Alone at the Top: Climbing Denali in the Dead of Winter

What goes through your mind when you’re dropped alone in the middle of the Alaska Range, the cold and darkness surrounding you without another human being for miles? Arctic explorer Lonnie Dupre had made a career out of working in teams to survive in extreme conditions and places most humans wouldn't dare to tread. But shortly after Dupre found himself alone after a twenty-year marriage, he decided he needed to summit Denali, the continent’s tallest mountain, alone and in the harshest possible conditions to prove something to himself.

Dupre was on his fourth attempt in five years in late December 2014 when a surprise storm caught him at 11,200 feet. Forced to live for almost five full days with little food and water, Dupre was in the most dangerous situation of his life.