UKC

From those of you who have done both. West Buttress against South Col. In terms of physical effort and techical difficulty.

In reply to nomadman:

but that rules out anyone who knows nothing about either giving their opinion which inevitably leads to arguments and finally the thread being pulled for inappropriate posts!

I know which I'd rather do... Denali

In reply to nomadman: Ignoring highclimber for various reasons, while I have not climbed either, from what I have READ (so don't quote me), Denali seems a far more brutal proposition, in terms of general conditions at the base camp, and the appauling conditions it regularly experiences. The ascent itself sounds pretty similar, although oxygen use on Everest makes it more of a hassle. Physical effort, and tech difficulty I IMAGINE would be reasonably similar on a good day, of which Everest has had quite a few more.
For a far better take, see this-
http://hobyjackson.info/mountaineering/denali-versus-everest

In reply to JBlackout:

FWIW, the book "Seven Summits" (a nice coffee table book and about as close as i'll get to completing them...) grades the continental high points on a scale of 1-10 for difficulty (taken to "encompass technical difficulty, strenuousness, physical hardship and altitude")

on this scale, Denali via west buttress gets 7, and Everest via the south col gets 10.

could be rubbish, but written by Steve Bell, who has done both, so he is alt least writing from personal experience

In reply to nomadman:
But on Denali you can't get a bunch of foreigners to carry your bits up for you (including the oxygen) and you are constantly getting hassled by the Rangers....
So surely Denali has to be harder?

Everest.

In reply to nomadman:

Denali costs £3000-£7000 guided
Everest (Sagarmatha) costs £30 000-40 000 guided

I conclude Everest is harder.

In reply to nomadman: Everest is definately harder

In reply to nomadman:

I was climbing in Chile last year with a lad who had done Denali, and a guy who had done Gash IV.

THe general consensus was the SC route on Everest was "easier" than the equivelant route on Denali. Denali due to the location is effectively "highwer" than it is due to the lower concentration of oxygen nearer the pole (I probably got that wrong but the snetiment / principle is correct) and is cold and more storm prone - with a less stable and less predictable weather pattern.

In reply to higherclimbingwales:


Agreed most unfair and contrary to the sporting nature of this Forum

In reply to nomadman:

old radson recently did a solid article on denali. a good place to start.

me personally, no idea.

In reply to nomadman: Done in the same style everest would definatly be harder, but given the amount of oxygen and sherpas some people use i would have thought denali might be similar in thoes cases. probably different for everyone and the only way to know is go do them both!

In reply to radson:

Since I'm guessing you've done both, could you expand on that a bit?

In reply to nomadman:

To be correct should you not be asking

"How does climbing Mt McKinley compare with climbing Mt Everest?"

or

"How does climbing Denali compare with climbing Chomulugma (or Sagarmatha or Qomolangma)?"

You shouldn't be mixing the English (spoken) names with the native names in the same sentence for comparison purposes should you?

Even the use of Qomolangma is questionable in this context because China doesn't abutt what we call Everest, well not so far as the Tibet is concerned. China might disagree.

Just such very different mountains. To give some numbers.

I lost 14kg on E, lost 5 kg on D
Summit day on E, we left at 9pm, summited at 8am and got back to south col at 3am, so 18 hoursish. D we left at 10am, got to the top at 3:30 and back at camp at 8, so 11 hours of daylight travel.

Fixed lines on Denali, 1 hour?, climbing the lhotse face over 2 days, let's say 7 hours.

Nothing on D to to compare the khumbu icefall and Hillary step and yeah the almost 3,000 m in altitude makes things slightly more difficult on E.
D on the other hand is overall more colder (in may anyway) and loads are much heavier.

Both great experiences and learnt a helluva lot from both.

(I'm at an airport on an iPad, hence the stilted reply)

In reply to Trangia:


This is UKC in a sentence. Everyone knows what he means!