UKC

I always thought that surviving Denali(sic Jonathan Waterman) did not include risking soloing the mountain.In fact the author of that book died that way.Yet Lonnie Dupre has just soloed up there and is the first ascendant to arrive at the top in January.
To avoid crevasse death he took a long skinny pine pole which he proposed to prussic up if he fell into a crevasse.He also used skis which he said were key to his avoidance and his success.These he made himself from wood harvested somewhere near Minnesota.
I think that he was still taking undue risk with the crevasses.What do you think?

In reply to veteye:

People have used aluminium ladders attached to a harness to protect themselves in the event of a crevasse fall - the ladder bridging (hopefully) from one side to the other. I assumed the pole was for that reason.

In reply to jon:

That was what I thought originally,but no he was expecting to lodge the pole in the crevasse and then prussic up it.

In reply to veteye:

Presumably it's only the smaller (i.e. not 15 metres across) crevasses that are stumbled onto, so maybe it is not as dangerous as it looks.

In reply to veteye:

Hmmm. Well he is from the flattest state in America...!

In reply to veteye:


Presumably depends on the glacier, snow , personal preference etc. There is something odd about crevasse risk. I don't think the risk is that high on most glaciers (alpine ones anyway, don't know about Alaska), probably less than being hit by a stone or falling off a ridge soloing . But you never know. An known, unknown, to get all Rumsfeldian.

In reply to veteye: Preumably tho' he was happy with the risk - why do you think he was taking an undue risk. I would also think the long pole is simply to get stuck across the top of any crevasses and oddly I have prussiked up to a horizontal bar, practising prusiking

I am very impressed with the ski's - they may well be homemade but I bet they float over snow a treat, and save a ton of energy and time on the glacier as well as making the glacier travel a lot safer.

In reply to wbo:

Lots of people have died and disappeared(presumed in some cases to have ended up in crevasses,others confirmed as such) on Denali due to crevasses.Read Jonathan Waterman's book Surviving Denali.
Having been lowered into a crevasse in the Cascades in the past,I would not like to end up even in a small one.
Admittedly I did fall into one coming down to 14,000ft camp on the West Buttress route,but not an over the head event.I was in the middle of a rope and actually climbed out myself before anyone else was needed to help me.It is the over the head fall which is the real worry.

I too am impressed with the skis.Read the brief article on the Alpinist web site and you will be interested in the structure of the skis.

Rob