Lonnie Dupre is dealing with a lot of snow at lower elevations as he makes his way up to the 20,350-foot summit of Denali, North America’s highest peak. This marks the fourth time that Dupre has attempted to climb Denali in the winter. Should he make it to the top he will become the first person to solo climb the mountain and reach its summit in January.
For the last two days a raven has accompanied Lonnie Dupre as he makes his way through deep snow up Denali.
“It’s a good omen,” Dupre said of the raven’s gift of company on the lonely mountain.
Grand Marais arctic explorer Lonnie Dupre flew to the Kahiltna Glacier December 18 to begin his fourth quest to scale Alaska’s Denali (Mount McKinley) in January.
With six hours of sunlight, wicked winds that exceed 100 mile per hour and temperatures falling below -60 F, Denali is a formidable challenge for even the most experienced mountain climber. To date only four solo climbers have made it to the top of the mountain in the winter, and none of those have attempted to climb in January, the coldest, darkest month of the year.
On December 23 Dupre was fighting through 3 feet of snow as he spent the second day transporting his gear 900 feet up the mountain from his base camp located at 7,800 feet. He said he was feeling good, was staying warm and ready to make more progress upward on the 24th.
At the beginning Dupre will pull a 5-foot sled loaded with165 pounds of supplies. As he goes up in elevation he will switch to backpacking gear up the mountain. He will also carry 175 bamboo wands to mark his route, his campsites, and dangerous crevasses. These wands will aid him in his return down the mountain, the period where most climbers have deadly accidents.
Dupre will carry 34 days of food with him. This year he will use a tent rather than digging snow caves to sleep in. The small tent will have to be dug into the snow, but it won’t require spending the time or the energy of digging a snow cave, Dupre said.
Over his 25 years of Arctic exploration Dupre has become the first to circumnavigate Greenland by non-motorized transport (kayaks and dogsled) and has traveled to the North Pole on two separate occasions.
At age 53 Dupre is betting on experience over youthful energy to get him to the top.
“The experience you gain from each expedition and climb significantly reduces the risk because you understand the route more intimately and can fine tune your equipment accordingly,” he said, adding, “Now it’s up to the weather.”
Two out of Dupre’s last three climbs have been stopped by windstorms that trapped him in 4-foot by 4-foot snow caves for seven days while he was only hours from the top. Both of those times Dupre saw a break in the weather, which gave him the opportunity to head down the mountain. He said that even though he didn’t make it to the top, each attempt was successful in one way or another and he learned something more every time out.
While his end goal is to make it to Denali’s peak, Dupre said he would like this climb to promote the environment.
“I spent a lot of time this past year trying to figure out how to inspire folks about our need to do something about climate change,” he said. “So, we made a one-hour film called Cold Love, which is about Arctic adventure and the world’s need—people’s need—for snow and ice. Snow and ice are important in our polar regions because they help reflect the sun’s energy back into space. Basically the planet’s polar regions act as a thermostat to keep our planet cool,” he said.
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