Naomi Uemura - Mount McKinley

Mount McKinley

In August 1970, Uemura climbed Mount McKinley solo, becoming the first person ever to reach the top alone. He did this quickly and with a light pack (8 days up, versus an average of 14 days or so; 55-pound (25 kg) pack, versus an average probably twice that). August is after the end of the normal climbing season. While the weather he faced was not terrible, the mountain was almost empty with only four other people on it. Though many people have climbed McKinley alone since Uemura, most do it in the middle of the climbing season.

Uemura dreamed of soloing across Antarctica and climbing that continent's highest peak, Vinson Massif. In preparation, he did a three year solo dog run from Greenland to Alaska, then prepared to climb McKinley again solo in winter.

The difficulty of a winter ascent will be difficult to understand for people unfamiliar with Alaskan climbing, and nobody had successfully climbed any large Alaskan peak in winter until 1967, when Gregg Blomberg organized an expedition that got to the top of McKinley (Blomberg himself did not summit). This team lost one member and the rest of them almost died in a storm on the way down. Team member Art Davidson's book about the climb was named after that storm — Minus 148°.

There is a very large danger with glacier travel, with even short treks across the ice. As an example, glaciers are often broken with cracks, called crevasses, that are often covered with snow and not visible. Because of this, an ascent is very difficult to manage without a team.

Uemura had developed a "self-rescue" device, bamboo poles tied over his shoulders that would span any crevasse into which he fell and allow him to pull himself out. He planned a very light run, with only a 40-pound (18 kg) pack plus sled. He kept his gear light by planning to sleep in snow caves, so he would not need a tent. He also skimped on fuel and planned to eat cold food.

He began his climb in early February, 1984, and reached the summit on February 12. Much later, climbers found the Japanese flag that he left at the summit.