The highest mountain in North America rises mightily above the vastness of Alaska. Climbers plan an average of 3 weeks for the 6,190 metres high Danali – and only around 35% make it all the way up. Very unstable weather, low temperatures and often strong winds make the endeavor a real challenge. But you are by no means alone on the mountain: in this year’s 2024 season, the National Park Service issued almost 1,000 permits for the ascent, spread over the months of May and June.

I am here to film a documentary and to capture stills of everything that will happen.

After a small passenger plane drops the climbers off at the ‘strip’, they drag all their equipment onto the ice giant with ‘sledes’, as soon as it gets steeper, a ‘cache’ (camp in the snow) is set up, which is picked up in the next few days. The camps are constantly busy both during the day and at night, alpinists prepare for the onward march, others come back after a successful summit ascent, dismantle their camp straight away and set off on their descent – due to the location so far north, it only gets a little dusky and no longer dark in summer.

The community on the mountain is really amusing, there are so many interesting characters from all over the world and because you have absolutely no mobile phone reception, you actually ‘have’ to talk to the people around you! Navy Seals training, a hand surgeon from the UK, Italians, French, Poles giving us their food that they no longer need. We help each other wherever we can.

Originally we wanted to climb the Cassin ridge, but unfortunately the route via the North Folk was too crevassed and the conditions on the route didn’t look too good from afar, a rescue operation in this remote area harbours immense risks. And so we decided in favour of the normal route, the West Buttress. Unfortunately, one of the members of our Starkl expedition started coughing on day 2 and at 4,300 metres, regeneration is simply not a given. After a few days‘ break, constant back-and-forth thinking and a clear deterioration, we finally decided to call it off the next day. As we packed everything up the next morning, I thought to myself that I would probably never come here again and that I should at least attempt the summit. After a brief consultation with the other two members of our team, I stuffed everything I needed into my rucksack, packed my skis and set off up the mountain.

Despite the cold and strong wind, everything went like clockwork, 14,000ft camp, summit, 14,300ft camp in just under 6.5 hours, it simply goes downhill faster on skis ;). I packed the rest of my things into my duffle bag, tied the sledge to it and continued down to catch up with the others, which was perfectly timed about 1.5 hours before the airstrip. What an experience!