Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate mitigating a hidden node condition in a wireless mesh network wherein nodes utilize a request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) protocol in conjunction with an asynchronous hybrid automatic repeat request protocol. For instance, a node may contend for a set of subcarriers by sending an RTS signal over the desired subcarriers, and may receive a CTS signal over the contended subcarriers, wherein the CTS signal indicates which subcarriers the node may transmit data over. If another node has won the contention for a particular subcarrier, requesting node may adjust a power level at which it transmits an RTS or a data packet in order to permit the requesting node to utilize the subcarrier without interfering with the winning node.