July 19, 2019

Dan, Eric, Audrey, Leanne, Rowan, Keith, Jay on top June 28, 2019, a perfect summit day (Rowan Stewart)

I am totally psyched to be writing this blog post.  Denali is such a cool climb and it is an honor for me to get to put a bow on our inaugural IMG Denali season, our first as an official NPS concessioner on “The Great One”!  It takes a lot of people to run a smooth operation on Denali so a big thanks to my partners, our guides and staff, and the NPS rangers and staff up in Talkeetna for their efforts.  I would be remiss if I did not give a special shout out to Phil Ershler, Jason Edwards and Tammy Gorman at IMG, who took our Denali program administration and logistics to the finish line.  Well done!

2019 was a great startup season for IMG Denali. We learned a lot and are already looking forward to 2020.  In addition to our first guided climbers reaching the summit of Denali, we also had 21 of our guides on the hill this season (counting the scheduled guided trips, our June guide training trip, and several guides’ “personal” trips).  We’ve been providing financial support for our IMG guides’ Denali trips for many years, and now we have nearly 40 of them who have been up there. It’s a good investment and we’ll continue to do it, as that’s the future of the business, right there.

Little did I know back in 1974 when I competed my first Denali trip as a 19 year old, that my life and this mountain would be so intertwined.  For 20 years, until 1996, I led annual Denali expeditions for RMI, before quitting to pursue the prospect of a new guiding permit at Mt Rainier.  Now I’m 64 years old, but still have some gas left in the tank, so I took the opportunity to go back and climb Denali again with our guide training climb in June.  I always loved climbing in June (it’s warmer!) and this would be my first trip since 1996 and my 20^th Denali expedition (now I have 17 summits including 7 traverses).  It was great to be joined by old friend, veteran climber and IMG Denali partner Dan Mann from Fairbanks along with five of our up-and-coming young IMG guides on their first Denali trip.  Climbing with these five, Leanne, Keith, Jay, Rowan and my daughter Audrey was especially gratifying, seeing the mountain again “for the first time” through their eyes.  We had a super sweet climb and summited June 28 on one of the very nicest summit days I can remember, with a 13,000 foot freezing level!  It was all perfect, and I’ll cherish the memories of my final Denali trip for the rest of my life.

People have been asking me “what has changed”?  Frankly, the mountain looked about the same, but the way climbers deal with it sure is different.  Yes, we used to throw our garbage and poop into crevasses, while now we carry everything out.  Helicopter rescues used to be few and far between, while now the NPS has their own B3 helicopter on call.  In over 40 trips up/down the “autobahn” to Denali Pass I never clipped a picket because there weren’t any, while now there must be 50 of them.  For comms, you were lucky if you could talk to an occasional bush pilot on a CB radio, there were no weather reports to speak of (just look out the tent door to see what the weather is) and if you had a problem you pretty much just had to deal with it on your own.  Now we have various communication devices, there are NPS weather stations at 7K and 14K and daily climber weather forecasts. I remember when the NPS office in Talkeetna was a single wide mobile home over by the train station, with only a couple rangers (including Roger Robinson, who is retiring this year after 40 seasons!).  Now there is a big new NPS visitor center and lots of rangers and staff.  When Don Sheldon, Cliff Hudson, and Doug Geeting were the bush pilot gods, flying their Cessna 185’s in “VFR” conditions (watch those clouds, they have rocks in them!) it used to take many flights to get a team flown in or out from the Kahiltna, whereas now we can put the whole team and all their gear on one flight in the DHC-3 turbine Otters, flying on instruments if necessary.  Back in the old days we called the mountain “McKinley” but it is still the same big hill when it comes to putting one foot in front of the other, and those packs and sleds haven’t gotten any lighter either. This is still NOT a climb for people in less than excellent physical condition, simple as that!

Looking ahead to 2020, we are planning five IMG Denali expeditions, with three in May and two in June. Our trips are all conducted at a 1:2 guide ratio, with a full team being 4 guides and 8 climbers.  This gives us the very best ability to deal with the inevitable contingencies that will crop up when you least expect them.  You know our guides from Mt Rainier and other expeditions, and you can be assured that their commitment to safety and customer service remains paramount.  If Denali is in your future, we hope you’ll give our programs a close look.  It’s a great trip!

Eric Simonson