There were reportedly at least six Alaska Pacific University students or alumni climbing Denali (Mt. McKinley) this past summer. Anchorage Daily News journalist, Craig Medred, reported on the early portion of Heather Thamm and Betsy Young's climb up the mountain. Go to www.alaskapacific.edu/pr/ "No Limits" for full article.

The following is Heather Thamm's account of the duo's 22 days on Denali.

Heather Thamm and Betsy Young
West Buttress Route on Denali
May 2nd -May 24th

We began our route at 7,200 ft on the southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier just outside the Denali National Park boundaries where local pilots fly more than a thousand climbers to the base camp of Denali every year. After months of planning Betsy and I were as prepared as we could be. At 8am on May 4th we stepped out of base camp with a full load on our backs, packed sleds and skis underfoot. The following three weeks were a test of our physical strength, glacier skills, and our patience at altitude. We each began our expedition with about 120 lbs each of gear, fuel and food to last us 26 days, enough time to double carry our stuff most of the way up Denali and wait out any bad weather we might encounter in hopes of a summit attempt. (Climbers often carry half of their load to a higher camp and then climb back down and carry the second half up the same route to higher camp-they climb everything twice.)

The weather proved to be challenging and we spent many days sitting in our tent waiting out bad weather, reading and trying not to drive each other crazy. I suffered symptoms of altitude sickness, with a headache and horrible stomach pains and wasn't able to move higher than our high camp at 17,200ft (17 camp). Although Betsy and I didn't summit, the most gratifying part of the whole experience was assisting with the rescue of a Korean climber. Late on the evening of May 20th we received word that a Korean climber had fallen on his way down from the summit of Denali just above 18,200 ft. It was up to us to try to contact the Denali climbing rangers. After an hour on the CB I finally was talking with Denali climbing ranger, John Evans, while Betsy, Bill, Tim and Christian were gathering information of the incident to relay over the radio.

It could have been any APU Outdoor Studies class rescue scenario except Dave McGivern, Director of the Outdoor Studies program wasn't supervising and death to an injured climber was an actual threat. Due to high winds and bad visibility there wasn't anything the rangers could do that evening, but the following morning they sent five volunteer rangers and two British climbers from 14,200 ft. to 17,200 to begin the rescue. By the time the rangers had reached the Korean, he had been lying in the snow with only his parka and a day pack on to protect him for over 12 hours. Much to everyone's surprise he was still alive, but barely conscious, and suffering from hypothermia and frostbite. The next 8 hours proved to be an all camp effort where everyone at 17 Camp helped out to ensure the safety of the injured climber. After being lowered a 1,000 ft. down a 40-50 degree slope he finally made it to a makeshift medical tent at 17 Camp, with oxygen, hot water, and a doctor to take care of him. The following day the rangers lowered him another 3000 ft to 14 Camp where he was flown to Anchorage for treatment.

Betsy and I descended to 14 Camp the following day with no intention of returning. I was still not feeling well and the weather forecast was looking worse. On May 24th we descended from 14 Camp to the air strip at base camp. We were able to fly out on the last flight of the day after racing up heartbreak hill just in time to stop the pilot from flying back to Talkeetna without us. If we had missed the flight we would have been stuck at 7,200 for another day due to bad weather.