I still remember the first time I saw a picture of someone climbing Denali. I was sitting on a summers day in Wanaka at the dining table right in the kitchen of Adventure Consultants. Guy (Cotter) was mixing up a brew of tea and my exact words were "Jeeez that guy looks miserable where is that taken." and Guy was like oh yeah that is on Denali.
I felt my body go cold and the instant smack of what the hell am I thinking… No way do I want to climb Denali - screw that!
You see… When your mentor is one of the most kick ass climbers in the world and he describes something as miserable you know it's gonna be really hard. I remember sitting there with tears in my eyes as Guy explained I would have to carry over half my body weight, I'm 48kg and a light load on Denali still rings in at around 30kgs… If that wasn't enough to scare me there is also the fact that the mountain is cold… Arctic cold and you have to start off at sea level so it's a freakin HUGE mountain and the altitude effect is similar to the Himalayan giants.
To say I was a little freaked is probably an understatement some people say Denali is harder than Everest but there is no doubt it will be harder for me than Everest because of what is involved in the expedition and the fact so much is against me. I've never really doubted that if given the chance and the right break in weather I would make it up Everest but Denali? Denali was my what if…
I think there may have even been a few ridiculous conversations with Guy that went like this... "Really, if I climb the 7 summits do I gotta climb Denali?" YES "Can't we make a new 7 summits" Let's talk about this closer to the time - If someone were to ask me what the best hidden talent about Guy Cotter is I would say apart from his ability to make a glass of vino happen like poof magic, it would be his ability to be entirely diplomatic when you are being a total idiot and not hold it against you.
This is Guy on the left making a tea party on his way to climb Lhoste this year... It's not tea in the Adventure Consultants kitchen but it's Guy with tea so it ticks some of the boxes :)
2 years on from that day I find myself packing for my Denali expedition. A few things have changed I've said good bye to 2012 and decided to go for my 7 summits speed record meaning I will aim to climb all 7 in less than 300 days.. 2012 for me was a hard year with a rock fall on Aconcagua and an Evac from Indonesia. Needless to say I'm in a different headspace about Denali, it probably helps that I will be climbing it with one of my best buddies and climbing partner Cason Crane.
This is Cason... Put some clothes on Cason! Sorry ladies he's gay...
In the new year Case and I were talking… We had always planned a big expedition together well another big expedition after Aconcagua and so somewhere in this conversation we decided I would start my 7 summits speed bid with Denali… Because it was the What if? It's literally my EVEREST in the sense that I'm expecting it to challenge me more than anything I can imagine. So I will start with Denali and finish with Everest in 2014… Oh and also because we figured it would fun to possibly be miserable together.
But were not just doing your average Denali climb… Were doing a custom trip and we've blocked out 30days on the mountain because as the saying go's "30 days on Denali will get you a summit" Cason's idea... It's the last of his 7 summits so were stayin on that mountain until it let's us up top!
You know what that means? That means a possible 30days of our antics on a mountain… What can you expect from our Denali trip? Well you will just have to keep following to find out...
It may or may not look something like this... Stay tuned... :)
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