Mt Denali Expedition | 20,310 ft (6,190 m)
Goal: Summit Mt Denali, the highest peak in Alaska, the highest point of America, the highest mountain of North America.
Objective: Fly Shree Jagannath on the top of the USA and help 65 year Everest Friend Elan to summit Denali.
Team Name: Denali Shanti
Summit: On 30th June at 11:18 PM Sidharth Routray from India with his Everest friend, 65 years old Elan Elghovan from Malaysia summited Mt Denali. [3rd teammate Debabrata Mukherjee from India, dropped out from Camp3]
Siddharth Routray flew the flag of India on top of the continent North America. He also flew the flags of Shri Jagannath and he flew the flag of Sri Lingaraj on top of the USA. He displayed the banner of Odia Paika to increase Odia Pride. He also displayed the Hunter Squandern, National Defence Academy banner with its war cry slogan “O YA YA”.
It was his toughest expedition with 16 days of snow storm out of 18 days. It was icy, snowy, extreme weather, extreme cold temperatures below -35 degree Celsius, severe whiteouts, zero visibility, and winds with gusts up to 40 knots. He carried double the weight up to 60 kgs as the other climber was 65 years old. As a team lead he had to repeat each section 3 times to ferry load. That made the expedition extremely tiring. Thanks to the prayers to Shree Jagannath, Shree Lingaraj, Jai Mata Di and Jai Ma Denali, the summit was very calm and peaceful.
Day -4 : 12th June 2023: Teammates arrive at San Francisco. After visiting the landmark Golden Gate, we got home at Sacrament. We did all the packing and equipment list checks.
Day -3 : 13th June 2023: Fly to Anchorage, Alaska from San Francisco
Day -2 : 14th June 2023: Do all the shopping for food and grocery and any mountaineer equipments at Anchorage
Day -1 : 15th June 2023: Move from Anchorage to Talkeetna, Alaska, the village which has the ski planes to take us to basecamp. And the registration at the ranger station. The shuttle driver who ferries most of the climbers, had all the stories about such low summit rate and bad weather. Including how the best of Spherpas from Nepal, could not summit. Debu our climber already gave up in the shuttle after listening to the failed stories. He started envisioning and reciting all the difficulties and how it will be impossible. What a bad start with so much negativity
Day0 – 16th June 2023: Completed all the packing and distribution, and again Debu was over packed, with very little stuff for common team gear and food. I had to carry 25KG of team food. Once the packing was done, the Talkeetna Air Taxi had an evening flight, they requested if you are ready then let’s go. Debu completely reduced, he wanted to sleep for jet lag and enjoy the warm AIRBNB cottage, before facing the cold weather. We rented our snowshoes fromTalkeetna Gear Shop, next to the Airport. We also did all the paperwork and collected the poop-bags at the rangers station.
Day1 – 17th June 2023 [7800 ft]: Our scheduled flight was in the morning. The weather was good, and everything went well. We landed at the base camp around noon, with a scenic flight to the base camp at 7200 ft on Kathalina glacier. After landing we fixed our sledge with our heavy duffle bags, and loaded ourselves with even heavier backpacks. Initial snowshoe fitting and walking was a mess for Elan, as this is the first time he has ever seen an alien thing like snowshoes. We were slow, and as the walk to camp1 progressed we became very slow. We reached Camp1 at 7800 ft very late. But the weather was still good and the sun never goes down in June in Alaska. The daylight was there to help us set-up the tent, cook our first meals on the expedition. After food, we had a good sleep on our first night, with hopes high.
Day2 – 18th June 2023 [10000 ft]: We wake up to bad weather. It was snowing, but visibility was around 100ft. Against the fair weather and blue sky wishes by Debu, we took a decision to go to Camp2 even with the worst of the weather, as long as the visibility was good. The mantra for success on a super difficult mountain is to endure bad weather in lower elevation to trade for good weather on top. Debu was mad but followed us. As the weather became worse, we slowed down further. All the other teams passed by, and we were too far behind them. We could not even make it to the campsite, we decided to camp 1km before, as we were extremely tired. Setting up a tent in cold, windy weather was a lesson to be learnt. We did it and while cooking and boiling snow to water, we met many teams coming down. All with the same story, the weather was too bad, and we could not summit. Debu’s negativity became worse, and was annoying. Every word he spoke was about how we will fail miserably. I argued with him, go light, all the unnecessary items you do not need, let’s stash here. I did the same, a lot of my nice stuff, extra gear, food, electronics, all packed and stashed 1 km before camp2 at 10000 ft. Elan was slow, so we gave him less stuff to carry. Debu acted he has no space. So I had to carry too much of the weight.
Day3 – 19th June 2023 [11,200 ft]: We woke up to severe weather, it was cold, windy and snowy. Debu refused to go further in this weather condition. But I pushed for it, as bad weather with 100 plus feet of visibility is fine. The distance to camp3 was not much, the elevation was steep. With such a heavy sledge and heavy backpack, each step was like hell for me. I was cursing Debu and Elan, for not carrying enough team food and gear. I was completely exhausted and angry by the time we reached camp3 at 11,200 ft. The first thing I did was to get three large trash bags and distribute the team gear and food, in 3 equal parts, and give each one its own weight responsibility. I can carry more but not double or triple. Against my wishes, Debu chose a campsite which was 4-6 ft below the snow level, as a shortcut to build a new one. We had a hard time setting up the tent, kitchen and stash in that odd place. Somehow managed to cook and boil water and went to sleep in that severe weather.
Day4 – 20th June 2023 [12,600 ft]: Again we woke up to bad weather, and the winds were higher. Today was the day to go halfway towards camp4, and stash our food and fuel for the next phase of the expedition and come back to camp3. Debu was again reluctant to come, as he expected extreme winds at windy corners. I was adamant, to push through bad days below 17000 ft, to get a few good days for the summit. So we pushed through, I took the fuel, toilet box and team food, Elan followed, and Debu reluctantly followed with just part of the food. By the time we reached the windy corner, the path was all icy. Debu started scraping the hell out of Elan, as he had no much mountaineering experience. He was like Elan, you do not know how to self arrest with an ice axe, you do not know how to walk to mix ice and snow, you never did any alpine climbing, you should go back. He shouted at me, if it is so icy here, further up will be even worse, so we should go back. After a lot of argument and negativity, I requested Debu, if you want to go back, please do it on your own. I will go forward. Elan was like, I trust Sid, I will continue with him. From that point Debu came down, we continued to cross the windy corner in the worst of the weather. I was so happy that negativity from the team is gone now. Around 12,500 ft, we saw many climbers coming down, so we decided to stash all the goods there and return with them, for safety reasons. We reached back camp3 and Debu had already made hot water, that was good after such a tough day. Unfortunately on the way back his shoes gave up, it developed a crack on the back. So he had to get back anyway.
Day5 – 21st June 2023 [13,800 ft]: Me and Elan decided to push towards Camp4, and Debu made up his mind to go back, packed for going down. We decided to carry only one sledge, as Elan was unable to carry any heavy weight. We kept anything not essential for the summit, at camp3 in the pre-made 6 ft ditch. We started the day in sunny weather, but by the time we reached our stash, and loaded it on my sledge, the weather turned on us. With just one sledge with all the extra load, it was impossible for me to pull through 3 feets of fresh snow. After 13000 ft, I asked elan to help, or else we won’t be able to go any further. He was already exhausted. It took us 4 hours to reach the squirrel point, 1 km and 500 ft of elevation gain. There I decided with this speed we will never be able to reach Camp4. I took all the extra weight out and stash it back at the top of squirrel point. I took charge of the sledge and we started progressing towards camp4. The weather changed, it became sunny, and we were too late and too tired. So we camped on a slope to camp4, 2 km away, and 400 ft of elevation left. This was the first time we had a clear view of the west buttress, and the way to Denali. We prayed for good weather and asked permission to summit. It was a very spiritual moment. That night we realized we were too miser in bringing up an extra stove to camp4. We will need one in camp4 and one in camp5. So I decided to go back to camp3 to get it. I also realized a grave mistake, that I left my ascender and climbing cords at camp3. I was very shocked and annoyed at myself, how can I climb without an ascender to camp5, the expedition is doomed. I knew exactly where I kept it in Elan’s duffel in the left corner. So a trip to Camp3 back for me was a must.
Day6 – 22nd June 2023: It was a sunny morning, as soon as I got out of camp, any climber I met, who was coming down, requested to lend me their ascender. Nobody agreed. I wanted to save a day, and a tough trip back and forth to camp3. But no choice, I started hiking back to camp3. I have never seen such a sunny and calm windy corner, I was sweating from over-dressing for cold weather last night. I reached camp3 fairly quickly, and dug out stash from below 6 ft. I got the extra stove, but to my surprise, my entire technical equipment with my ascender was missing from the duffel. That’s a sabotage which will doom the expedition. I was shocked. And Debu has already packed and gone down. I went around and asked many more climbers to lend me their ascender, same story, nobody agreed. Heart broken, I started walking back towards camp4. I reached the windy corner, and saw a couple resting there, and getting ready to snowboard down to camp3. They were from Anchorage, I told them the story, and to my surprise, they lent me their ascender. I grabbed their phone and address, with a promise to return it after the expedition. What a game changer, what great mountaineers. I was so happy with them, they went down, I went up. The bad weather came pounding back, I could hardly see anything, but the excitement to ascend kept me on. By the time I reached the makeshift camp, Elan, had made a trip to squirrel point, and got our stash. One more mountaineering couple had given us amazing snacks with lots of nuts. It was a feast. We had a good sleep, although unhappy with the extra day added to our trip for my mistakes.
Day7 – 23rd June 2023 [14,200 ft]: We decided to make 2 trips to the actual camp4, and shift all our stuff. By the time we were able to set-up our tent, the weather turned bad. We struggled to set up our base, but made it a good one. We fortified it further for stormy conditions. We ate well, and had a good rest. The ranger visited us and warned us of bad weather. I sent a satellite message to my wife to send weather updates. She had a dream that night of 2 coffins with 2 men floating above it. My wife prayed all night with burning candles and weather to become favorable, for surviving and for a successful summit. The worst part by then was, we had not met anyone who was on the summit in the 7 days absent. After checking the weather, I saw 2 windows, 29th or 30th June. As long as we reach camp5 and get 1 good day’s rest, we will make it.
Day8 – 24th June 2023: The weather was bad and we were extremely tired, so we took a rest day at camp4.
Day9 – 25th June 2023 [16,200 ft]: We took the food and fuel, and essential summit gear and went towards camp5 to stash them around 16200 ft. The steep slope and the fixed line is very tough. Elan has never seen such a tough ascender section. It took forever for him to come up that 600 ft of ice. He was extremely tired, and on the top it was 50 miles windy, snowy and severe cold. I took all his weight and climbed further up to 16200 ft and stashed all our stuff. It took forever to reach back. Elan almost gave up the idea of a summit, looking at how difficult and dangerous it is. For him, Everest is nothing against such hardship. If he knew, he would never come. We came back to camp4 and crashed to sleep.
Day10 – 26th June 2023 [17,200 ft]: Looking at his condition I was thinking of taking one more day of rest but then we had already spent 4 days at camp4, taking more rest means we risked losing the summit window. I pursued him to come along, as there was only one tent. If I go up, where will he stay? Once packed, my bag was too heavy to climb with. I got a few things off and asked Elan to carry them. But after receiving the same, he was completely out of mind. Sorry I will go back, I cannot carry it. I took them back and started climbing towards camp5. After 2 km, I removed a few heavy things from my bag and from Elan’s bag and stashed them, so that elan can move faster. Bad weather was expected to hit by the night. 70 mph winds are quite common, and temperatures are often -30F and colder. He became slower and slower. By the time we reached the top of the fixed line, the storm had already caught us. Severe wind, snow, icy, low visibility, all came upon us like hell. Elan was energyless and slow, I had to pull him through ropes, fixed to me and my ice axe. He had no ice climbing skill in icy slopes. Climbing Everest does not make you an alpine mountaineer. The sherpas do too much of the work. It is too commercial and touristy. Elan was crying and dying. It should have taken us 10 hours, it took us 14 hours. But we made it to camp5 in the worst of the conditions. It was so windy that even fixing the tent was a nightmare, that too at 2 am in the night, in -35’c. On the way I had to remove Elan’s backpack, so that he could make it to camp5 alive. Unfortunately my essentials like sleeping bag, and parka were in his bag. We made it to camp5, there were only 2 other persons, who braved it like us. My hands were turning blue by the time I fixed the tent, and put Elan in it. I was carrying Elan’s sleeping bag and parka. I made him go inside his sleeping bag, and I wore his parka to survive the night. My legs were super cold, so I put my legs into my backpack and locked it. That was the most horrible night of my life, but I was happy we survived, and Elan did not get injured or died. I woke up with 2 server frostnips. I made hot water and dipped my fingers for hours, and got some sensation back. All night the wind was very bad, the wind gusts would almost bend the tent completely.
Day11 – 27th June 2023 [17,200 ft]: The weather was slightly better, I went down, where I dropped Elan’s bag. I got it back and had a good sleep. We made good soup and good food that day. We ate and slept. Did not even dare to go out.
Day12 – 28th June 2023: The weather in the morning was sunny, so I went down to get our stash. I had to almost go to camp4 to get the summit essentials at 14600 ft. By the time I reached the fixed line, the weather turned severe. Many teams were trying to come up, but the weather slowed them down. And I had to wait in line to cross them, which made it worse. By the time I reached our stash, it was too bad. I had to dig out my mittens to save my fingers, which made the climb further difficult. Complete whiteout, and I was alone ahead of the teams, making way for them. With a lot of prayer and patience, I made it back to the camp5.
Day13 – 29th June 2023: We rested this day, as we waited for all the big teams to come up, and probably make their way to the summit. Some of them did come, but most of them went down the next few days, as they did not have enough time to stash and summit. We did all that in bad weather, so that we can have a good day for the summit. Our plan worked. Risk has better rewards.
Day14 – Summit Day: 30th June 2023: Friday, we wake-up late, as I was very tired, and my frostbite fingers were hurting. By the time we finished breakfast, we saw 2 people coming down from Denali Pass. All this time we were expecting some team to make headway so that we could follow. No big team went for that extraordinary calm day. Sunny, no wind, no clouds, and all clear, except for a lot of fresh snow from the last 2 weeks. Around lunch I changed my mind, after seeing the 2 climbers reach back camp5. We planned to summit the next with a bigger team, but then why wait, if Ma Denali is giving us such an extraordinarily calm window after all these bad days. By 1 O’clock we were on our way to the summit. The most challenging part is the Autobahn section of icy and snow mix till you reach Denali Pass. It is very dangerous, and steep slope, so we went slowly and steadily. Each step I guided Elan, how to securely pass through. It took us a lot of time, by that time the sun was down and we were in shadow. So it became very cold. Elan’s mittens were horrible, he took it out once to take a picture, and it took me 30 minutes to get his hand back into it. Thereafter I never let his hand come out of his mittens, so I had to do everything for him and for myself. After Denali Pass it was no more life risky, so I started to push hard, as we were running out of time. But to make our way through fresh snow was very difficult, till we reached the football field. Thanks to the other 2 climbers, their footsteps make it easier for us. I gave up on Elan, as he was too slow. I asked him to follow my steps if he wants to summit, I am not going to babysit him anymore. I just made sure that he can see me and my footsteps. Thanks to Shree Jagannath, Shee Lingaraj, Jai Mata Di, Jai Ma Denali, for keeping it calm. Denali Shanti, our team name, came true to our prayers. Denali was shanti for us for such a long time. I was surprised that 65 year old Elan kept pushing for the summit. I reached the summit at 11 PM in the night, Elan reached at 11:18 PM. So delighted and thankful to Ma Denali for blessing us such great views and weather. The shadow of Denali could be seen the longest and with such clarity running for 100s of miles. The sunset, where the sun goes down the horizon for an hour or so, was so magnificent. What a difficult journey to the top of the continent North America. We took a lot of pictures and videos. And happily turn around to base camp around 11:40 PM.
Day15 – 1st July 2023: By the time we started our descent it was already the next calendar day. On this special saturday, I tried to hurry, as my fingers started to turn worse, because of the extra cold of the night. There was enough light to guide us down, but the temperature fell to -35. Elan had no energy, no food, no water left. He was trembling and dragging, and extremely slow. I had to be next to him, as I did not want him to fall off the wall or the ridge, or meet with any accident. No point getting frustrated, so I had to calm down. It took forever to come down, with many caucasian, I had to rescue him from falling off the Autobahn. But God’s grace and Elan’s strong belief that he will not die, made us through. By the time we reached the safer section it was 9 AM in the morning. I left Elan to come to camp slowly, and went ahead to make water and food. All night we had to survive eating snow, now is the time to celebrate our summit with hot water. We were supposed to go down today, but Elan was in no shape to move, so we rested.
Day16 – 2nd July 2023: This Sunday was the only good weather day to get out of this mountain. Next week will be severe weather. We had no choice, so started slowly to go down to camp4. The knife edge, redge, as the name suggests, on good weather looks scary. With extra weight and steep climb down and no energy Elan was like a snail. I took off 10kg of weight from him, and went ahead to camp4 to pack and get ready to go to camp3. It was very tough, my shoulders were crying in pain from the heavyweight. I cleaned up camp4 got the sledge ready and waited for Elan. Once he was attached the back-end of the sledge to him for better control while going down steep slopes. He was gone, could not carry or control anything more. Now I have to cross this dangerous Squirrel Point and Windy-Corner, with a 40 kg sledge dangling from my body without any control. I prayed for Ma Denali to delay the bad weather, so I can reach camp3 safely, and she did it. With so much risk and effort I reached camp3. Thank god Elan made it to camp3 just before the bad weather hit us. We quickly made our tent, and decided to stay there for the night as other teams also camped looking at the bad weather. Worst was the 6 ft, where we stashed our come back food, fuel and gear under 2 more feet of snow. The bad weather for the last 2 weeks has completely changed the shape of camp3 with 6 ft of snowfall. We took a shortcut, now I had to dig 8 feets of snow for 2 hours to get our things back. The weather was worse than camp5, it was a mix of severe sun, gusts, snow dust, and snowfall, creating a unique whiteout, where the entire 3D vision, 2 vision looks the same. Nothing is visible and you do not know where your next step is.
Day17 – 3rd July 2023: I sent a message to my wife to re-book our flights, as there is no way we can get out of the mountain in next 1 week. The change price came out to be US $12,500.00. We were shocked, so we decided no matter what the weather, we must push for the base camp. We hurriedly packed and started walking towards camp2. In 200 ft, we realized, God only knows where we are going. We were completely white blinded. Thanks to the GPS apps on my phone and the already downloaded map, we started walking like blind people. Feel the ground and walk 100ft, and check the GPS map. It took us 5 hours to make a 2 km zig-zag to camp2. Once we reached a plain surface, we gave up the idea of saving the flight tickets. Money was no more important, but life was.
Day18 – 4th July 2023: We sat in our tent, in severe windy, cold and snowy conditions. Just wait and wait and pray for good weather. Even going out for 5 minutes was unbearable.
Day19 – 5th July 2023: Around 2 AM for some reason the wind was slower. We thought we must push forward, but it was too cold. By 8 AM the cold was bearable, but the whiteout maze was as is. But we decided to take the risk and take the bling walk with GPS. After 4 hours we reached camp1. On the way we tried to look for our camp2 stash, for over an hour. But could not trace anything, under 4 ft of new snow. Not a single part of camp2 was visible. Felt like a new alien world. Such valuable goods are submerged in the snow of Kathlina Glacier. Maybe they are giving it to Ma Denali for our summit. After camp1, which had vanished, there was a magical weather window for us. The sky between 7000 ft and 10000 ft, completely clear with no wind, no sun, no snowfall, WOW! I messaged the Talkeetna Air to send us a plane. They replied it came around 5 PM. I check the clock and we have 3 hours to reach basecam from camp1. It’s a 6 hour walk, so I had to make it in half the time. I warned Elan, hurry-up or else we will be stuck here for next 7 days in bad weather. Give everything you have to reach basecamp in 3 hours. I reached on time, but when I looked down, Elan was far away, at least 1 hour away. I request every climber and guide to help the old man, or else we will miss the flight. Nobody agreed to do so. Then I had to put down everything and rush down. I took his sledge and pulled with any bit of energy I was left with. Thank god they sent a second plan to pick-up cargo. We made it 2 minutes before that would have flown out. We made it back to Talkeetna by the evening. What an escape, what an epic summit.
