has spent almost five days in a snow cave at 16,000 feet, and according to his base camp manager Stevie Anna Plummer, “He’s getting pretty sick of it. He sounds really good and is eager to move on.”
Grand Marais mountain climber/adventurer Lonnie Dupre brought in the New Year by spending the day resting at Windy Corner on Mount Denali. Situated at 14,200 feet, Windy Corner isn’t a local hotspot in Alaska. In fact, no one is within several country miles of Dupre unless they fly by.
But for Dupre, being alone is different than being lonely, and it’s an acceptable price he will pay to become the first person to solo climb North America’s highest mountain peak in the dead of Alaska’s cold, dark winter.
This year there have been few hiccups in Dupre’s attempt to summit the 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, or Denali as the natives call it. He learned a lot from his failed attempt last winter, when he was stuck in a snow cave for a week as winds reached 100 miles per hour and the cold plummeted to minus 70 below zero. At 17,200 feet, only eight hours from the summit, Dupre halted. Once the winds subsided, Dupre, exhausted, left his snow cave and returned down the mountain to try again this year. Maybe the biggest lesson he learned was to start about 10 days earlier and avoid—if possible—some of the extreme winds and cold he faced last January.
According to his base camp manager, Stevie Anna Plummer, Dupre may have reached Denali’s 20,320-foot summit by the time you get this newspaper.
On January 2 Plummer said, “Just got done talking with Lonnie on the phone. He sounds great. He’s cooking his breakfast in his snow cave now at 14,200 feet and getting ready to taxi his stuff to 16,000 feet and come back down to 14,200 feet to sleep overnight.
“He’s staying warm and making good progress. If Lonnie didn’t have to acclimatize to the high altitude I’d think he already summited Denali and be back here by now. He’s just cruising.”
Staying warm is a matter of perspective. While temperatures have hit 60 below zero outside, inside Dupre can warm his snow cave to a balmy 30 degrees above zero.
On January 2 Plummer said, “The weather is on the plus side and holding. Looks like there will be a pretty good low pressure that might hit around Friday, January 6, but he hopes to summit the 4th or 5th and get out of there before it really hits us.”
However, the next day Plummer reported that the weather had turned. “The weather is okay, but a little too cold and windy right now to travel. It should warm up in the next couple of days or so. He got frostbite on six of his fingers. His fingers are okay and he’s had it before so he knows how to keep it from getting any worse.”
Dupre’s fingers got cold after he hiked some of his gear to the 16,200 top of what is called the Headwall. All was going well until Dupre removed his gloves and stuck them between his knees for a moment. Unfortunately, one of his gloves slipped out and slid down the 800-foot hill. It took him about 20 minutes to find it and put it back on. A small amount of damage to his fingers was done in the interim, but Plummer said he will be okay.
When asked if Dupre had gotten a good look at the Northern Lights, which are supposed to be spectacular this winter, Plummer said no, not yet.
“Lonnie’s done with crevasses now that he’s off Denali’s glaciers and he is now moving up the Headwall and then the West Buttress Ridge. Unfortunately he hasn’t gotten a good look at the Northern Lights yet because he’s usually tucked away in his snow cave sleeping during most dark hours. He’ll travel in the dark summit day morning, though. Northern Lights on summit morning would be a pretty big treat for him!”
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