Mt Mckinley (Denali) Expedition
Mt Everest at 29,000 ft above sea level is the holy grail of mountain climbing. Undertaking an Everest expedition is a very expensive, complicated and time consuming endeavor so I decided to try one of the closer 7 peaks first. To get ready I summited Mt Rainier (14,400 ft) in Washington in June 2012 (story here) to see what mountaineering is all about. I had a great experience and a McKinley 20,322 ft summit made the bucket list. To get onto an expedition team I needed to complete a 4 day expeditions skills seminar first. I completed that also on Rainier this past February and cemented my spot on the May 6th Denali expedition team. The experience is really hard to put into words but I’ll do my best. The team first met one another in Anchorage Alaska on Tuesday May 6th. We loaded up a van with our personal gear and food and drove about 3 hours to a town called Telkeetna. 6 climbers and 3 guides made up the team. In no specific order it was myself 44, John 44 - an Ortho