Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Climber abandons effort to scale Mount McKinley

After 20 days on North America's tallest mountain, including seven spent in a tiny snow trench at 17,200 feet, pinned in by wind and a prolonged whiteout, Minnesota's Lonnie Dupre on Wednesday abandoned his effort to become the first person to scale Mount McKinley alone in January.

Dupre, who descended from 17,200 feet to 14,200 on Tuesday, continued to work his way down the mountain on Wednesday, his website reported. Once at 7,000 feet, a plane can pick him up and take him to Talkeetna.

Seven days and six nights at 17,200 feet, spent almost exclusively inside a 3x3x6-foot snow trench, sapped Dupre of his strength and fitness, an update on the website said.

"He has made the decision to continue down to base camp," it said. "... Lonnie was set for a summit attempt, but Mother Nature decided that it would 'test' him for 7 days, with winds up to 100 mph, temperatures reaching -50 and a 5.4 magnitude earthquake. ... There is an old saying that you don't (mess) with Mother Nature, and I think Lonnie knows and respects that power more than ever!"

Dupre, 49, is from Grand Marais, Minn. He has been on numerous polar adventures, including some in Alaska.

Had he succeeded in his attempt to scale the 20,320-foot Denali, he would have become the first person to make it to the top alone in January and the fifth to make it to the top alone during the winter.

The first successful winter climb of McKinley came in 1967, when Ray Genet, Dave Johnston and Art Davidson reached the summit on Feb. 28.

In February 1984, Japan's Naomi Uemura became the first person to reach the summit alone in the winter, but his climb is not considered a successful ascent because he was killed on the way down. His body remains somewhere on the mountain.

In March 1988, Alaska's Vern Tejas made a successful solo winter ascent. Other successful solo winter attempts were made by Alaska's Dave Staeheli in March 1989 (his was the first solo ascent up the West Rib route; Uemura and Tejas climbed the more popular West Buttress route, which is also the route Dupre chose) and by Japan's Masatoshi Kuriaki in March 1998.

Also in 1998, Artur Testov and Vladimir Ananich of Russia made what remains the only successful ascent in January, when daylight is at its scarcest.

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