Welcome to Mountain Trip's May 1 Denali Climb Dispatch Blog!

In the far north lies one of the most magnificent ranges of mountains in the world. The Alaska Range stretches 400 miles across southcentral Alaska. It is a wild place, covered in glaciers and punctuated by rugged peaks. The crown of the range is Denali, at 20,320 feet (6194 m), the highest peak in North America. Located so close to the Arctic circle, Denali can present some of the most challenging and rugged conditions of any mountain on earth.

Each year a relatively few climbers from around the world migrate to test themselves on the slopes of Denali. Mountain Trip has been assisting these climbers achieve their Denali dreams since 1976. We love what we do and are happy to help provide you a taste of what these climbers are experiencing by updating their progress in this blog. Following the expedition, we will post numerous photos from the expedition, so please keep checking in.

On May 1, 2009, a small team of climbers will arrive in Anchorage. They will be accompanied by two Mountain Trip guides:

Dave Ahrens from Silverton, CO, USA
Jacob Schmitz from Bend, OR, USA


The six climbers on this team are:

Stephen Payne from the UK

Giles Corbally from the UK

Bill Hearne from the USA

Russell McKnight from the USA

John Bodley currently from the USA

Kevin Woosley from the USA

We are thrilled to have Kevin on board as he is climbing as a fundraiser for Mike Gordon's Mountain Mike Upward Quest fundraiser. Mike owns the iconic Chilkoot Charlie's tavern, dance club, and (hard to pigeonhole) Alaskan institution. Each year he sponsors a firefighter or a police officer from Anchorage to climb Denali as part of his fundraising efforts. Stay tuned for more information about this!

We encourage you to follow the team's progress. Please post comments for the climbers, but realize that we cannot always get those messages to your climber in a timely fashion, due to the challenges of communicating from the Alaska Range.

Keep in mind that no news is good news. We will do our best to post each day, but many things could conspire to prevent this from happening. Feel free to contact our office with any questions or concerns and enjoy the posts!