Mountaineering

I have been climbing for about 8 years now and I have managed to accomplish scaling Mt. Denali at age 24 in August 2011. This was definitely the hardest climb I have ever made and the total ascent and descent took 20 days.  My brother, best friend John, and I (along with 4 Canadians and 2 guides) took the west rib route to the peak. The first week of climbing we had excellent conditions and made fast progress since everyone on the expedition was experienced and from high altitude areas, we didn't acclimate at the first couple camps. At camp 2 we needed to rest because of all the technical ice climbing. Once we hit camp 3 along the west rib things got a little sketchy and we got stuck in a blizzard that lasted 2 days and dumped about 6 feet of snow. The guides were cautious when we set out since there was high risk of avalanche. The conditions weren't as bad as we thought but the climb to high camp was physically demanding but not as technical as some of the ice climbing we did prior. After we set up at high camp we acclimated and were blessed with good weather for a summit attempt. We summitted on day 12 and the view from the peak was out of this world.

Johns picture of me on the way to high camp

Mountaineering is one of the most accomplishing feelings you can achieve once you summit a massive peak and look out for hundreds of miles. Scaling this mountain was a highlight of my life and left me craving more. I know for a fact I will summit Everest in my life time and am excited to see what other mountains come on my radar.

The Canadians

 

Here is a breakdown of my training regimen before climbing Denali. I started training 7 months before the climb and eased into the program relatively easily and the training consisted mostly of Ruck marches on mountain trails, weight lifting (lots of legs) and cross fit training. Here is a complete breakdown of my workout: