I will be going to McKinley with a small team in April-May 1999 and want to climb the West Rib - from bottom to top. After reviewing a number of different books there are still some questions I have.

1. How many camps would you put in on the Rib and at what elevations? I am thinking that once you leave the NE fork the number is three - one near the Rib crest above the chute at 14,000ft?, another up the rib at 15,500 and a third at 17,000.

3. If you were to climb the entire Rib would you carry all your gear up and over to where the route connects with the West Buttress trail to the summit? Is it very reasonable to assume carrying a full load to 19,000ft (or wherever the Rib tops out at)?

4. I was thinking an April ascent so that we would have better luck getting across the NE fork glacier and less crowds but do you think the winds will be too much on the Rib if we go that early?

5. Would it make any sense to acclimate on an easy Mt. Hunter route and then drop down to the Kahiltna and climb the rib or is Hunter logistically too far away?

-- Matt Blakeney (MattB@kennedyusa.com), January 21, 1998

Answers

1. I think your plan is correct. Glenn Randall in his excellent Mount McKinley climbers handbook gives unsignificantly different elevation for the camps.

3. That's a lot to carry, and in my opinion it is not worth it unless you want to go down the west buttress (as I did to do a sort of traverse). With all my gear I was not able to summit in the day and go down to 17000 since I underestimated the effect of altitude. Many parties summit and return to their high camp, and then descent the orient express to the 14000 camp on the west buttress.

4. Don't know. Maybe ask the rangers.

5. It makes sense. Hunter is right in front of the Kahilna airstrip so the approach is quite short with easy logistics. For the Lowe-Kennedy route you even start from the airstrip base camp.

-- Quang-Tuan Luong (luong@ai.sri.com), January 21, 1998.

I would like to add some of my opinions: The upper mountain will be really cold in April, May might be better. A good way to acclimize is to go to the 14,200' on the West Butt, stay there for a few days, climb the fixed ropes, then desend to NE fork and climb the Rib. The Rib tops out at 19,500' and carrying your gear there is totally reasonable. Desending the West Butt is much easier. And, any route on Mt. Hunter is more serious than the West Rib.

-- alison krachik (akrachik@ddcboulder.com), May 31, 1998.

Don't screw around with climbing up the West Buttress to accilamtize. Once you get to 14,500' on the Butt you will look around and decide to try for the summit via the upper Rib or Buttress. Nobody wants to give up ground when the alternative is walking under a serac wall.

Hunter could be good, but may take the steam out of you. A milder apporch is Mt. Crosen or one of the Kahiltna Peaks.

Don't drag all that crap over the top. Go down the upper Rib to the West Butt cutoff around 15,000'. Take an extra pair of skis or snow shoes to stash at the corner of the NE Fork or on the West Butt to facilite retreving the other skis or snowshoes left at the bottom of the Rib.

Assuming alpine style; an 8.5mm 50 meter rope and 6, 17cm ice screws, and a picket/person is more than enough gear. After about 13,200' you can climb unroped if you feel secure on open 40 to 55 degree snow/ice faces with bad run outs.

Good luck, it is a fine route.

Charlie Sassara

-- Charlie Sassara (csassara@piquniq.com), December 31, 1998.