Toronto climbers reach summit of Denali - and meet fellow Ukrainians (09/01/02)

Toronto climbers reach summit of Denali - and meet fellow Ukrainians

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - On June 16, 35-year-old teacher Danylo Darewych and 21-year-old University of Toronto engineering student Andriy Kolos reached North America's highest peak - Denali in Alaska. Denali is the Native American name for Mount McKinley, which, at 20,320 feet (6,194 meter) is North America's highest mountain. Although the name has been officially changed to Denali, McKinley is still used).

Messrs. Darewych and Kolos, both longtime members of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization and youth counselors in Toronto, have been avid climbers for over five years. They have traveled all over the North American continent in search of climbing opportunities and, in 1996-1997 during his trip around the world, Mr. Kolos tested the rock climbing venues of western Ukraine, Italy, Thailand and Australia.

The climbing of Denali requires knowledge and experience of snow and ice conditions. With a tree line at 1,500 to 3,000 feet, glaciation is vast throughout the Alaska Range. The climbing season is short - May through July. Last year Denali attracted 1,301 climbers; 771 of them reached the summit. The average trip length was 17 days and the average age of a Denali climber was 36; women comprised 10 percent of the climbers.

Last year, climbers came from 39 countries - more than half from the United States (765 climbers), followed by the United Kingdom (65), Japan (48), Switzerland (45), Canada (44), Korea (40), France (37), Finland (34) and Germany (31).

Extensive networks of crevasses exist throughout the range. Crevasses are cracks in the glacier ice and are most dangerous when covered with snow, which either fills the hole or forms a bridge over the void. Some of the bridges are too weak to support a climber; others weaken as the snow melts or the crevasse widens. With year-round snowfall constantly hiding crevasses, they are often hard to detect.

Denali is characterized by precipitous and dramatic weather changes - temperatures may range from 90F (32C) to 50F (-40C). Barometric pressure is lower for a given altitude than on mountains closer to the equator, which means there is less oxygen in the air. Winds in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h) are possible, while winds of 50 to 80 mph are common and can last hours or days.

Acute Mountain Sickness is a constant danger and there is no way of predicting who will and who won't develop it. Therefore, acclimatization is necessary, particularly at about 14,000 feet. Advance planning has to be thorough and complete to avoid critical situations as it has been estimated that above 18,000 feet on Denali a person is reduced to roughly 50 percent of his/her mental capacity.

* * *

Messrs. Darewych and Kolos set out from Toronto at the beginning of May and the first leg of their journey included the Columbia Icefield in the Rockies, where they perfected their crevasse rescue techniques - climbing in full gear, roped together, practicing pulling each other out of crevasses.

They arrived in Anchorage on May 22, and on May 31 flew by ski plane from Talkeetna to Kahiltna Glacier at 7,000 feet, the Base Camp for Denali, where they registered and weighed in. Their backpacks weighed 60 pounds and they had 75 pounds on their sleds; this weight did not include skis, shoes and everything they wore. They planned a climb of about 17 days but took food for 30 days; the extra was needed in case bad weather, winds, the cold or low clouds prolonged their time out. Andriy had pre-measured all their food into individual portions.

On June 1 they started out from Base Camp, getting up at 3 a.m. because, when the sun rises, it turns hot - the snow starts to melt and grows soft - and it becomes harder to move. They were roped together all the time, so that if one of them fell into a crevasse, the other could hold him back. "We had tested this kind of rescue on the Columbia Icefield with full backpacks but not with sleds. We were not certain if one of us could hold on to the other laden with both a backpack and a fully packed sled. We were extremely careful and, fortunately, very lucky, and never had to find out," Mr. Darewych said.

"There have been many cases of even very experienced climbers falling to their deaths," he added. "A week after us, a man fell into a crevasse and perished. Although he was an experienced climber, he was going solo, which is extremely dangerous. When people are tied together, the rope must be taut. Three people perished on Denali once because, although they were roped together, there was too much slack between them and they were unable to stop their fall and slipped into the icy slot."

Because indentations are formed in the snow covering a crevasse, the sled would sometimes get stuck and a lot of effort had to be applied to pull it across. Occasionally the crevasse below would be visible - it could be crossed by skis but very carefully. Most parts of the trail were tapped down and marked by poles which are especially helpful during snowstorms when tracks can't be seen and climbers have to guide themselves from pole to pole.

Mr. Darewych explained how they moved up:

"We would set up our camp and then carry the gear and food some distance ahead, burying it in caches in the snow. Food and equipment has to be buried a minimum of three feet. to protect it from high winds and ravens. Caches are marked with poles four to six feet. high, with some sort of identification tied to the top - ours were blue and yellow ribbons. Then we would return to the tent and sleep there. When tents are set up, they need to be surrounded by a snow wall as protection against the wind and snow squalls. The next day we would take the rest of the gear and food and either carry it to the previous cache or some distance further. Thus, we moved ahead slowly but steadily.

"The hardest climb was from 11,000 to 14,200 - it took us nine hours to climb the 3,200 feet rise. At 14,200 we set up our Advanced base camp and stayed there for four days to acclimatize." Andriy suffered from intermittent headaches, Danylo had trouble eating his food.

Mr. Darewych continued: "When we set out for the 17,000 camp, bad weather was forecast. Some people had been there for several days; when they heard the forecast, they decided not to wait any longer. As we were going up, many people were coming down warning us about the bad weather. But when we reached 17,000 - the weather was fantastic! Our ascent was very slow - we were walking along a steep ridge, weaving between rocks, and had to hold on to ropes, which slows you down considerably. It was dangerous and hard."

They rested at 17,000 and took a test climb to Denali Pass at 18,500, but returned to camp to sleep. On June 16, at 9 a.m. they started the final push to the summit.

Mr. Darewych related:

"In front of us a man was walking up by himself. He saw that we were gaining on him and stepped aside to let us go by. Passing him I said, 'Hello, nice day isn't it. I'm going up.'

"He looked at me, waved his hands about and said 'No, no, Ukraina, Ukraina.' Oh, Lord, I thought to myself, I don't believe this! I looked at him and replied, 'ya takozh ukrainets, ukrainets z Kanady' [I'm also a Ukrainian, a Ukrainian from Canada].

"He stared at me and uttered 'Scho'? He introduced himself and said he was from Zaporizhia. I asked, 'What are you doing here on Denali?' I couldn't overcome my amazement that someone had come all the way from Ukraine to Alaska (and could afford to do so). But he just looked back at me and replied, 'Denali there is only one Denali!' We arranged to meet later. He said that one of his colleagues was up front and another was following but would soon overtake us."

Thus on June 16 at 3:05 p.m. (7:05 EST) Danylo and Andriy reached the summit of Denali. The view, said Danylo, was fantastic. Mountains of snow were visible in every direction. On the summit they met with the other two climbers from Ukraine and it turned out that the Ukrainians all belonged to the sporting club UNIT in Zaporizhyia. The man they had met on their way up, who joined them later, was the leader of the group, Anatoliy Blankovskyi. He was 62 years old; the other two - Mikhailo Badygin and Ihor Sanjarevski - were younger. They wore blue and yellow neckerchiefs, one of which they hung and left on a pole at the summit. They agreed to meet again at the camp at 17,000.

"When we started to go down the sun was very hot, although some people were still going up, dropping their gear and some of their clothes on the way. It's not a good idea to go up too late as then you have to climb down at night and, although you can still see quite well, there can be a sudden change in the weather which is very dangerous," Mr. Mr. Darewych explained.

He continued:

"Andriy and I went down to our tent at 17,000, ate supper and then - knock, knock - Mr. Blankovskyi had come to invite us to a 'hostyna.' We grabbed two packages of cheese and went to their tent. They insisted that 'we must celebrate the moment properly' and pulled out a loaf of bread (what joy after weeks of gorp!) and then - salo! It turned out to be delicious. And then - a Pepsi bottle filled with a clear lightly colored liquid and three little red peppers swimming on the bottom. We had our celebration - Ukrainian-style!

"We learned that Mr. Blankovskiy was a very experienced climber and is considered one of the top climbers in the world (this was confirmed a few days later when we saw his name mentioned in Climbing Magazine as the first to climb one route of the most challenging peak in the Caucasus). We returned to Anchorage on June 19. There the five of us met once more and took a photo of us all together."

When this writer met with Mr. Darewych in mid-July - Mr. Kolos was still on the road, driving the van back to Toronto - he was on his way to Ukraine, and planning to contact the climbers from Zaporizhia during his stay.

Perhaps next year you will read another story here: "Toronto climbers reach summit of Europe's highest peak - Mount Elbrus!

(Other photos and more details of the climb can be seen on www.kolos.ca.)

| Home Page |