Solo climber reaches 17,200-foot level of McKinley

Crossing the last half of the West Buttress Ridge by headlamp Wednesday night, Minnesota adventurer Lonnie Dupre spent Thursday at the 17,200-foot level of Mount McKinley, resting for what could be a historic summit push.

Dupre, 49, hopes to become the first person to make a solo ascent of North America's tallest peak in the cold, dark month of January.

Dupre, who is from Grand Marais, Minn., put in a long day Wednesday, according to reports from his expedition manager in Talkeetna.

Aided by favorable winds, he ascended 3,000 feet from his camp at 14,200 feet.

At 15,500 feet, he retrieved some food and fuel he had cached earlier this week and then he headed up the mountain's notorious West Buttress headwall. The headwall is a steep and potentially perilous stretch of about a thousand feet where the slope is between 45 and 50 degrees and fixed ropes are in place to assist climbers.

After the headwall comes the West Buttress ridge, which Dupre crossed hours after sunset with the help of artificial light.

"Lonnie committed to the day's climb," expedition manager Tom Surprenant wrote Thursday in an update posted at lonniedupre.com. "He knew it was going to be a long day. Late last night I got a call from Lonnie saying that he had reached 17,200 camp. ... (He) crossed the last half of the West Buttress Ridge by Head Lamp last night."

Surprenant said the satellite-phone call from Dupre came shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday. Thursday's plan was to rest and acclimate to the new altitude before making an alpine-style push for the summit.

Dupre began his climb on Friday, Jan. 7. He told the Daily News he would carry 38 days' worth of food.

Only four men, including one who was killed on his descent, have made solo ascents in the winter, none of them in January, and only one team -- two climbers from Russia -- has reached the summit in January.
Fisherman's Choice Charters