Safely landed yesterday, skiing out to the base of Mt. Hunter today!
Dupre left Talkeetna yesterday afternoon, flying into the Alaska Range to the base of Mount Hunter (14,573ft) to attempt its first winter solo ascent.
Hunter is the steepest and most technical of the three great peaks in Denali National Park.
“The approach up and through a tricky icefall followed by sustained technical
climbing with a heavy pack will put me at the edge of my capabilities”. - Dupre Landing on the Kahiltna glacier in winter’s low light and unstable weather is no easy task. In order to land, it has to be calm and clear to take advantage of the small window of sun needed to provide depth of field on the surface of the glacier. Yesterday was clear and cold. After allowing temperatures warm up a bit, Talkeetna Air Taxi’s Paul Roderick flew Dupre in.
Dupre expects to start traveling on skis towards the base of the Mount Hunter today, after having stashed a week’s worth of supplies at basecamp for his return.
Dupre will be calling in daily audio updates via his Globalstar satellite phone and also sending visual SPOT locations so we can track his progress.
