Lonnie Dupre has tried three times to be the first person to solo Denali in winter, and once again he’s not going to nab the summit. Even climate change can’t change a brutal fact: It’s dark up near the Arctic Circle in winter, and that plays with your brain. And it’s still bone-chilling cold. Dupre spent Saturday at 17,200 feet trying to stay warm in a snowcave where the temperature hit minus-35; on Sunday he pulled the cord, telling his team he feared continued exposure to such cold could be deadly. He began his descent early Sunday morning, Dupre’s 19th day on the 20,320-foot peak. There was promise earlier; last Thursday he’d climbed the West Buttress ridge, a long day that involved breaking fixed lines out of ice during his 12-hour climb up from 14,200 feet. Dupre’s previous two efforts to conquer Denali in the dead of winter ended primarily because of whiteout conditions and powerful, battering winds. Via Anchorage Daily News.

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Tags: denali, mountaineering

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