Mountain Routes Over Coffee Ep.5: Preparing for Denali with Scott Johnston

In this episode we talk preparing for Denali with Scott Johnston. Scott is an old school climber who first went to Denali in the 1970s. You may know him as the author of “Training for the New Alpinism” and “Training for the Uphill Athlete” which have sold over 200k copies. He has spent a lot of time on Denali and other technical peaks including K2. Now he trains athletes and mountaineers to accomplish mountain objectives through his company @EvokeEndurance.
The chances of successfully summiting Denali hover right around 50/50. The National Park service has kept a record of all climbers who have attempted Denali since 1903. Over 1100 climbers have attempted Denali each year since 1993 (except for when the park was closed due to COVID in 2020). 2013 had the lowest success rate with 36% of climbers summiting, followed by the highest success rate in 2014 at 68%. More than 95% of the registered climbers attempt to climb via the West Buttress. There is more to Denali than the West Buttress.
In the mountains we cannot control the weather, altitude, glaciers or snow conditions. We can the opportunity for success with planning, technical skills, and fitness.
Every week I am applying military operational planning techniques to route planning and navigation in the big mountains. Over the past two weeks we have looked at routes on Rainier and Aconcagua, common mountains for American climbers to prepare for Denali. This week we look at what it takes to climb Denali with @coach_scott_johnston.