Looking all snug and cozy in his warm winter parka, Lonnie Dupre stops to pose for a picture during one of his many winter adventures. This time around, however, not even this wonderous winter jacket could keep him safe from the wicked weather predicted for the area around Mount Hunter. Huge snowfalls with possible avalanches were in the forecast, which caused Dupre to cancel the trip. He plans on making another attempt to climb Mount Hunter next winter.
After one week of careful preparation, his food packed and sled loaded with gear, Lonnie Dupre decided against making a 2018 attempt at climbing Mount Hunter.
“I have been monitoring the weather forecast sites, visiting with other mountaineers and my pilot who knows this area and its weather patterns like the back of his hand. It appears there will be at least two to three feet of extended snow events in the Hunter Mountain area of the range during my proposed climb.
“The first half of my trip will be cloud covered most of the time with a projected accumulated snowfall of nearly six feet.
“This is all dandy but would make for extremely dangerous if not impossible glacial travel with the low visibility for spotting crevasses and more so via the ice falls I plan to navigate through. This all makes me a bit worried about avalanches in two locations of my route,” he wrote in his blog on March 1.
At 14537 feet, Mount Hunter or Begguya, as the Inuit call it, with its steep faces and corniced ridges, is the most challenging mountain to climb of Denali National Park’s three magnificent peaks. And while it is isn’t nearly as tall as Mount Denali, it is considered the most difficult 14,000-foot mountain peak to scale in North America, with fewer than 40 percent of climbers reaching the summit.
No one has yet to succeed at a solo ascent of Hunter during the winter, and this was going to be Lonnie’s second attempt at doing so. Last year, Dupre, then age 55, abandoned his effort after enduring several days of high winds, poor snow conditions, and brutal cold.
Following that 2017 attempt, Lonnie wrote in his journal, “To say I’m not outright scared would be untrue. Hunter has me at the threshold of my capabilities. So many unknowns…climbing with a heavy pack, route, calories, storm days, and there will be some.”
With that backdrop, Dupre wasn’t going to take any unnecessary risks this year.
“These winter climbs are so weather dependent and to make a wrong call can be lethal, especially if one’s traveling solo. We are all seeing the outcomes of mountaineers trying to climb Everest and K2 in the winter. There is simply no room for error, and it takes forever waiting for the right weather window.
“Waiting out the projected bad weather wouldn’t leave me enough days left to climb Hunter before winter is over on March 21st,” wrote Dupre in his blog on March 1.
Next up, said Dupre, he will attempt to climb Mount Fairweather in British Columbia.
And as far as Mount Hunter? The Grand Marais cold weather adventurer said he plans to make another attempt to climb the mountain, good weather providing.
A brief history of some of Lonnie’s awards and notable achievements
Dupre completed the first west to east, 3,000-mile winter crossing of Canada’s famed Northwest Passage by dog team. He achieved the first circumnavigation of Greenland, a 6,500-mile, all non-motorized journey by kayak and dog team.
Lonnie was the first (and only) person to climb unaided and alone to the top of Alaska’s Denali (20,340 ft.).
Lonnie was named Outside magazine’s Most Badass Adventures 2015; National Geographic Adventure – Best of Adventure 2005; he was the recipient of the Rolex Award for Enterprise 2004.
In 2001-2002 he won the Polartec Challenge Award. He was elected Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 1996. He was honored at the Winter Olympics, Oslo, Norway 1994 and won the Soviet Sportsman’s medal in 1989. Lonnie has pulled sleds on skis from Canada to the North Pole twice. The 2006 expedition reached over 68 million people worldwide on issues surrounding climate change. He also has an alpine ascent of Kyajo Ri (20,295 ft.) in Nepal.
He’s done lots more stuff, collecting data along the way on many of his trips for scientists who study the effects of global warming on the coldest places on the earth. And, he’s a good carpenter when he isn’t either planning a trip or out on an adventure. Plus, Lonnie is a heck of a nice guy.
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