Denali Report for June 29th, 2018

This is the Denali Report for Friday, June 29^th, 2018.

Currently, there are 1,111 climbers registered to attempt Denali, with over 200 climbs underway. Nearly 900 climbs have been completed, with forty-four percent reaching the summit.

Yesterday marked the anniversary of a record-setting summit attempt. On June 28^th, 2013, Anchorage resident Tom Choate set the record for being the oldest person to set foot on top of Denali. Choate, then 78, spoke with KTNA shortly after his climb about the experience. While the trip was a success, it was not without its challenges, including a rare thunderstorm high on the mountain.

“Suddenly, this big white cloud comes in and covers us all up and it starts to snow.  It’s like, “What in the heck is going on?” We sat down at the bottom of this steep hill, and there was this loud clap of thunder and lighting zooming around in the clouds.  People started popping off the top ridge like flies.  A guy comes down past me and says, ‘Look, my hair’s been curled.  This big spark jumped from my shovel to my head.’ It’s like, ‘Wait a minute, this is 20,000 feet.  How can there possibly be a lightning storm up here?’”

Tom Choate made his first climb of Denali in 1963. Since then, he has gone back each decade. Over those fifty years, he says a great deal has changed on the mountain.

“My recollection was eve in the middle of July in ’63, there was a lot of snow, quite a lot of ice, and whether you call it global warming or what-not, a lot of material is melting away.  Each decade I go back, in ’93 for example, you had to deviate a little bitfrom going directly to the summit.  In 1963 you could go directly to the summit fromwhat they the ‘Football Field.’  This year I discovered that you’re going further and further onto the ridge to reach the summit because there’s fifty feet less snow.”

In the same interview, Choate said he didn’t yet have plans for 2023, but planned to find something interesting to do.