Mt McKinley, 6195 metres
“The coldest mountain on earth”
In 1995 an English friend of mine Lionel Fairweather invited me over to Alaska to climb the West buttress route on Mt Mckinley. He had just recently moved to Alaska and married Cynthia an Alaskan girl and had worked a season as an assistant mountain ranger on Mt McKinley. The four man/women team of Lionel, Cynthia, Bob a friend of Lionel’s and myself spent two weeks on the mountain before we were forced to retreat in the first good weather window after having spent six nights at 14200 feet snowed in by continuous heavy snowfall. In 1996 I returned to the mountain with a four man all English team and due to better, but not perfect weather, we all reached the summit on July 2nd at 7.30am after sixteen days on the mountain. After two days of descent we were already on to our next adventure to paddle 80 miles of the Chena River in open canoes with Tom Hanks?
Mount Mckinley summit, Alaska – 1996
High Camp Mt McKinley
Mt McKinley Base Camp