N13 Czech Direct Ataskan Grade 6+
Adarn Krizo and Korl 1984.
This is objectively safer but technically harder than the other South Face routes, with sustained difficulties, 60-100° ice and 5.6 rock and poor bivouac sites on the first 1500m (5000ft). About 12-21 days.

June 24-26 Steve House, Scott Backes and Mark Twight climbed the Czech Direct on Denali. The first ascent, in 1986, required 11 days and approximately 1000' of fixed rope. Kevin Mahoney and partner (Ben Gilmore) made the second ascent over 8 days in May, 2000. The Backes/ House/ Twight team climbed it in 60 hours non-stop. They carried no bivouac gear apart from a 2lb Down or Polarguard jacket each. The trio brought two stoves in order to melt enough snow to stay hydrated. Starting with just 22oz of fuel for each, these ran out of gas at hour 48. A total of 55lbs was split between two packs, (18lbs were water), leaving the leader pack-free to move fast.

The Czech Direct is 9000' high. But only 5500' present any climbing difficulty: ice climbing up to WI6 and rock to UIAA V+ (USA 5.9). The team belayed 31 (60m) pitches, simul-climbed some terrain and soloed the rest including the first 1000' where the Czechs belayed 9 pitches. After crossing the bergschrund at 06h Backes, House and Twight passed the Czech's second bivouac site at 08h. They found many good quality pitches. Twight exclaims, "It was fantastic climbing and there was a lot of it. The Czech topo showed 24 pitches of UIAA III (USA 5.4) or harder. Ice conditions were such that we never holstered our tools - but we did have to file them twice during the climb."

Twenty-four hours into it, almost 4000' up the route the trio passed the point of no return. The Czechs had climbed 43 pitches to reach the same spot. Twight said, "we didn't have enough gear to retreat, the terrain would have swallowed us. That we had to go up was liberating and terrifying, both".

The concurrent arrival of poor visibility, the 34th hour's low blood sugar and the proximity of a serac known as "Big Bertha" caused a route-finding error at around 15,900'. "We behaved like beginners, trying different ways through the last rockband," says Twight. "We didn't want to be anywhere near the serac so we trended west. Finally, we sat down to brew and think objectively. The route was actually obvious - further east, right next to Big Bertha. It was safer than it sounds."

But the team was hammered, "I caught House snoring at one belay" Twight recalls. "It's the beautiful thing about climbing as a team of three: one leads, one belays and the other passes out in his harness."

Difficulties ended at 16,800'. The original Czech line remains independent, following easy snow slopes criss-crossed by crevasses to the summit. Instead, Backes, House and Twight simul-climbed to 17,400' where they joined the Cassin Ridge at 14h and unroped. Sixty hours after crossing the bergschrund they traversed onto "Pig Hill" just beneath Kahiltna Horn, 200' below the summit. Twight admits, "it's the first time I regret missing a summit. Our effort deserved a better finish but we were fairly wasted by that point." Despite this the team made it down the West Buttress to the National Park Service camp at 14,000' in 2hrs 20min. "We slept and ate for 24 hours there before recovering our skis from a cache at 11,000' and sliding back to the airstrip at 7200'.

Backes summed the climb up by saying, "The CZD is certainly one of the best mixed climbs in the world. It's crazy that it went unrepeated for 14 years." House stated simply, "It was my first world-class route," as if the other routes he's done in Alaska, the Yukon and Canadian Rockies are anything less.

Twight concludes, "psychologically it was quite intense. Steve had climbed continuously for 36 hours on King Peak. Scott and I had gone 41 hours without sleep on Mount Hunter in 1994. 60 hours of non-stop climbing was a huge step for all of us. Sleep deprivation, combined with the constant demand for a high level of awareness transported us to an unfamiliar place. The cramps were fierce and the aural hallucinations memorable. Ultimately, I think, beyond a certain point, exhaustion has its way with a climber; we dropped some gear - a cam, a screw, and an ice tool - and got lost. Everyone's mental ability to lead more than two pitches in a row was compromised by hour 40. On the other hand, if someone could go lighter than us they could climb it faster."