Lonnie Dupre (in front) works his way up a mountain in Nepal. Dupre is planning a climbing expedition in Alaska in late April in which he and four other climbers hope to summit Mount Begguya, which is considered the hardest 14,000 foot climb in North America. He will use that endeavor as a training ground for further climbs planned next fall in Nepal. Photo courtesy of Lonnie Dupre
It took a few attempts for Lonnie Dupre to become the first person to climb solo up Mount Denali in January, but now he has his sights on leading a climb up Begguya, the mountain native Alaskans refer to as “Denali’s Child.”
Only this time he’s not going alone.
And he’s not trying to climb in the middle of the winter in low light and extreme cold where winds can hit 100 miles per hour.
Still, Begguya (called Mt. Hunter by some) at 14,573 feet on the north summit and 13,966 feet on the south summit is known as the most technical and steepest climb of the three peaks in Denali Park. It is also considered by climbers to be the most difficult 14,000-foot peak to scale in North America, and fewer than 40 percent of those who attempt to climb it succeed in reaching the summit.
Making the climb with Dupre are Willi Prittie, a professional mountain guide with 40-plus years of exploration and more than 150 mountain climbing expeditions behind him. Pascale Marceau, the only female in the group, is a backcountry skier and experienced mountaineer. Matt Hickey is a captain in the U.S. Army who currently commands the Army’s World Class Athlete Program in Colorado Springs, where he oversees the Army’s E.S. Olympic Team hopefuls. Hickey also has a lot of climbing experience.
Chris Worlow is a mountain climber who freelances in the commercial photo and video industry.
Dupre said his crew would attempt to summit the north peak.
“Because Begguya offers such a mixed bag of climbing, rocks, snow, ice, and vertical, I assembled a mixed team who are all good at different things,”Dupre said.
“This is still pretty early for climbing in Denali. It’s the end of winter and it will be quite cold except in the middle parts of the day, and the higher we climb, the colder it will get. Still, we will have the sun out for 23 hours each day, which will help. One thing about Begguya, though is that there are a lot of crevasses from base camp to the approach, and again at 13,000 feet, there are a considerable amount of crevasses, so we will have to be careful.
“Because of the larger size of our team, we will use a methodical expedition climbing strategy. We anticipate 14 days for the climb, allowing time for Begguya’s temperamental weather and careful progress through many of her trying and dangerous cruxes,” he added.
The expedition is set to begin April 22, 2016, weather permitting.
Last fall Dupre led a team of climbers on an expedition in Nepal. This latest venture continues his 25-year quest to explore the coldest places on earth and he said it will be used as a training ground for a planned fall mountain climb in Nepal of a peak that has never been scaled before.
“We are looking at making a climb of 21,000 to 22,000 feet in the fall in Nepal,” Dupre said.
A descendant of French explorer Jacques Cartier, the French explorer who founded Quebec, Dupre was awarded the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2004 for bringing attention to the impacts of climate change on the Arctic through his expeditions, and has continued in his quest to highlight the impacts of global warming on the places and people that inhabit the coldest areas of our planet.
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