Speaking of Denali. I've mentioned BackPackingLight.com's podcast a couple of times recently, and mentioned the attempt by Matt Hage and Agnes Stowe to go ultralight on Denali. The two set off to climb the mountain carrying just over 30 pounds of gear each. Well, Matt and Anges are down safely, and did indeed successfully top out. In this latest podcast they discuss their experience on Denali, including a week long weather delay at 14,000 feet. They evaluate the performance of their light gear, and what they would do differently next time. Fo Agnes, this was her first summit of Denali, but Matt has gone up and down four times already.
Typical climbers will go up with 50 to 60 pounds of gear and Alan Arnette told me in an e-mail before he left that his pack was over 40 pounds without water or group gear! Obviously these two were relying on speed and gear that was not only light, but still of very high quality. The weather conditions on the mountain have been less than spectacular this year, and only about a third of the climbers are actually reaching the summit at all right now, which makes their climb even more impressive.
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