Mountain Fellowship Grant winners Jacon Mayer and Max Talsky intended to climb Denali’s classic Cassin Ridge last May, but their expedition was plagued with setbacks from the beginning.

Early in the expedition, Mayer and Talsky bumped into a childhood friend of Talsky’s, who was guiding four clients, around 10,300’. One of the clients informed Talsky’s friend that he was having some sort of allergic reaction and wanted to go down, and due to a National Parks Service regulation dictating the number of guided clients who must be roped together during travel, the entire expedition would have had to descend to base camp. Mayer and Talsky volunteered to descend with the ailing climber.

Mayer points out that the pair had a great deal of time to spend on the mountain—they spent a total of 34 days on the glacier—so they weren’t particularly concerned about the setback. “We didn’t really have a schedule yet,” he says.

Max Talsky acclimates on the West Buttress. Photo by Jacon Mayer.

About a week after the first trip back to base camp, the pair was camped at 17,000’, where they planned to spend a day acclimatizing. Their plan was to do some light climbing, then descend to 14,000’, were they would traverse and eventually end up at the technical Cassin Ridge.

Around 11 p.m. on May 25, however, Mayer and Talsky were awakened by Denali Mountaineering Ranger Kevin Wright, who indicated that there had been an accident and asked for their assistance in rescuing the injured climbers. The NPS incident report states that Mayer and Talsky, along with several other climbers, “mobilized quickly with minimal gear to triage” the team of four climbers, roped together, who had fallen an estimated 1,000’ to 1,200’ from the Autobahn Traverse at 18,200’. Two climbers were already dead.

One of the other two climbers had suffered only a broken ankle and a bad laceration, “but he was pretty traumatized, understandably,” Mayer says. The remaining climber was responsive to pain, but, as Mayer points out, little can be done, aside from basic triage, on a 45-degree slope at 18,000’. Mayer and Talsky assisted the injured climbers back to their high camp at 17,000’, where the pain-responsive climber was placed in an NPS tent and later given an emergency tracheotomy.

After their rescue efforts, Mayer and Talsky were exhausted. Mayer estimates that they arrived back at their camp just after six on the morning May of 26, and that he slept until around nine that morning. He woke up feeling ill, so they spent another rest day at 17,000’.

Max Talsky shivers through a cold dinner somewhere on Denali. Photo by Jacon Mayer.

The next day, the NPS issued a weather report that promised clear weather for the following twenty-four hours. “At that point, we had two options,” Mayer says, “We could set out and do the West Buttress, which we were pretty sure we could do, or we could head back down to 14,000’, traverse, and head up the Cassin Ridge.” Despite their previous setbacks, Mayer and Talsky decided to attempt the classic line. In part because their rescue efforts had prevented them from acclimatizing properly, both climbers felt weak when they reached the Football Field, just 700 vertical feet below the summit.

After a brief conversation, Mayer says, they decided to turn around. “I just didn’t care anymore whether we got to the top,” he remembers. “All I wanted at that point was to go back down.”

Despite their disappointment, Mayer and Talsky’s trip was anything but unsuccessful. They received the Denali Pro Pin, an award that, according to the National Parks Service, recognizes members of the climbing community for “safety, self-sufficiency, Leave No Trace ethics, and assisting fellow mountaineers.” In the National Parks’ letter to Mayer informing him of his award, Ranger Kevin Wright thanks him for his goodwill and says that his and Talsky’s efforts “saved the lives of two fellow climbers,” and that their “immediate willingness to help was instrumental to the safe and successful rescue operation.” Indeed, thanks in part to the efforts of Mayer and Talsky, both climbers who survived the fall are alive today.

Though Mayer and Talsky were unhappy about their failed summit attempt, Mayer realizes their decision was smart: “There are people who push themselves to the summit and then don’t have the energy to get down,” he points out, adding, “I think we’re gonna go back in 2013.”