Climbing and Running
7 marathons. 7 continents. 7 years.
Summit Day!
July 8, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · Leave a Comment
The wind had howled and blown at near gale force all night and we mostly thought that the summit attempt would be off. Our rope team (Paula, Laine and me) had made a pact that we would only give three days for the summit attempt (as opposed to our friends that spent 8-11 days at [...]
Death Near our High Camp
July 7, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · 1 Comment
This post is written upon my return home. As previously written, we were witness to the calls for help and the attempted rescue by our guides to the young man just some hundreds of yards from our high camp on the night before our (successful) summit bid. What follows is one of the stories including [...]
Death on the Summit – A Memorial
July 4, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · Leave a Comment
On the 4th of July a tragic death occurred on the summit of Mt Denali (McKinley), the first to ever happen in it’s history. We found out about it while we were at high camp and did not find out all the details until our return. As it turns out, the man James Nasti was [...]
Moving Up the Glacier – First Big Move Day
June 28, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · Leave a Comment
We started fiddling around 2am and started moving from camp around 4am. I had a bagel that was heated in butter – tasty and full of calories! We had to take down the tent and everything, this is just laborious and time consuming to get all of our stuff and group gear in the pack [...]
Back to the Glacier
June 25, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · Leave a Comment
After not being able to land on Kahiltna Glacier yesterday, we returned back last night and found places to stay, I chose the Denali cabin at the Chinook Winds kind of complex. A fitting name, with a nice porch and just about a 100 yards or so from the AMS offices. We got to AMS [...]
Talkeetna Gateway
June 23, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · Leave a Comment
Here in Talkeetna, doing last gear checks. Weather is poor but hopefully better tomorrow so we can fly out to glacier. Had a good burger and fries for “last meal”, met the other clients today and just kind of wandered through town taking it easy. Lots of tourists here and really a cool kind of [...]
Off to Denali!
June 20, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · 1 Comment
I am leaving soon for Anchorage, Alaska and on to Talkeetna and then to the glacier to start climbing Mt. Denali. We expect to summit around July 6-8th, weather dependent. You can follow progress on http://alaskamountaineeringschool.blogspot.com/. I have trained well, brought the right equipment, have the right fellow climbers and guides hopefully and fully intend [...]
Top Ten Things I Can Control For Successful Denali Summit
June 18, 2008 by Mitch Lewis · Leave a Comment
1. Training – have done 101 workouts or runs in past 20 weeks since last big mountain – Aconcagua. A good mix of running (about 400 miles total), weight and strength training, rowing, stationary biking and carrying a pack on treadmill with 60lbs at 15% incline. 2. Gear – Have gone through packing list dozens [...]
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