Denali Climb - Cassin Ridge 1988

In May 1988, I joined George Lowe to climb the Cassin Ridge of Denali. After flying to Alaska, we took the train from Anchorage to Talkeetna. Jim Okenek flew us to the Kahiltna Glacier basecamp on May 27. We spent 2 days skiing up the regular West Buttress route to the standard 14,200 foot basecamp (Medical Camp). 3 nights were spent here for acclimatization. We then skied back down to the mouth of the Northeast fork where we had cached much of our gear on the way up. After a storm day, we continued on skis to the base of the Japanese Couloir where we abandoned the skis (This was permitted in those days). We then spent 5 more nights on the climb. The crux areas were the Japanese Couloir and the the huge bergschrund above. We summited on Day 13 and then descended to a camp above the Medical camp. The following and last day, we descended more than 10,000 vertical feet back to The Kahiltna Glacier Basecamp.

ITINERARY
Camp 1 - Kahiltna Glacier basecamp - 7,200 ft
Camp 2 - Below Kahiltna Pass - 10,000 ft
Camp 3 - Medical Camp - 14,200 ft
Camp 4 - Medical Camp - acclimatization day
Camp 5 - Medical Camp - acclimatization day
Camp 6 - Cache camp - 7,600 ft (mouth of Northeast Fork)
Camp 7 - Cache Camp - Storm day
Camp 8 - Below Japanese Couloir - 11,600 ft
Camp 9 - Above Japanese Couloir - 13,200 ft
Camp 10 - Below bergschrund - 14,360 ft
Camp 11 - On ridge - 15,900 ft
Camp 12 - On ridge - 17,700 ft
Camp 13 - Camp below Denali Pass - 17,060 ft (after summiting 20,320 ft)
Camp 14 - Kahiltna Glacier basecamp - 7,200 ft
Return to Talkeetna