"VIP" Climbers Volunteer to Make Mount McKinley Safer

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic Ultimate Explorer

October 31, 2003

Each year more than a thousand climbers head for the summit of Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak. Also known as Denali, the frigid massif towers 20,320 feet (6,194 meters) above the Alaska Range.

High altitude, avalanche risk, and the mountains' notoriously fickle weather pose constant threats to climbers attempting the mountain.

While National Park Service rangers patrol the mountain and stand at the ready to rescue climbers in peril, they couldn't do their job as effectively without the help of a group of highly skilled mountaineers known as the Volunteers in Parks (VIPs).

Since 1979, dozens of the volunteer climbers and medical professionals have donated a month of their time each year to make the Denali experience as safe as possible for other climbers. In the process, they endure foul weather, discomfort, and outright danger.

"Everyone who volunteers wants to help … [and] is willing to set aside their own safety to help," said Jennifer Dow, an Alaska-based doctor and volunteer medical director for Denali National Park and Preserve.

The highly skilled volunteers allow the National Park Service to maintain a permanent presence on the mountain's popular West Buttress route during the peak climbing season of May 1 to July 15.

While VIPs stand at the ready for their most high-profile and dangerous role—rescue—such efforts are by no means guaranteed.

"One thing we always talk about in briefings is that [a climber's] emergency may not be our emergency," said Daryl Miller, a Denali National Park Service district ranger, who notes that the decision of whether to launch a rescue effort lies at the discretion of park rangers.

"We have to justify the risk," Miller said, noting that the Park Service advises climbers, "if you have a problem we may not come. The weather or the terrain you're in may not be something that we can handle because of the risk."

More Than Dedication

Risk is ever-present in the work performed by Denali's rangers and volunteers, but accepting danger isn't the only qualification for the job.

To make the cut one needs specialized skills, including emergency medicine, ice climbing, crevasse rescue, winter camping, glacier travel, high-angle rope rescue, and helicopter short-haul, a quick transport method in which rescuers in waist harnesses dangle from moving helicopters by rope.

Not many applicants pass muster. The roster of past volunteers reads like a mountaineering hall of fame: John Roskelly, the late Alex Lowe, Conrad Anker, Pete Athens, among others.

Last year's volunteers provided medical attention to 81 people, and assisted with 21 search and rescue operations and medical emergencies which, according to Miller, saved several lives and helped many other climbers safely off the mountain. In all, volunteers donated some 9,000 hours of their time.

Like the park's rangers, volunteers put in 16 to 18 hour days and are on call for 24. Their environment can be one of extreme weather, including winds gusting over 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) and temperatures of minus 45° Fahrenheit (minus 43° Celsius).

While the average length of a Denali climbing expedition in 2002 was under 18 days, the volunteers stay on the job for a month at a stretch. They staff ranger camps on the mountain located at 7,200 feet (2,195 meters), 14,200 feet (4,328 meters), and 17,200 feet (5,242 meters).

Dow says that as a volunteer, she drew inspiration from Denali's climbing rangers. "The rangers are incredible people. They do amazing things," she said. "It's almost an institution. They make it something that's worth being a part of, not just their experience or their safety abilities, but their soul-deep dedication."

While rescues grab headlines, Miller stresses that the largest part of what rangers and volunteers do is teach climbers to take care of both the mountain and themselves.

Miller said two of the biggest problems deal with resource protection and that rangers stress to climbers the importance of taking trash off the mountain and to properly dispose of human waste.

The Park Service strives to improve climber education and information, to help avoid anyone getting into a rescue or medical emergency in the first place.

"What the public hears about are the rescues," said six-time volunteer Colin Grissom. "What they don't understand is the effort that's gone into prevention and education."