At 14,573 feet, Mount Hunter is the steepest of the three great peaks in Denali National Park. It is also known as the most difficult 14,000-foot peak in North America for climbers, and thus the challenge for adventurer Lonnie Dupre of Grand Marais.
Dupre will set off on a 19-day solo winter climb of Mount Hunter on Jan. 7. It would be the first solo winter climb of the mountain ever.
With limited daylight in the sub-Arctic, much of the camping and some of the climbing will be carried out in the dark.
"Being alone, crevasses, and steep sustained climbing pose the greatest challenge for this climb, high winds and extreme cold will also be big obstacles,'' Dupre said Tuesday in announcing the climb.
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Dupre tried the same climb in 2017 but gave up after a harrowing fall into a crevasse .
Dupre successfully solo-climbed Mt. Mckinley in the same park in January 2015. He also has twice skied and pulled sleds to the North Pole and has made a kayak and dogsled circumnavigation of Greenland, among other Arctic expeditions.
