Outdoors/Adventure

Winter climbing wizard Dupre's bid to scale Mount Hunter rebuffed

Almost exactly a year after he became the first person to climb North America's highest peak in January, Minnesota mountaineer Lonnie Dupre has been rebuffed by Denali's shorter – but no less fierce – sister, Mount Hunter.

About 8 miles south of Denali, the 14,573-foot Mount Hunter can be harrowing, and most climbers consider it the most difficult of the big three of Denali National Park. Until Fred Beckey and Heinrich Harrer reached the summit in 1954, it was unclimbed. The first ascent of what was then known as Mount McKinley came 41 years earlier.

Only once has Hunter been climbed in winter. In 1980, Paul Denkewalter, Gary Bocarde and Vern Tejas teamed up for the only winter ascent.

Dupre may be lucky to have survived his bid.

On Sunday, according to his blog, Dupre "climbed some steep, technical pitches, but did not have sufficient rock protection to continue. On his (descent), he broke through a bergschrund (a crevasse created where the glacier meets the mountain).  He arrested his fall at shoulder level, but both feet were dangling in the void. With great effort and time, he managed to get himself and his backpack out of the crevasse. He was pretty shook up."

[Dupre's blog — photos expected soon]

The climber's brush with disaster was followed by days of frigid subzero temperatures, stout winds and deep powder. Enough was enough. He retreated to the Kahiltna Glacier base camp to catch a flight back to Talkeetna.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The conditions on the mountain, a dense crust on top of unsupportive snow, made it impossible to travel safely," his blog reported. "All good things take time."

Dupre, 55, is living proof of that. His successful winter climb of Denali last year was his fourth attempt at the 20,310-foot peak during the coldest, darkest months.

[Wind slows Denali climb]

According to National Geographic, Dupre, a veteran explorer and mountaineer who weighs just 150 pounds, packs exceptionally light — a mere 60 pounds for his Mount Hunter bid.

"Fuel is the number one priority. You can go a little while without adequate food, but only two or three days without water, and you need white gas fuel to melt snow," he told National Geographic. "In an extreme environment, what you have can mean whether you live or die."

A descendant of French explorer Jacques Cartier, Dupre has compiled a dossier of notable adventure trips over the last three decades that includes the first non-motorized circumnavigation of Greenland and the first human-powered expedition to the North Pole in the summer by sled and canoe.

On Friday, Talkeetna Air Taxi dropped him off at the Kahiltna Glacier base camp at 7,200 feet, the frequently used jumping-off point for climbs up Denali, Mount Foraker, Hunter and Mount Cross.

On Saturday, Dupre headed east up the glacier after a night interrupted by the regular sounds of ice falls. Before long, the steepness of the terrain forced him to switch from his skis to post-holing in waist-deep powder, an exhausting task that slowed him to a crawl.

Dupre began his climb Wednesday (Jan. 4), encouraged by "a decent weather window on the horizon," according to his blog.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Mount Hunter had never been climbed in winter.  In 1980, Paul Denkewalter, Gary Bocarde and Vern Tejas completed the only winter ascent.

Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell was a longtime editor for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.

ADVERTISEMENT