Henry Coppolillo

At 20,310 feet, Mt. McKinley is the highest peak in North America and one of the most serious high-altitude objectives on the planet. The West Buttress is the standard route to the summit, and while it involves no technical rock or vertical ice climbing, that framing undersells the challenge: miles of glaciated terrain, extreme cold, sustained altitude above 14,000 feet, and weather that can pin a team for days at a stretch. This Ski Approach climbs the same route to the same summit, with two deliberate differences: a smaller team and the ability to move on skis.

On the lower and middle mountain the team travels on skis and skins, roped together for glacier travel, ascending as high as the 11,000 or 14,000-foot camp depending on conditions. Skiing spreads the load over the snow and, on the way down, lets the team ski the lower glaciers instead of walking them, cutting hours off the descent and reducing time spent in the most crevassed terrain. Above the ski line the climb continues on foot exactly as a standard West Buttress expedition does, including the fixed ropes on the steeper sections up high.

The team is capped at four climbers and two guides, a smaller group and a closer two-to-one ratio than a standard expedition, and as on all of RMI's Mt. McKinley programs there is no fixed fly-off date, so the schedule moves with conditions and acclimatization rather than a set calendar. This is a major commitment of time, fitness, and preparation, and it asks for one thing a standard climb does not: the ability to ski a wide range of off-piste snow with a heavy pack. Climbers who bring that background gain a faster, more efficient way to move on the lower mountain, and a genuinely different way to experience Mt. McKinley.